CITY HOPES CARUSO WILL RECONSIDER BUILDER UNWILLING TO WAIT.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

GLENDALE - City Hall is leaving the door open for developer Rick Caruso to reconsider his Town Center exit, pushing ahead on a downtown plan that would permit mixed-used retail and housing projects.

But it could take Glendale staffers six to eight more months to develop the downtown zoning standards that would ease the way for an open-air mall near the Glendale Galleria.

``We're hoping to move on it pretty aggressively and hope to be done by the end of the year,'' said Elaine Wilkerson, director of planning.

Caruso's plans for a $264 million development hit a wall this week - with Caruso pulling out of the project - after he was faced with needing all five City Council votes for needed zoning changes.

A project that met requirements of a new downtown specific plan would only require a simple majority vote from the council.

Jeanne Armstrong, director of development services for the city, said she would review whether the plan could be completed earlier than the six- to eight-month deadline.

``I have to sit with (planning) to determine what we can do to efficiently complete the downtown specific plan,'' Armstrong said.

``I have been personally frustrated with the speed of the downtown specific plan, as I think the council has, too, but I fully understand the planning staff has an enormous number of projects,'' she said.

City staff has been working on the downtown specific plan, which establishes height, density and parking limits, for more than one year, but it has been held up while waiting for the completion of the traffic model, Armstrong said. That model would reflect future job, population and traffic growth and their impacts.

City Councilman Rafi Manoukian said he hoped a completed downtown specific plan would entice Caruso to return to the Town Center project.

``We have been working on this project for a long time ... and if there's a way of speeding up the process so Caruso feels comfortable to reconsider his position, I think that would be a benefit to the city and the community,'' he said.

At Tuesday's meeting, Caruso told the City Council he would be unwilling to tolerate more delays because it would give rival Glendale Galleria more time to thwart his project.

``The downtown specific plan would be at least six months away and that would give General Growth time to screw around with us and for (Mayor Frank) Quintero to try to sabotage us,'' an angry Caruso said.

Even if Caruso remains out of the Town Center's development, he will still be a property owner in the area, he said Thursday.

The developer has an agreement with a property owner of one of the 12 parcels of land the redevelopment agency had yet to purchase. The city has purchased 75 percent of the land in the area south of the Glendale Galleria to Colorado Street and between Brand Boulevard and Central Avenue.

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com