School and residents address traffic congestion

CITY HALL — Chamlian Armenian School is poised to have two crucial conditional use permits renewed that would allow it to operate for at least another 10 years after administrators assured city officials Wednesday that they would continue to address neighborhood traffic concerns.

School officials touted their efforts to reduce the traffic impacts of the 500-student school on Lowell Avenue during a zoning hearing for the renewal of two crucial conditional use permits — one to allow about half the required parking spaces, the other for the school to be allowed to exist in a single-family neighborhood.

“We will do everything to be an asset and not a nuisance to the community, which I believe we’ve been an asset,” said Vazken Madenlian, principal of the private school that serves first through eighth grade.

St. Mary’s Apostolic Church purchased the site at 4444 Lowell Ave. from the Glendale Unified School District in 1983 and since then has had to secure use variances and conditional use permits to operate the school since municipal code prohibits private schools in low-density, single-family-home zones.

Public schools are exempt from such restrictions, according to the Planning Department.

The school last obtained a 10-year variance in 1997, and was therefore due for renewal last summer, but its renewal hearing was postponed in August to give Chamlian Armenian School administrators more time to prepare for the hearing.

Zoning Administrator Edith Fuentes is not expected to issue a decision on the applications for at least a week, but on Wednesday she referred several neighbors who were concerned about traffic safety to school administrators and city officials for future meetings on how to work out possible solutions — indicating past and planned efforts to address the issue would be enough to renew the variances.

But there have been about a half dozen written and oral complaints from school neighbors who said traffic congestion on Lowell Avenue and side streets was a hazard and nuisance, especially in the morning and afternoons, when parents drop off and pick up their children.

“The traffic situation really, really concerns me, still,” said Shawn Kelly, who lives on Community Avenue just south of the school.

To ease congestion, school administrators said they have tried to maintain the measures laid out in their variances as a condition of their continued operation, including a traffic monitor to flag vehicles through the site’s circular drive, a student call system to reduce parental wait times and staggered release times by grade.

Aline Babaian, a school parent who sits on its board of directors, said parents of new Chamlian Armenian students are “bombarded” with traffic rules and are repeatedly encouraged to carpool.

“We do not take that responsibility lightly,” she told Fuentes.

Glendale Police and traffic officials have also worked to increase safety via a city-staffed crosswalk and more frequent patrols.

“I’d say this is not worse than other schools we have in the city,” said Jano Baghdanian, city traffic and transportation administrator.

“We’ve done everything we can do.”

But for some residents, it hasn’t been enough.

Judy Leff told Fuentes at the hearing that despite all the efforts at easing congestion, she still had difficulty exiting her driveway and navigating the school-time traffic.

“Unfortunately, the reality of the situation does not reflect what’s been presented today,” she said.

Even so, Shoghig Yepremian, a planning consultant for the Chamlian Armenian School, argued that if the school were public, “we wouldn’t be here today.”

Before closing the hearing, Fuentes suggested both sides meet in the near future to address any concerns, something school officials said they’d be more than willing to do.

 JASON WELLS covers City Hall. He may be reached at (818) 637-3235 or by e-mail at jason.wells@latimes.com.