Parking Spaces

CITY HALL — Owners of a downtown office building will be allowed to move forward with a planned tenant change after the Redevelopment Agency on Tuesday unanimously approved an exception for having 69 too few parking spaces. Located at 501 N. Orange St., the building has failed to attract a tenant after converting in 2004 from a three-story movie theater to a two-story general office building, development officials said. At the time of the conversion, the building’s owner, Bantry Holdings LLC, secured an exemption to have 20 spaces fewer than that use demanded using by relying mostly on the shared use of a three-level semi-subterranean garage with the larger office building at 500 N. Central Ave. A change of use from general to medical office space would have required Bantry Holdings to come up with 69 additional parking spaces as required by zoning code — a difficulty that a city development report found could not be “reasonably overcome by physical alteration of the building.

CITY HALL — The City Council voted Tuesday to uphold an earlier planning decision to revoke the zoning exception that has allowed a controversial banquet hall in Montrose to operate, setting the stage for a lengthy court battle. The City Council voted 3 to 0 Tuesday to direct the city attorney to draft a resolution that would uphold a Planning Commission decision in March to revoke the zoning use certificate for Montrose Collection and Banquet Hall on Honolulu Avenue, contending there was insufficient parking for use as a banquet hall.

Starbucks could soon start brewing in Montrose after a Glendale planning official this week signed off on an application that will allow the company to operate with fewer parking spaces than required by law. The permit, approved in a letter dated Feb. 1 by Planning Officer Laura Stotler, allows the coffee house to have 14 fewer parking spaces. Stotler also approved a conditional-use permit so Starbucks can operate as a fast-food establishment because the store will have more than eight seats.

Buck Wargo CITY HALL -- The Glendale Redevelopment Agency Tuesday denied a request for a cultural association to operate without providing the required parking spaces. The Raffi Cultural Assn. purchased a building at 415 W. Colorado St. to use it for its administrative offices and meetings, including lectures and birthday parties. The 50-member Armenian-Romanian Cultural Assn. promotes education, cultural awareness and social connection with individuals of similar backgrounds.

Buck Wargo CITY HALL -- The Glendale zoning administrator will consider a request Wednesday for turning a portion of a beauty salon into a Starbucks. A variance is needed to do the conversion without the required parking spaces. The hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in Room 105 of the Municipal Services Building, 633 E. Broadway. Also Wednesday, the zoning administrator will consider a request to allow a cultural organization assembly without the required number of parking spaces at 721 S. Glendale Ave. A hearing for a variance to allow an addition to a home at 1048 Trafalger Drive will be postponed until March 22.

CITY HALL — Council members Tuesday unanimously supported developing a plan that seeks input from tenants, apartment owners and commercial property management groups about parking concerns in the city. Mayor John Drayman directed city staff during a City Council and Glendale Housing Authority joint meeting to research the parking issues. City officials have received complaints for several years about the availability and accessibility of parking spaces in commercial and apartment buildings, Senior Planner Kristen Asp said.

Three items will be considered at a city Zoning Administrator meeting Wednesday. Variances for a new single-family home at 639 W. Broadway and construction of four detached units without the required number of parking spaces between 401 and 411 S. Pacific Ave. will be considered, along with a setback variance for an accessory wall sign at 917 through 925 N. Louise St. The meeting is at 9:30 a.m. in Room 105 of...

Often, mistakes that are made over and over come back to haunt us. Glendale has that problem and it will never go away! Just a little parking variance here and a little parking variance there and all of a sudden -- what a big mess! Parking variances just lead to more gridlock and frustration. Why do we have city codes if they're continually broken? And why do employees of the city of Glendale openly go against these codes? A variance allowing a shortage of 43 parking spaces is no small thing ... certainly not in Glendale!

Fred Ortega A plan by the Glendale Career College to lease up to 305 parking spaces from the city's Orange Street Garage was met with opposition by the Glendale Redevelopment Agency, despite the fact that such a deal could eventually bring in $22,700 in monthly revenue for the city. The agency, comprised of City Council members, voted to postpone a decision on the parking arrangement until Sept. 6 in order to allow city officials and the college to negotiate a compromise.

