Council members’ emphasis on the environment stands to affect Glendale in a major way — including pocket community gardens, reduced energy costs and better water conservation.
Sensing the burgeoning interest, Planning Commission Chairman Bill Kane on Wednesday encouraged city planners to remain focused on the so-called green-building standards because he feared they would be “dead in the water” if lumped with the onslaught of other environmental directives from the council.
His eagerness to review the proposed building codes, which will be modeled after widely-accepted standards set by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council, is indicative of an “enthusiasm” among multiple city departments in ushering Glendale into a greener era, city officials said.
“We’re working as quickly as possible, obviously, because we know it’s a priority,” said Stephanie Reich, a senior urban designer at the city’s Planning Department.
Until now, Water & Power incentives for energy and water conservation — together with its two planned ultra-green buildings — has been the main driver for reducing the city’s impact on the environment, but never has the movement been so comprehensive at City Hall, all at once.
Amid record high gas prices, city executives are on a more intense hunt for hybrid vehicles, and city planners next week will seek authorization to pursue amending zoning codes to allow for more drought-tolerant landscapes.
“I think we’re on a roll,” Councilman Ara Najarian said.
The pressure for a greener Glendale appears to have come from the top-down without hardly a prod from the public.
Unlike previous planning- or policy-related issues, the council has fueled the effort largely on its own, either as some of its members attend statewide conferences espousing the financial benefits of eco-friendly planning or through their own individual ethos.
“For some of us, it’s something deep in our souls,” Drayman said.
Even if the actual implementation of the environmental standards take some time to develop and codify, city officials said the thrust behind the movement — whether due to outside pressure, or inward ambition, or both — will clearly be enough to change the city’s landscape.
“This is just the trend,” City Manager Jim Starbird said. “There’s obviously a strong interest.”
