Alex Coolman
CITY HALL -- The city's efforts to respond to hillside development
collapsed this week as both versions of a growth-control ordinance failed
to win sufficient support from the City Council.
More than four hours of emotional debate by fans and critics of the
competing ordinances led only to a firmly divided council. Neither a
strict hillside ordinance nor a more moderate alternative was able to
find the four votes necessary for approval.
With the council unable to agree, Sheldon Baker asked that an
ordinance be brought up at next week's meeting to repeal a moratorium
that has frozen hillside development for weeks. If no action is taken,
the moratorium is scheduled to expire April 26.
Debate over hillside growth was heated. Members of the Chevy Chase
Homeowners Assn. and the Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council spoke
out in favor of stricter rules, while many property owners whose land
could be affected fired back that the proposed restrictions were unfair.
New to the argument were two voices that had been lacking in previous
weeks: those of the city's Design Review Boards, which have been harshly
criticized during the debate, and the Planning Commission, the group that
developed the more lenient of the two hillside ordinances.
Herand Der Sarkissian, a former member of the city's second Design
Review Board, spoke in favor of the lenient ordinance and argued that the
council needed to do a better job of communicating with the people
reviewing design.
"Talk to your DRBs," Der Sarkissian said. "You never do."
Planning Commissioner Efrain Olivares reasserted his group's belief
that city rules are already adequate for dealing with hillside growth. He
argued that good design could be compatible with steep slopes -- a fact
that could be demonstrated by driving around the streets of Glendale's
hills.
"You'll see some beautiful homes that could not be built under the
proposed ordinance," he said.
But, as most seem to agree, that same drive would also reveal some
examples of design gone awry.
Mayor Dave Weaver called such homes a collective fault of the city.
"We can't sit here and find fault with the design review board if
we're not going to tell them what to expect," he said.
