Coordinating council votes no on crossing

NEEDS COUNCIL VOICEResolution supports efforts to stop city plans for an at-grade railroad crossing at Flower Street. NORTHWEST GLENDALE -- The Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council, an umbrella group that represents the interests of the city's 20 homeowners associations, passed a resolution Monday opposing a planned at-grade railroad crossing at San Fernando Road and Flower Street.

The group voted 8 to 1, with one abstention, in favor of the resolution, which was proposed by the Pelanconi Estates Homeowners' Assn. The Pelanconi association was formed in August, in part to combat the city's attempt to build the controversial rail crossing.

The at-grade crossing, which would be located on a future six-lane extension of Flower Street across from Pelanconi Avenue, would connect a 100-acre development being built by the Walt Disney Co. and other businesses on the west side of the tracks with San Fernando Road.

It was approved by the state Public Utilities Commission three years ago, but design delays pushed the project past the two-year approval period, requiring the city to gain permission again from the state to proceed with construction.

Since then, protests against the project have been filed by the Public Utilities Commission's Rail Crossing Engineering Section and the California Department of Transportation, both of which cited concerns about potential accidents at the crossing and inadequate space to stack vehicles stopped at a nearby traffic signal.

An at-grade crossing is located at street level, as opposed to grade-separated crossings, where rails are elevated above the roadway by means of a bridge or run underneath the road.

The city's application must now go before an administrative judge, who will decide whether to approve the crossing.

The Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council was supposed to vote on the resolution in December, but the matter was tabled until this month so representatives from the different associations could research the matter further, council President Gary Cornell said.

"I feel that, being the master association, the reason these people joined us is to have a common voice," Cornell said. "I certainly agree with the issues raised by Pelanconi Estates as far as safety and traffic concerns related to the [proposed crossing], and I feel for them."

The Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council was formed in 1967. It represents about 20,000 Glendale residents, Cornell said.