Landscaping

The City Council Tuesday approved a $154,932 contract to upgrade the landscaping in Montrose Shopping Park. The contract was awarded to Parkwood Landscape Maintenance, which has done work for the city in the past in Montrose. A formal bidding process would delay the project eight or nine months, according to the report. Councilman John Drayman expressed concern about the timing of the work, due to start in September and last eight weeks. He said he didn?t want the project to interfere with holiday activities in the shopping Park.

GLENDALE — The City Council took a step toward refurbishments along the San Fernando Corridor Tuesday after unanimously allowing city officials to form a special district for future landscaping and upkeep. Within the proposed landscape maintenance district, officials would upgrade the landscaping around businesses along a portion of the San Fernando Corridor, which includes Walt Disney Imagineering, City Councilman Ara Najarian said. However, project planners will have to meet with the council to discuss further details before any work begins.

Two local utilities will co-host free landscaping classes for residents who are not professional gardeners. The 3 1/2-hour classes, offered by Glendale Water and Power and Burbank Water and Power, will teach participants to identify common water-wasting problems in irrigation systems. Residents will also learn which plants to use in Southern California landscapes. The classes run from 8:30 a.m. to noon Feb. 1, Feb. 8, Feb. 15 and Feb. 22 at Griffith Manor Park, 1551 Flower St. Class topics range from basic landscape design to plants to sprinkler systems to fertilizing.

Rima Shah The two sisters who own Remarkable Gardens, a landscaping company, are getting pretty comfortable being on camera. After all, this is the second time that the Burbank-based sisters' designs have been chosen to be on HGTV's "Landscapers' Challenge." This time, the house, a Spanish colonial-style structure built in the 1920s, is right in their backyard -- in neighboring Glendale on the 1200 block of Cordova Avenue. The first time the sisters -- Christine Chesney and Nancy Valentine -- were chosen to be on television was to design the landscape of a house in Altadena for HGTV.

NORTH GLENDALE — With no end in sight for the state’s drought conditions, La Crescenta Nursery Manager Steve Lok worked to expanded the store’s selection of California-friendly landscaping options by 40% in the past year. While he has seen increased consumer interest in the drought-tolerant plants, so far sales have experienced only a “slight uptick,” but that could soon change. Under the city’s 10% mandatory water conservation measures, irrigation of landscaping is limited to three days a week, 10 minutes per day per landscaped area.

Tim Willert GLENDALE CITY HALL -- The city will host a community meeting to discuss several proposed projects within the San Fernando Road Corridor, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday in the Glendale Central Library auditorium. City and professional staffers and officials from Caltrans will be on hand to discuss design features, landscaping elements and proposed construction schedules for at least five projects. Those include: the SR 134/San Fernando Road interchange project, railroad crossing modifications, landscaping, relief sewer construction project and streets reconstruction.

Lex Putpraw, facilities manager at Montrose Travel, is a recipient of a 2009 award from Glendale Beautiful, a non-profit organization that inspires people to keep the city beautiful. He was an award winner for his aesthetic contribution to the community in recognition of his “Montrose Travel Garden” as well as his landscaping flair around the company’s four buildings. Linda Berns, a Glendale Beautiful member, spearheaded Putpraw’s nomination after seeing the landscaping when passing by the Montrose location.

I recently received a notice from the Community Development & Housing Department of the city of Glendale, regarding my parkway, which had turned brown due to the failure of my sprinkler system. I promptly had it repaired and replanted. When I inquired why the many schools, such as Wilson Middle School, Richardson D. White and the Glendale Unified School District headquarters, had either no landscaping or dead landscaping, the city informed me that the schools were exempt from keeping their landscaping up to city of Glendale standards.

The following items will be considered at tonight's City Council meeting: PLANNING COMMISSION APPEAL The council will consider an appeal of a Planning Commission decision that limits the height of landscaping at a home on the 4200 block of Shepherds Lane. The restrictions were imposed during the commission's review of a proposed first-floor addition to the property on March 22. The commission approved the 1,300-square-foot addition, but limited the height of landscaping to a maximum 12 to 15 feet in response to a neighbor's complaint.

