Environmental Report

The Walt Disney Co. has plans for a beautiful expanded campus in Glendale. It will create thousands of jobs. It will add to the city's tax base. It will also put more cars on our streets and children in our schools. In a three-part series, the News-Press took at look at the expected affects of the project on traffic, health and schools. In all three areas, the environmental report done for the campus project was clear that concerns could be resolved without harming the community.

Buck Wargo CITY HALL -- Glendale school officials contend the expansion of The Walt Disney Co. campus will cost the district at least $8 million to purchase land and build new schools for students, and they want the company to pay for it. The Glendale Unified School District's concerns about the project were raised in a preliminary letter assessing Disney's plans to expand its 125-acre campus from 2.4-million square...

Buck Wargo GLENDALE -- Homeowner activists are raising concerns about contamination at the site of the proposed expansion of The Walt Disney Co. campus in Glendale. Rob Sharkey, former president of the Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council, said he worries the 125-acre campus on the industrial center may be a harbinger for cancer because it is part of a federal Superfund site. He raised his concerns Tuesday before the Glendale City Council when he spoke of the need for a public hearing to talk about the environmental report evaluating the project.

Buck Wargo CITY HALL -- Homeowner activists are pushing to have their say in public on the effects of the proposed expansion plans of the Walt Disney Co. campus in Glendale. The Homeowners Coordinating Council will ask the Glendale Redevelopment Agency on Tuesday to hold a public hearing on Sept. 5, the deadline to submit written comments on the environmental report that analyzes traffic, construction and other effects. The request follows a July 18 decision by the agency to extend the written comment period from 45 to 60 days to give the homeowner group more time to respond to the report.

Buck Wargo CITY HALL -- Glendale and the developer of the proposed Oakmont View V subdivision may be headed back to court. Robert McMurray, the lawyer for Gregg Development, threatened legal action Tuesday over the planned revision of an environmental report on the 572-home project. The City Council declined to get involved and ask City Manager Jim Starbird to rescind his decision over the selection of a Sacramento firm to redo the report. Gregg officials requested the hearing Tuesday to sway the council to take the developer's side and retain Rincon Consultants of Ventura to complete the document.

Buck Wargo GRAND CENTRAL -- Two maintenance hangars at the historic Grand Central Airport site have no historic value and can be demolished by The Walt Disney Co. for its campus expansion and renovation, according to an environmental report on the project. The same report, released Thursday, called the 71-year-old Grand Central Terminal Building important to preserve because it is the last building that conveys the history of the Glendale airport, which had the first paved runways west of the Rocky Mountains.

Buck Wargo CITY HALL -- Expansion of the Walt Disney campus in Glendale will add more traffic to city streets, but most of the congestion can be overcome by widening roads and adding turn lanes and traffic signals, according to an environmental report released Thursday. Sixty intersections surrounding the proposed 6-million-square-foot development near San Fernando Road were analyzed by PCR Services Corp. of Santa Monica. Some 34 intersections would be congested if improvements weren't made, according to the study.

Buck Wargo CITY HALL -- A Sacramento firm will redo an environmental report analyzing the Oakmont View V subdivision. The Environmental and Planning Board on Thursday voted 3-0 to recommend Rincon Consultants of Ventura be replaced. The company has come under fire from the developer, Gregg Development, and from anti-hillside development groups who said the report underestimated the impact the proposed 572 homes would have on the area. The choice of Jones and Stokes of Sacramento is expected to be ratified by City Manager Jim Starbird.