Letters to the Editor: ‘Panache’ of proposed hotel shouldn’t outweigh traffic concerns

Apparently, a majority of the City Council has lost its marbles. It has given a green light for developers planning a 25-story, 200-plus room hotel near the intersection of Brand and Glenoaks boulevards (adjacent to the existing Hilton) to progress to the next design phase.

Mayor Ara Najarian is enamored of the idea that this project could give our city a greater “level of panache.” Currently, there are four multistory hotels in the city, comprising almost 1,000 rooms. Moreover, there are three more large hotel projects currently under construction, totaling another 365 rooms.

In addition, there is an 850-room, twin-tower hotel proposed for the corner of Brand and Sanchez Drive, less than 400 yards from the proposed hotel. More than doubling the number of hotel rooms will further contribute to the already problematic traffic in the downtown area. As Councilwoman Devine sees it, more thought should be given to our city’s residents than to prospective hotel guests.

Noel Johnson
Glendale

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Recently Glendale Water & Power signed an agreement to take some solar and battery energy through Southern California Public Power Authority with the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power. All of this is a good thing to do, but our city needs to realize these kind of agreements will not supply power here in times when we have a big earthquake or loss of the transmission that gets it here, forcing us to rely on our own power plant. Nor will building a big four-hour battery at the Grayson site.

To have a reliable power source for our city, GWP needs to make sure we have a power plant that can be relied on for the next 30 or 40 years at least.

Larry Moorehouse
Retired superintendent of Grayson Power Plant
Glendale