Oakmont Vote Imminent

Hundreds of Glendale residents packed City Hall and the Civic Auditorium on Tuesday night to speak out against plans to build 572 luxury homes in the Verdugo Mountains, a project that has preoccupied the community for years.

The hearing stretched into the night as the City Council prepared to render a final vote on the Oakmont View V development. To accommodate the crowds, the city provided a televised link between City Hall and the Civic Auditorium, where homeowners and environmentalists testified.

Last week, the city’s Planning Commission unanimously recommended that the council reject Oakmont.

Developer Lee Gregg said Tuesday that he probably would file a lawsuit if the council voted against his project. “We would have no choice,” he said.

The lawsuit would contend that the city denied him the right to build on the property, even though he followed all the planning rules, Gregg said.

The developer proposed Oakmont in 1992, a year before the council adopted a hillside-protection ordinance that would have limited the project to about 50 homes. Gregg sued the city over the law.

Preservationists have persuaded state lawmakers to allocate $8 million to purchase the 238-acre tract. But Gregg says the land was appraised at $46 million more than a decade ago.

“The courts might have to decide the price,” said Gregg, vice president of Gregg’s Artistic Homes. “I’m hopeful the City Council will fully evaluate the issue.”

Oakmont opponents argued Tuesday that the project would drain city services, burden schools and destroy the environment.

“Building on open spaces is not the answer,” said Joanne Hedge of Glendale’s Rancho Homeowners Assn. “The mountains offer a titanic presence.”

As it did during last week’s commission hearing, staff members from the city’s Planning Division presented a 24-page report that found that the project is “inconsistent with the city’s General Plan” and “poses a significant public safety hazard.”

The report cautioned that building homes on the steep, rocky slopes could trigger landslides or rockslides.

Gregg disputed that claim, saying that debris basins would be installed to prevent slides.

“We would be improving public safety,” Gregg said.

But the city report also found that Oakmont would pose “substantial environmental danger” to oak and sycamore trees, wetlands and wildlife.

Proposed federal legislation calls for a study of expanding the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to include the Verdugos. That would allow the Oakmont land to be set aside for recreation.