Proposed senior living facility near La Cañada faces opposition

A proposed three-story, 35,000-square-foot senior living facility and two new parking garages — all across from USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in northern Glendale — are facing opposition from some of the project’s neighbors.

La Cañada Assisted Living, a 79-bed senior facility, and the multilevel parking garages, if the project moves forward according to plan would be completed in just under nine months and would require about 882 truck trips to haul away 8,000 cubic yards of dust, according to a city report. The project site is located at 1809 Verdugo Blvd. in Glendale.

An existing surface parking lot would also be demolished as part of the project proposed by site owner Stuart “Harry” Ahn.

The expected dust, noise and disruption has galvanized some owners of medical condominium suites next door to push back against the project.

“We have physically and emotionally handicapped and suffering patients, who don’t need this kind of stress and need to have access to their doctors,” said Marie Poore, a psychotherapist who has been practicing in the adjacent four-story, 35,980 square-foot office building for 25 years.

A petition opposing the project has been circulated around the office and has nearly 500 signatures, according to Poore. That number includes suite owners, staff and patients.

Ahn owns a 52% stake in the medical office, which will remain as is under the current proposal. Ahn did not respond to request for comment.

Glendale’s planning staff has been accepting public comments on the project since July 8, when the city announced its intent to adopt a Mitigated Negative Declaration it prepared. Comments can still be submitted until July 29.

Glendale planning officials received a letter from a doctor in the medical building who raised questions about parking issues, according to Erik Krause, Glendale’s deputy director of community development.

They received another from a nearby residential resident, who was concerned about noise, traffic and view obstruction, he said.

Krause was unable to determine how many emails his department received because the planner handling the project, Dennis Joe, is currently out of the office.

The project was originally proposed in October 2017, and the applicant was asked to complete a traffic and construction noise study, Krause said. Input from the city of La Cañada Flintridge, which borders the site, spurred the further review, he added.

At that point, occupants of the medical condos thought the project was gone for good, La Crescenta resident Poore said.

According to Poore, the medical condo’s covenants, conditions and restrictions, prevent such a large project from being proposed at this time.

“Every condo has CC&Rs, but that’s not something that the city enforces,” Krause said. “That’s between the property owners.”

Still, he said the Glendale Design Review Board can take the argument into consideration during deliberations.

A public hearing before the board is currently expected to take place at 5 p.m. on Aug. 8 in Room 105 of the Glendale Municipal Services Building, 633 E. Broadway, Glendale.

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