Starbucks could soon start brewing in Montrose after a Glendale planning official this week signed off on an application that will allow the company to operate with fewer parking spaces than required by law. The permit, approved in a letter dated Feb. 1 by Planning Officer Laura Stotler, allows the coffee house to have 14 fewer parking spaces. Stotler also approved a conditional-use permit so Starbucks can operate as a fast-food establishment because the store will have more than eight seats.

Most of the roughly 40 people who attended a hearing Wednesday for a proposed Starbucks in Montrose expressed support for the coffee chain, arguing it would generate badly needed foot traffic for the mostly mom-and-pop business district. Starbucks wants to open a store on the southeast corner of Honolulu Avenue and Ocean View Boulevard. Company representatives appeared before Planning Officer Laura Stotler requesting a conditional-use permit to operate as a fast-food establishment because the store will have more than eight seats.

The owner of the former Montrose Collection site said Wednesday he is willing to reduce the size OF a new restaurant at the location, but not enough to meet parking requirements. Alfred Teichert appeared before a Glendale planning officer Wednesday seeking a conditional-use permit to continue using office space that was part of a city-approved expansion by Montrose Collection years ago. Teichert also asked for a permit to have nine fewer parking spaces than would normally be required - an exception granted to Montrose Collection Restaurant and Banquet Hall.

Chalk, brightly colored backpacks and neon cones caught the eyes of pedestrians and bicyclists Friday afternoon along Brand Boulevard as participants in a global event celebrating urban greenery took over parking spots. Part of the fourth annual national Park(ing) Day L.A. event, businesses and community members decorated and then relaxed in metered parking spaces on the 100 block of Brand Boulevard in Glendale. The annual one-day, global event aims to transform parking spaces into temporary public parks.

CITY HALL — City Council members this week criticized the building that houses the Verdugo Jobs Center as a wasteful use of federal funding, pushing officials to find a cheaper alternative within two years, when the lease is up. The city leases the 25,000-square-foot building at 1255 S. Central Ave. for $22,000 per month to house the center, which provides employment assistance to out-of-work residents in the Burbank-Glendale-Crescenta Valley...

SOUTH GLENDALE — Changes at Glendale Community College’s Garfield Campus to accommodate new construction could complicate student life there, with the spring semester beginning next week. Construction along the east side of the campus has consumed about 30 parking spaces, leaving fewer than 100 spaces for a school teeming with more than 800 students at any given moment during the week, campus officials said. Parking has long been a dilemma at the college, student Robert Thompson said, adding that students have become accustomed to the race for parking.

DOWNTOWN — Local officials say they have no immediate plans to capitalize on a state bill aimed at slashing the number of free parking spaces as a way to reduce pollution and boost public transit ridership. The bill, which Sen. Allen Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) said gives cities and counties financial incentives to cease providing free parking on public streets and reduce the amount they require developers to provide, drew the support of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club.

CITY HALL — The City Council voted Tuesday to uphold an earlier planning decision to revoke the zoning exception that has allowed a controversial banquet hall in Montrose to operate, setting the stage for a lengthy court battle. The City Council voted 3 to 0 Tuesday to direct the city attorney to draft a resolution that would uphold a Planning Commission decision in March to revoke the zoning use certificate for Montrose Collection and Banquet Hall on Honolulu Avenue, contending there was insufficient parking for use as a banquet hall.

I seldom object to what Patrick Azadian writes in his columns, but I think he dropped the ball in the one he did on parking (“Parking field needs to be level,” Aug. 25). I don’t understand what he meant by attributing part of the parking problems in Glendale to, as he put it, “unbearably long traffic lights, slow speed limits stuck in the past and lengthy red curbs.” Azadian raised a serious issue, and it deserves serious attention. Unfortunately, he failed to suggest reasonable solutions.