GLENDALE : Firm Hired to Plan Area’s Revitalization
A New York planning firm that devised a much-touted “strategic plan” for reinventing downtown Glendale will be called upon again to chart the course for the city’s fledgling San Fernando Road redevelopment area.
The Glendale Redevelopment Agency on Tuesday awarded Cooper, Robertson & Partners a $246,000 contract to help create a plan to revitalize the area stretching along the city’s southern border between Burbank and Los Angeles.
City staffers and a committee overseeing the redevelopment project recommended that the agency hire Cooper over two competing firms--including one whose bid for the job was $113,000--because it has promised to develop “a long-range and illustrative plan of what the project area may become,” and because of its “vital experience” on the recently completed downtown study.
“They’re a little bit more visionary. They bring a lot of experience to the project and they’ve worked in Glendale before, so they were the top candidate,” said Angela Moreno, the Glendale Redevelopment Agency’s project manager for the San Fernando Road corridor.
City officials hope the master plan may be an economic catalyst for the San Fernando Road area, which has shown virtually no signs of redevelopment activity since the project area was adopted in December, 1992. The area is a hodgepodge of industrial companies, auto repair shops, ethnic markets, salvage yards and various other businesses.
Unlike the downtown strategic plan--which identified areas best suited for certain types of business, residential and public development but left much leeway for the city and property owners to improvise--the San Fernando road document will set down specific areas where industrial facilities, medical buildings, transportation-related projects and other developments can be built.
The master plan, which is expected to be finished within about nine months, will also include information on the present and future costs of land in the area and propose ideas for infusing public money to help start up redevelopment projects in certain areas. There will also be design guidelines to give rebuilding areas a new identity.
Cooper, Robertson & Partners was recruited in 1992 by the Glendale Partners, a group of prominent local business people, to create the downtown strategic plan, which was jointly financed by the business group and the city for $350,000. Much as it did with the previous project, the firm has offered to hold meetings with affected property owners, businesses and other groups.
