President's Message--
NWGHA Adopted Neutral Stance in Town Center Vote

Kenneth Village Spotlight:
 Karan Fischer, New Massage Therapist in the Village

Historic Dist. Proponents Regroup; Move Forward

LA Approves 20th Historical District

NWGHA Board Member Achieves New Stop Signs
at Grandview and Glenwood

Neighbors Should Not Have to Enforce Zoning Code

How Glendale Voted on Town Center

Map--How City Voted
Map--How Northwest Glendale Voted

Do Homeowner Associations Really Speak For
the Residents They Claim to Represent?

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Historic Dist. Proponents Regroup; Move Forward

By Tammi Relyea

The effort to establish a historic district in Cumberland Heights has been a daunting task and learning process for the neighborhood and City Council. After initial efforts in Cumberland Heights, it became apparent that the current system was unsatisfactory to both those favoring such districts and those opposing them.

Looking Forward into the Past

Although the process to establish the first historic districts in Glendale continues to be challenging , there appears to be encouraging signs of a new, workable direction.

At its August 24th meeting, Council began the process of modifying the current system for neighborhoods to apply for historic district status. The new approach contains three key changes.

First, citywide historic district design guidelines would be created. These guidelines, which would be adopted by Council, will serve as the basic guidelines for all historic districts. Towards that end, Council approved the allocation of $40,000 to hire a consultant to start developing the guidelines.

Secondly, before a proposed historic district is formally delineated and put to the vote of area residents, a “study area” would be created to allow a historical survey and public education and input regarding the proposed district.
Finally, creation of historic districts would follow a city-supervised, predictable, transparent and unbiased standardized procedure and timeline, with Planning staff assuming a more active role in the process.

At the August 24th meeting, Council directed staff to develop code changes to implement the new structure

NW Glendale Heritage Districts Committee

Anticipating Council’s actions, a new neighborhood committee in the Northwest area, the Northwest Glendale Heritage Districts Committee, has been formed to create a larger, broadly-based community group to promote historic districts in the Northwest Glendale area. The group chose to use the term “heritage,” rather than historical, in its name as being more descriptive and meaningful for what the group hopes to accomplish. The Northwest Glendale Homeowner’s Association is participating in the new committee.

While the Cumberland Heights neighborhood continues to be in the forefront of historic districting, other Glendale neighborhoods such Adams Hill, Cleveland Knoll, El Miradero and Rossmoyne are all working to form their own historic districts.

Gaining Momentum

Clearly, the movement to establish historic districts is no longer an isolated faction. Historic districts are gaining momentum throughout the region. (See below)

It is unfortunate that misinformation continues to circulate about historic districts. It is never easy introducing new neighborhood initiatives. Proponents of historic districting will continue to discuss with interested residents how historic districting benefits everyone and will not be overly restrictive.

Cumberland Heights and other Glendale neighborhoods are rich in history and architectural style. Let’s not wait until it’s too late to save our neighborhoods from losing their historic fabric, character and “sense of place.”

Seeking Volunteers

If you would like to learn more about historic districts or are interested in joining the Northwest Glendale Heritage Districts Committee, please e-mail Tammi Relyea, Chair, Northwest Glendale Heritage Districts Committee, at: tammirelyea@hotmail.com.

LA Approves 20th Historical District

Two weeks ago the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved that city’s 20th historical district in Windsor Square, a 68 block neighborhood adjacent to Hancock Park. The area, comprised of 1200 large and small homes built about the same time as those in Northwest Glendale, was seeing increased teardowns and mansionizations.
LA’s historic districting process seeks input from residents on whether they favor the zone, but does not require a formal vote of residents.

