Mayor Najarian
On Wednesday, September 16th, Mayor Ara Najarian addressed a lively crowd of Glenoaks Canyon residents at the GOCHA annual meeting held at the Joe Bridges Clubhouse. The mayor talked about the growth in Downtown Glendale and how the city council has focused on the downtown area so that they could limit the growth in the hillside communities like Glenoaks Canyon.
FullSizeRender
Najarian went on to say that there will be 4,000 new apartment units available in downtown over the next twelve months. With that will come new restaurants and nightlife. The downtown region is flourishing although there is concern about additional traffic that will impact the area. There is also concern that the units being developed are apartments which will cater to more transient residents. Some of these apartments will be renting for up to $4,000 per month which will most likely not attract young families which is what the city wants.
The mayor also brought up that there will be a new transportation measure coming before voters in the next year that could provide the funds for a light rail system to connect the Orange and Red lines (Pasadena and North Hollywood) with two stops in Glendale.
There was a lot of dissension among the residents at the meeting towards the mayor and city council for allowing this kind of "irresponsible" development to happen.
Residents also asked the Mayor and Steve Zurn who was also in attendance about the Glendale water rate hikes as well as the Scholl Canyon Landfill. There were really no satisfactory or definitive answers coming from the city on either topic. The landfill expansion continues to be evaluated but nothing concrete has been discussed.
IMG_4475
GOCHA also awarded Mark and Veronica Tharp with its annual resident appreciation award for all that they have done for our community, most notably organizing the annual dog parade and being great neighbors. Congratulations Mark and Veronica!