Variance

CITY HALL — The City Council wants Gay's Automotive and Towing Service — one of three of the city's official police towing providers — to pack up and vacate a San Fernando Road lot the company has been been using for about 18 years. A divided council voted 3 to 2 Tuesday night to reverse a May Board of Zoning Appeals decision that granted a variance to the company so they could continue to use the lot as an inoperable-vehicle storage facility. "It was a code-enforcement issue for years and the situation was never corrected," Mayor Dave Weaver said.

Might as well get rid of hillside ordinance The Glendale Design Review Board practically drools over the design of the Kennington Drive house ("Design for controversial home OK'd," Friday). Property owner Art Simonian cleverly hired an excellent architect, which is really great (for him). Too bad the lot he wants to put the house on is way too small to meet hillside code, and too steep. But never you mind, the Glendale Board of Zoning Appeals granted the necessary variance and the City Council denied an appeal of the variance.

There has been a rash of letters critical of the City Council's affirmation of a lot size variance granted for the 6,229-square-foot vacant lot at 2632 Kennington Drive ("Council shuts down plan appeal," May 18). The lot is nonconforming. By "nonconforming" lot, I mean one that conformed to the city's code when created, but was rendered nonconforming by a subsequent code change; in this case a change which now requires a minimum lot size of 7,500 square feet in the R-1-R hillside ordinance residential zone.

Variance rulings mean it's time to unite I am discouraged by our City Council's recent rulings for variances in our hillsides ("Council shuts down plan appeal," May 18). By the daily letters in the Community Forum, many of you are also not pleased with these rulings. The City Council should be representing Glendale citizens in the best interests of the city as a whole. In giving the council the benefit of the doubt, maybe they truly feel they are doing what is best for the city.

Is there a hillside ordinance? That is the question that all Glendale property owners must ask. At last Tuesday's City Council Meeting, Mayor Dave Weaver made a big point about the hillside development committee he formed when he was the president of the Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council. After many years of meetings and planning sessions by residents and city staff, a hillside ordinance was finally crafted and approved in 1993. That ordinance specified that a minimum lot-size of 7,500 square feet was required to build any size or kind of home in R-1-R zoning areas of the city.

I am writing as a concerned neighbor residing in Chevy Chase Canyon ("Council shuts down plan appeal," May 18). I am alarmed by the rate of building taking place in our canyon. We were at an appeal with the council just two weeks ago, where, to our dismay, a large, architecturally-designed "flatland" home was approved by the City Council to be built onto a very difficult-sloped site on Edgewick Road. We spent about $1,000 in appeals in order to fight this project, but unfortunately we lost that battle.

St. Mary's Episcopal Church is seeking approval of a variance for a new structure on the 400 block of Mermaid Avenue that would be eight feet higher than is permitted in the area. The church has proposed to demolish a 1930s-era Italian Renaissance-style building and replace it with a new Craftsman-style three-story structure. The building would be used for classrooms, offices and a social hall that would host activities such as weddings and funerals.