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NWGHA Adopted Neutral Stance in Town Center Vote

By Peter Fuad
NWGHA President

Contrary to many other civic organization in Glendale, the Northwest Glendale Homeowners Association did not take a stance in the recent vote on the Town Center Project. From the comments we received, our membership is glad we didn’t.
Emotions ran high on this vote, which produced the largest turnout for a municipal election in recent Glendale history. Although your Association itself did not taken any official position, various past and present members of our Board actively participated in campaigns for or against the measures. However, they campaigned as individuals. You may have seen my letter to the News-Press on election day stressing the Association’s neutrality

The Board’s decision not to take a position reflected the Association’s longstanding policy of not taking positions on significant issues without first polling our members, which we did not do in this instance. Even then, we will not take a position unless there is a strong majority of members supporting it. For instance, in our recent membership survey on various design review issues, we only adopted positions strongly supported by the results.

Importantly, we believe our neutral stance allowed us to present the significant issues involved in this vote to our members and the community in an unbiased and fair manner, as evidenced by our August 18 forum at Brand Library.

Maintaining Credibility

Since we believe our credibility is our most important asset in dealing with the city and the public— as well as our own members—we will not advocate any position that we do believe our members support. When we speak, we want the listener— and our members— to know that we truly speak for out them.

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Kenneth Village Spotlight

Karan Fischer, New Massage Therapist in the Village

By Kathleen Giachino

Karan Fischer discovered the healing benefits of massage as a client over twenty years ago after a horseback riding accident left her with a ruptured disk in her lower back.

“Massage was the therapy my body needed; it gave me a sense of calm and speeded up the healing process.”

Extensive Training

Karan decided to follow her heart and become a Massage Therapist herself in 1999. She graduated from the Massage School of Santa Monica and went on to study with a Japanese Shiatsu master, who taught her trigger point, deep tissue therapy and sports injury recovery.

In 2000 Karan brought her talents to Three Realms Wellness Center of Beverly Hills where she served as The Director of Therapist Training and Education and as acting Spa Director until 2002.

Now in the Village

Karan has recently moved her private practice to The Center of Healing Arts in the heart of Kenneth Village in association with Kelly Tourgeman, the owner of The Pilates Body.

She looks forward to meeting the residents and helping many to benefit from the healing power of therapeutic touch therapy. She can be reached by telephone for appointments and further information at (818) 363-3730 or (213) 215-5886.

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NWGHA Board Member Achieves New Stop Signs at Grandview and Glenwood

By Carol Brusha

Motorists driving on Grandview since September 14 have discovered that it is no longer a non-stop drive between Kenneth Road and the Glenwood Road/Fifth St. intersection. Three way stop signs have been installed at the corner where the Verdugo Hills Council Boy Scout House and Grandview Cemetery is located.

For those who are pleased with this, you can probably thank me. For those who are not, well ….

Seeing the Problem

It all began when I found that a majority of eastbound drivers, at the 1300 block of Glenwood, were becoming more careless and bold as they drove onto Grandview. Several times, while I was driving on Grandview, cars bolted out in front of me, almost causing collisions.

And when I was on Glenwood, I found that due to limited sight distance I would have a tough time checking out the southbound traffic because the cemetery wall protrudes out too far. Additionally, the intersection does not intersect at a 90 degree angle, further limiting the view of south bound traffic for Glenwood drivers that were trying to get onto Grandview.

Approaching the City

Last April, I sent a letter to Steve Zurn, director of Public Works, asking that Grandview traffic be made to stop, pointing out that this was a dangerous intersection. He assigned the matter to Franklin Garcia, engineering technician in the Traffic and Transportation Department, who personally assessed the area and found there was merit in my request.

However, there were necessary governmental procedures that had to be fulfilled before the installation could take place. These included a traffic count and, upon final approval, written notification had to be given to the homeowner where one of the signs would be posted and the curb painted red. Mr. Garcia would telephone me regularly to give me a progress report.

The Signs Appear

Five months later, the signs were installed, on the day of the Town Center election. As I walked to the Boy Scout house to vote, I asked a Grandview homeowner standing nearby about what I thought I had accomplished. “Wonderful,” he replied. Feeling even better, I told him that I was the reason it was happening. He looked at me and said, “We have been trying for years to get these. I even got a petition signed by all the neighbors.”

