CITY HALL
The City Council voted 3-2 to have homeowner Robert Basmajian redesign his house to fit in with the style of his Sleepy Hollow Terrace neighborhood and bring the matter directly back to council at a later date.
The motion passed 3-2, with Mayor Dave Weaver and Councilman Frank Quintero voting against.
The redesigned home would not have to go through a city Design Review Board, but would come straight back to council.
The proposed rebuild has been met with opposition from members of the neighborhood for several months, some of whom were present Tuesday.
At the meeting, neighbors of the home spoke up against the proposed rebuild, saying it would not fit in with the rest of the neighborhood.
Basmajian has 90 days to come up with the redesigned plans.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's newly proposed $143.3-billion spending plan for 2007-08 sets aside $16.8 billion for improvements to roads, highways, mass transit and intercity rail and allows for the reinstatement of about $500 million in funds that will be dispersed to cities statewide as they vie for pieces of the pie.
The funding comes from $1.1 billion in additional gasoline sales tax, which Proposition 42, approved by voters in 2002, mandates must go into the Transportation Infrastructure Fund.
Projects most affected by the funding increase will be a proposed $230-million expansion of carpool lanes along the Golden State (5) Freeway between the Glendale (134) and Hollywood (170) freeways.
Glendale City Councilman Ara Najarian said that $65 million will likely be secured toward the cost of that freeway project. Najarian sits on the boards of two regional transportation agencies — the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Southern California Regional Rail Authority.
A new $4-million state-of-the-art safety rail crossing at Flower Street could also benefit from the increased funding, should the California Public Utilities Commission approve the design, Najarian said.
Najarian was also confident that a new, $2-million compressed-natural-gas fueling and maintenance station for the city would find funding as the California Transportation Commission gets ready to review municipal requests on Jan. 31.
EDUCATION
