A Balcony View:

A couple of weeks ago, in my column, I mentioned sprinklers watering the sidewalk of the Montrose Shopping Park. I directed the statement toward the Crescenta Valley Water District.

A few days later, a reader informed me that the Montrose Shopping Park is a customer of Glendale Water & Power. The reader also suggested that my utility company faux pas exposed me as “less than an authority” as to the complex boundaries of the Crescenta Valley.

As I was wiping the egg off my face, I started thinking that I might not be the only one around here who wonders what the actual territorial borders of the Crescenta Valley are. And that perhaps others are confused about where the Crescenta Valley begins, and ends.

So in order to regain some journalistic credibility, I searched for a true definition of the Crescenta Valley boundary.

I started at the Crescenta Valley Town Council website ( www.thecvcouncil.com). While there are no official territorial markers defining the Crescenta Valley, there is some excellent information. Among other things, there’s a Pancake Breakfast fundraiser Saturday at Crescenta Valley High School with proceeds going to the council’s scholarships. And there’s valuable resources on how to prepare for the flooding and mudslides that could occur as a result of the Station Fire.

There’s also no Crescenta Valley “border info” listed on the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce website ( www.lacrescenta.org). They do, however, have a comprehensive, well-organized list of businesses in the area. But many of those businesses seem to be within the Glendale Water & Power billing area — at least as I now understand it.

I did find some great historical images and a territorial explanation on the Historical Society of Crescenta Valley website ( www.cvhistory.org). They claim to cover, “The Crescenta Valley geographically, and include La Crescenta, Montrose, La Cañada, and parts of Glendale.” Nothing conclusive, but I was closing in.

I then picked up the phone and dialed Steve Pierce, the Crescenta Valley Town Council president. His interpretation was that the Crescenta Valley extended from Briggs Avenue on the east to Lowell Avenue on the west and from Honolulu Avenue south to the foothills north. Success!