I’m Just Sayin’:

Looking ahead to a new year and a new decade makes me think about the future of the Crescenta Valley and what we want to look like in the years to come.

We’re off to a good start with last year’s passage by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors of the amendment to the Community Standards District, which mandates building design standards for all new development on Foothill Boulevard.

Having co-chaired the Crescenta Valley Town Council committee that spent more than six years drafting these standards and guidelines, I can tell you that they will significantly improve the look of the boulevard and encourage new development that reflects the Crescenta Valley, while leading to a more attractive and vibrant business district.

Glendale is finishing up gathering information from residents and stakeholders to put together the North Glendale Community Plan, which will set zoning and design standards for commercial and residential properties to ensure compatibility and manage growth.

Is it now time for the unincorporated part of La Crescenta to look at our residential neighborhoods? Have you noticed the McMansions popping up on some of our well-established streets? Homes that seem out of character with the rest of the block? Developers that clear-cut the trees from the property to maximize the square footage of these houses?

I pass by two such houses on my drive up and down Briggs Avenue. The first house was built a couple of years ago and seemed rather large for the site, but it wasn’t until an additional mother-in-law house was built late last year that the property really seemed to be overbuilt. Not to mention that the two buildings are of totally different styles and conflict with each other.

In addition, the new structure recently had a for rent sign on it. While a mother-in-law house has a Norman Rockwell, grandma-sitting-on-the-porch kind of ring to it, a rented-out apartment unit does not bring the same warm and fuzzy feelings. Is this the beginning of the intrusion of multifamily housing into our single-family neighborhoods? Are we ready for increased density?

The second house is being built at Panorama and Briggs. According to the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning, this home will be 5,789 square feet when completed, with a maximum height of about 34 feet. While the site is large, the project looms large given that the property owner chose to remove all of the trees and any screening they would have provided.