Crescenta Valley Heritage meeting notes for September 26, 2005

Stuart Byles called the meeting, attended by over 20, to order shortly after 6pm.

Mike Lawler began with a status report on the fight to save Weatherwolde Castle in Tujunga from demolition. As most have read in the local papers, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted unanimously to recommend landmark status for the castle and its grounds at their September 21^st meeting. Similar status was recommended for the Oak Glen Ranch and grounds. In considering this small victory in a long process, Mike noted all the hard work done by so many people to document the properties' historic presence in the Valley, publicize the issue, gather support from the community and lobby elected representatives. All aspects of the campaign contributed to the success and need to be continued and improved as we work on subsequent projects.

The hoped for outcome in both cases is for preservationists to purchase, restore, and maintain the properties. Negotiations for Weatherwolde are ongoing.

Stuart introduced Peter Shaller from Crescenta Valley Trails who briefed the group on his efforts to locate, build and restore trails since 1986. Peter, along with Richard and Janice Gilden and Danette Erickson, Crescenta Valley Town Council member, came to our group to discuss merging efforts in saving open wilderness around the Crescenta Valley in general and specifically to try to gain some access to the national forest land north of unincorporated La Crescenta for public hiking and possibly horse back riding. Although there are trails in Deukmejian Wilderness Park and access from La Canada, there are no public access to single track pedestrian trails in between. Active CV Trails members are getting busy with other obligations and would like to combine efforts with CV Heritage to maximize our effectiveness.

The group is exploring trail easements, perhaps through Crescenta Valley Water District property, and public purchase to facilitate open space access. Mike Lawler and Rich Toyon are also part of the trails group. Richard Gilden explained that he thought association with an established 501 c 3 organization, such the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, would give them more credibility and help with the documentation of the historic value of the local trails. They emphasized it's not about taking anyone's property rights away, but more about wisely using the public's resources and working cooperatively with landowners. Another hope is that we can generate some press coverage about trails and access similar to the media buzz around Weatherwolde.

CV Heritage doesn't have a formal structure yet so signing up on our mailing list is all that's necessary to coordinate efforts.

Our featured speaker, Sharon Raghavachary, Crescenta Valley Town Council member, explained the zoning in unincorporated La Crescenta and Montrose. R1, called single family can have two units on a lot, R2, duplex can have up to 3 units, R3 is multi family. There are no landscape requirements for R3 - hence the lack of room for much of anything around the Florencita complex. Sharon recapped her and Stuart's recent onsite meeting with county officials and other interested community members regarding that building. Although it appears taller and Sharon thinks it's too tall, she believes county officials will find it is within standards.  The most Sharon was able to gain from the builder was the use of native oak trees rather than the planned crape myrtles. The oaks will grow larger and hopefully mitigate the stark nature of the building.

Sharon also noted that Glendale plans to hire an urban planner who will work toward community standards requiring more landscaping for multi-family dwellings to protect their single-family home neighbors. She explained the 4 planned zone changes in the Glendale part of La Crescenta and let us know she intended to speak at Tuesday's Glendale City Council meeting on the issue. The CVTC is asking Glendale to approve the 3 downzoning changes but reject the one upzone, the four single family homes on La Crescenta immediately south of Mayfield.

Ardy Kassakhian, Glendale's City Clerk (and CV Heritage member) confessed to being too new on the job to know the ins and outs of Glendale zoning and suggested we invite Tim Foy of the planning department to our next meeting. Hopefully this can be arranged.

We had to break up and rush out of the library so we don't keep the staff past their 8 pm closing time.