Hitch for May-Lane

An expired conditional use permit put a glitch in developers’ plans to demolish the old Foothill Boulevard May-Lane Motel and put in a strip mall. The property’s new owner was a bit surprised and disheartened Thursday night to get little help from the Crescenta Valley Town Council in promoting his hopes to have the expired permit resurrected and “modified” by the city of Glendale’s planning department.

Property owner Jacques Massachi went before the Crescenta Valley Town Council during the public comment portion of its meeting, accompanied by former council member Sharon Ravachari, asking the council to write a letter of support for his project to the city of Glendale, based on support the project previously received from a slightly modified configuration of council members.

And, though he got some support from alternate Councilman Charlie Beatty, in the form of a suggestion the council change its response to say it was “not opposed” to the planning department modifying the expired permit to allow it to be post-expiration date-extended, none of the other council members appeared ready to jump on the bandwagon and promote the benefits of the project.

At least not without first talking with the city of Glendale and getting the whole picture in regard to the project. The council agreed instead to contact the city and find out if a written letter would be beneficial to the project. They would then discuss whether or not it will compose such a letter at its March 6 executive committee meeting.

“The irony is, I don’t think there’s anybody [on the council] against this project,” said councilman Bruce Campbell. However, Campbell expressed, he’s opposed to the way the council was “slammed against a wall” and expected “to make a decision now,” by Ragavachari and Massachi’s Thursday night request.

Campbell also berated Massachi for missing the permit’s August deadline. “I’m astounded. Conditional Use Permits are done all the time. Extensions are done all the time. … Have you done a project like this before? Why didn’t you know about the documents? The naiveté that’s going on is astounding,” Campbell said.

Massachi took responsibility for his “oversight” in missing the deadline; however, he said the city did not inform him of a deadline, nor did his architect, who was on the project prior to Massachi’s purchase of the property two years ago.