The Top 10 Stories Of The Year

In October, city officials secured a $2.15-million agreement with the club allowing access to a portion of the golf course sitting above the underground reservoir.

The agreement was announced on the same day the City Council was scheduled to consider invoking eminent domain to preserve a construction timeline that would help crews begin work before a Feb. 1 environmental deadline that, if unmet, would give migratory birds nesting rights to the site through October — delaying the project for eight months.

By the time the final contract for the construction reached the City Council on Nov. 27, residents, city officials and country club representatives were in general agreement that the compromise settlement, along with a $500,000 incentive to finish the 18-month-long project two months early, was sufficient to address concerns about its overall impact to the business and neighborhood.

The settlement money will be mostly used to reconfigure the golf course during construction to maintain nine holes, and then to restore the green when the project is completed.

Water officials pushed for the reservoir’s replacement after cracks were discovered four years ago throughout the concrete structure that subsequent engineering studies found had degraded its integrity.

New facilities at community college

10Glendale Community College opened new facilities on its main campus in 2007, and purchased properties that will help pave the way to future expansion at the college’s Garfield Campus.

The Bhupesh Parikh Health Sciences and Technology Building, a $17-million facility, opened on the main campus over the summer.

The college also opened its new $26.4-million parking structure on the main campus at the end of the summer.

The structure houses 1,185 parking spaces.

The Garfield Campus expansion project moved closer to realization when the college’s trustees approved the purchase of three residential properties next to that campus. College officials said those properties were needed in order to move ahead with the planned $20-million expansion project.

In June, the trustees approved the purchase of the property at 918 S. Adams St. for $1.15 million.

In July, trustees agreed to purchase the property at 1130 E. Garfield Ave. for $990,000.

And in November, the trustees voted to approve the purchase of the last property they needed for the Garfield expansion — a five-unit residential property at 920 S. Adams St. in Glendale.