Mailbag: Questions about Glendale’s development process and how to get rid of a gopher
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Questions about city planning
Belated kudos to Mayor Devine for her willingness to tackle height restrictions, as previously reported. Given the obvious discontent with the city’s development trajectory, can this paper please examine the process in depth? What roles do the Planning Department and powerful Design Review Board play, and at what juncture, for developers who want to build on a vacant lot or demolish an existing structure and replace it with something larger or new?
Per the city, at least one Design Review Board member must be a licensed architect and others “shall be qualified to analyze and interpret architectural and site planning information, such as but not limited to, landscape architects, urban planners, engineers and builders/developers.” Who nominated the current members, what are the members’ primary sources of income, and shouldn’t the number of developers be limited? Shouldn’t community representatives have a seat and voice?
It would be helpful to know if the city is offering tax breaks for any commercial projects (and the dollar value), and a running total, by area, of the number of waived parking spaces (deficit), so the cumulative impact is tallied. While I appreciate the availability of public development notices, their value could be greatly enhanced. The notice for an application to demolish an existing home and build a new one includes the number of stories and square footage for the latter but not the former. Is that information available to the city’s case planner? Without that information, a reader can’t easily compare the percentage of a lot a structure currently occupies to the planned percentage of a proposed structure.
Jennifer Pinkerton
Glendale
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Proposed location is a land grab
Louise Delaney is correct, the Armenian American museum should not be tax-funded.
Furthermore, the ethnic museum (the so-called “Educational Center”) is now proposed to be constructed on pleasing green space called Glendale Central Park on Colorado Street between Brand Boulevard and Louise Street, immediately adjacent to the pleasing architectures of the Glendale Adult Recreation Center at 201 E. Colorado St. and the Glendale Central Library at 222 E. Harvard St.
Besides violating open green park space, artist sketches of the proposed ethnic center show it to be wildly far out of architectural character with other building styles in Glendale.
Glendale City Council: Stop this poorly considered grab of precious green park land.
Dan Bathker
Glendale
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Humane way to move gophers
When moving to the U.S. and Glendale a few years ago, we did not realize that the gopher plague was following us from our native Switzerland. Back there, voles and moles had constantly tried to disrupt the beauty of our backyard and lawn.
Thanks to somebody else’s creative idea, we used to fight them in a very humane way and that idea seems to perfectly work in our backyard here as well. When you detect a fresh entry hole, cut a thin bamboo stick into a 2 feet long one and stick it into the hole, putting some loose dirt around it for better holding it in place and upright. Grab a larger (e.g. 1.5 liter) empty PET bottle and put it over the stick upside down.
The result is that the bottle will gently move with the wind and make a very slight noise on the surface, which must sound — for a gopher’s very sensitive ears — like a constant rock concert under the surface and through their tunnels. They will immediately start staying away from that area and for good if you leave that installation in place for about 2 to 3 weeks. It may really look odd, but it is a cheap, humane and effective way to say: “Gophers begone.”
Daniel Tschopp
Glendale
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Appeal of hotel plans upcoming
On June 14 the City Council will hear the appeal of the Design Review Board’s decision to approve the design of the Aloft hotel project located at 1100-1108 N. Brand Boulevard.
There are community members who like the hotel and many who do not like it. The City Council cannot decide on June 14 whether or not the hotel is an approved use in the C-3 zone. Council can only deliberate on the design of the hotel and the environmental review.
The appellants’ presentation will only focus on the design and long-term impacts on the neighborhood that need to be carefully considered. Testimony at council on any other matters, no matter how well-meaning, is not relevant and will eat into the time the council needs to deliberate on this important appeal.
Laurie Collins
Glendale