City tees off on project

CITY HALL — The Glendale City Council sent a clear message Tuesday that it opposes development of the Verdugo Hills Golf Course property, but held off on committing to help buy the 63-acre Tujunga property.

Calabasas developer MWH Development submitted an application to the city of Los Angeles to build 229 detached single-family homes on the site — a proposal that would require a zone change and environmental impact report. But faced with resounding community opposition, company officials who bought the land for $7.6 million in 2004 now say they’d prefer to sell.

The council voted unanimously to submit a letter to the city of Los Angeles, the lead agency on the report, outlining potential negative environmental impacts that the project would have on Glendale, including impacts on traffic, the city’s sewage infrastructure and schools. The letter is meant to guide the city of Los Angeles as it oversees production of the environmental impact report, which has yet to be initiated.

In approving the letter, the council joins hundreds of residents and other agencies that had already submitted hundreds of pages of comments by last week, Los Angeles Planning Department officials said.

Richard Toyon, a co-founder of the Verdugo Hills Golf Course Committee, which formed last year to push for a shared municipal purchase of the course, presented the council with a rendering of the property that envisions a regional, multi-purpose park. The detailed map shows tennis courts, a one-mile walking trail, water reclamation pools and other recreation or community-based facilities, each of which could be partially funded by certain county, state or federal grants set up to support such uses, Toyon said.

But the council refused to adopt a resolution on the table that would have committed the city to participate in negotiations to buy the golf course property.

Councilman Frank Quintero backed the resolution, saying that it was the only way to send a clear message to other agencies targeted as potential participants in a shared purchase that Glendale wants to be part of negotiations and possibly commit funds in the future.