Once considered to be a celebration of water, the landscaping at the Crescenta Valley Water District's headquarters will soon tout the benefits of conservation. Workers this week will put the final touches on the district's drought-tolerant garden, which will highlight California native plants that do not require much water. According to one hydrology expert, most homeowners typically over-water their lawns by as much a 6 feet per year. With the Crescenta Valley in its fifth consecutive drier-than-normal year, the district plans to use the garden to educate its customers on how native plants can help save resources and be cost effective.

An appellate court dismissed an appeal last week by a Burbank employee who was ordered in October 2010 to stay at least 10 yards away from a former aide for Assemblyman Mike Gatto, ruling that the one-year restraining order had expired and the appeal was moot. The restraining order was granted by a U.S. district judge who sided with claims by then-Gatto aide Christine Aghakhani that she was harassed by Peter Musurlian during an event at the Glendale Central Library in July 2010. Musurlian, who works independently reporting and shooting video stories, has produced unflattering videos of Gatto, but denied he threatened Aghakhani.

After 50 years of honoring the town's most beautiful and lush landscaping, La Cañada Valley Beautiful has launched a new award to honor those yards that are green in more ways than one. Each month the club will issue a Green Award to residents crafting lovely landscapes using drought-tolerant plants that require less water and are a better match for the local climate, said President Linda Fults. “As much as we love lawns and the beautiful gardens that take a lot of water, if you look around town, you see people who are making a big change in their landscape,” she said.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) will host a forum from 9 a.m. to noon Jan. 12 to look at the response to the windstorm that did tens of millions of dollars worth of damage to Pasadena and surrounding cities on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. The event will be held in Courtroom 3 at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, 125 S. Grand Ave., Pasadena. Several issues will be examined, Schiff said, such as the nature of the damage, response times, whether the utilities responded to the most damaged neighborhoods first and whether they have the capacity to handle a larger disaster.

The Glendale-Burbank Republican Assembly installed new officers Thursday, with Todd Hunt taking the helm from outgoing president Sonny Sardo. L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich installed the new officers, which included Bill Ferril, Denis McLean, Joan Taylor, Raffi Najarian, Mardy Graves, David Thelin, Fred Dwight, Doffie Lewis, Lisa Clement and Jackie Dwight. Chartered in 1936, the local organization is the longest running charter in the California Republican Assembly, according to Sardo.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed several pieces of legislation by local lawmakers just before the Oct. 9 deadline, including a controversial firearm bill, but vetoed others, such as one designed to put more rapists behind bars. The new firearm law authored by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) makes it illegal to carry an unloaded gun in public. A violation is a misdemeanor and carries a penalty of one year in jail, up to a $1,000 fine or both. The measure was supported by the California Police Chiefs Assn.

Staffers for Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) gained some job security this week after the battle between their boss and Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles) took a new turn. Pérez on Tuesday lifted orders requiring Portantino staffers to take unpaid furloughs later this month. All employees in Portantino's Sacramento and Pasadena offices had been told to stay home between Oct. 21 and Nov. 30. The Assembly Rules Committee initially ordered the furloughs in July, accusing Portantino of overspending his member budget.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed two pieces of legislation by two local lawmakers this week, but vetoed a bill introduced by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge). A bill prohibiting cities from banning male circumcision, introduced by Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake), is now law. Gatto had introduced the legislation in response to a proposed ban on male circumcision that was on the ballot in San Francisco. Also, it is now unlawful for criminals to deduct business expenses connected with illegal activity and then receive a state tax refund.

La Cañada school board member Joel Peterson this week acknowledged liv ing part time in a house in Glendale, but an attorney for the district said it won't affect his seat, calling the residency requirement “pretty much a non-issue.” Peterson, who has served on the board since 2005, said he has been living part time in a house in the Emerald Isle neighborhood in Glendale - an area along Chevy Chase Drive just south of the La Cañada...