COUNCIL TO CONSIDER LIFTING HILLSIDE BUILDING BAN.Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer GLENDALE - The City Council has rejected two proposed measures to tighten its hillside development ordinance A law, statute, or regulation enacted by a Municipal Corporation. An ordinance is a law passed by a municipal government. A municipality, such as a city, town, village, or borough, is a political subdivision of a state within which a municipal corporation has been and will consider lifting a hillside building moratorium A suspension of activity or an authorized period of delay or waiting. A moratorium is sometimes agreed upon by the interested parties, or it may be authorized or imposed by operation of law. at its next meeting. Split between major reform and minor tinkering tin·ker n. 1. A traveling mender of metal household utensils. 2. Chiefly British A member of any of various traditionally itinerant groups of people living especially in Scotland and Ireland; a traveler. 3. , the council could not agree to proposed changes - including one that drew claims of property confiscation confiscation In law, the act of seizing property without compensation and submitting it to the public treasury. Illegal items such as narcotics or firearms, or profits from the sale of illegal items, may be confiscated by the police. Additionally, government action (e.g. from landowners who packed the council meeting. ``Nobody has proven a single point to me yet,'' said Mayor Dave Weaver. ``Nobody has proven to me what you can and can't do on hillsides.'' The 8-year-old hillside ordinance was passed to improve the quality of hillside development and stem a trend called ``mansionization'' - big homes built on small, steep lots. The ordinance requires a permit for developments on hillsides with an average slope greater than 50 percent. Neither of the proposed measures garnered the necessary vote needed for passage. The staff measure, the stricter of the two, would prohibit developments on hills with an average slope greater than 55 percent. It would require a permit to build on between 40 and 55 percent average slope. The measure drew cries of property confiscation from landowners, many of whom said they had dreams of building a home for their family or retirement on their land. City staff members estimated it could impact several hundred hillside lots. The other measure, proposed by the Planning Commission Noun 1. planning commission - a commission delegated to propose plans for future activities and developments commission, committee - a special group delegated to consider some matter; "a committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours" - Milton Berle , tightens existing regulations on floor-area ratios to ensure developments are not too large for the land available. Weaver, along with council members Ginger Bremberg and Gus Gomez, supported the staff measure, while council members Rafi Manoukian Rafi Manoukian is a former member of the city council in Glendale, California. He was recently notified that he has been selected by the Board of Directors and the Selection Committee of the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO) as a recipient of the 2006 Ellis Island and Sheldon Baker voted no. On the Planning Commission measure, Baker, Manoukian and Bremberg voted yes, and Gomez and Weaver no. Baker sympathized with landowners. ``Those lots, if they are not buildable build·a·ble adj. Suitable or available for building: "The problem was finding a site that was well located, appropriately zoned . . . and buildable" Sam Hall Kaplan. , they are just not worthless, but a burden,'' he said, adding that property owners pay insurance on the land plus brush clearing costs. However, the council agreed to consider lifting a hillside building moratorium, in effect since Jan. 2 and due to expire on April 26, at its next meeting. City Attorney Scott Howard Scott Howard sings baritone with the Southern Gospel Quartet Legacy Five. He has been with the group since its inception in 2000. External Links Legacy Five's Homepage told the council it risks legal trouble if it indefinitely in·def·i·nite adj. Not definite, especially: a. Unclear; vague. b. Lacking precise limits: an indefinite leave of absence. c. extends the moratorium and deprives landowners of the right to develop their property. If the city lifts the moratorium, about two dozen hillside projects in the pipeline will be able to proceed. The council also agreed that staff, commissioners and board members need more training to enforce the hillside ordinance, and that the council needs to better communicate with the design and review boards on the type of architecture that is preferred. ``We haven't clarified what it is we like and what it is we don't like. We say it after the fact,'' Baker said. |
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