Hmmm, I thought. Maybe it was not me. A few days later, I called Franklin Garcia. He said he knew nothing about the prior requests. I guess when someone wants something taken care of, the best thing is to get the matter before someone as conscientious as Mr. Garcia.

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Neighbors Should Not Have to Enforce Zoning Code

By Lawrence Kalfayan

I have a concern about the manner in which the City may be treating some proposed residential construction projects and their compliance with Glendale’s zoning laws.

Asking the Neighbors

Rather than City Staff telling applicants that a given plan violates the city code—such as FAR maximums—they may tell the applicants to show the neighbors their proposed plans and see if they can get the neighbors to support it.

At first glance this may seem immensely democratic. But look at the implications:

What is the point of staff spending months drafting ordinances, holding study sessions, inviting public comment, fine tuning the language, when in the end, it is all meaningless because the city then tells applicants they can circumvent the standards by getting letters of support from adjoining property owners, who in most cases, are not at all familiar with the requirements.
Not only does this put neighbors in the awkward position of confronting neighbors, Staff should not be shifting the burden of determining and enforcing compliance onto the neighborhood.

If a plan violates city codes, staff should tell applicants to redo the plans to conform. Laws ought to be equally enforced and applied— by the City, not neighbors.

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How Glendale Voted on Town Center

By Doug Johnson

Last month’s vote on the Town Center Project revealed a number of trends, as the chart and maps on these two pages reveal.
Of the six precincts in the Northwest Glendale area, three supported the Town Center and three opposed it. There was a definite geographic split: the three northernmost precincts supported it, and the three southernmost ones opposed the project. See the map on the opposite page.

Northwest Glendale Results

In total, Northwest Glendale voters split 54 % in favor and 46 % against the Project, although this was driven by the huge 2-1 vote in favor of Town Center in the Cumberland precinct (Precinct 50). The other five precincts divided almost exactly in half, with 1,326 for and 1,331 against. For details of the vote in Northwest Glendale, see below.

Citywide Results

Citywide, as the map below shows, of the 11 precincts south of the Venture 134 Freeway, ten of them voted "No" and only one — the northernmost one, between Brand and Glendale from California to the Venture Freeway — voted "Yes." Six of those 10 "No" precincts were "No" by a 55 - 45 margin or more.

(Note that these are all numbers from people who voted at the polling places. Absentee ballots were lumped in with all the absentees from across the City so there is now way to know how Northwest Glendale absentee ballots voted.)

Although Ballot Measures A, B and C passed by varying margins, we chose to examine the results of Ballot Measure C only in these articles as being representative of the votes cast on all three measures. Proposition C was the measure with narrowest margin of victory in the election.

Northwest Glendale Vote on Measure C

Percentages are yes votes on Measure C.

Citywide Town Center Vote

In this map, the percentages are the turnout numbers in each precinct. Green areas are those precincts where a majority of voters voted yes on Ballot Measure C. Voters rejected Ballot Measure C in the clear areas.

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Do Homeowner Associations Really Speak For the Residents They Claim to Represent?

By Doug Johnson

Some people have said that homeowners associations don’t really speak for the people they claim to represent.
These people claim that, on average, only ten percent of homeowners belong to their local homeowners association. Although this percentage has not been verified, their point is that elected officials and, by extension, the people they appoint to boards and commissions, represent residents’ views better than their local homeowners association does because elected officials have won elections.

We disagree, and the facts are on our side.

Two Indications of Support

How representative are our public officials of the local community? In today’s busy society, it takes time for people to vote or to join an association – time that few people have to spare.
With that in mind, let’s compare some figures.

Paying for Membership

First, it is important to remember that members pay annual dues to belong to a Glendale homeowners association. Accordingly, homeowners need to feel that an association represents them in order to deserve their hard-earned dollar. By continuing to pay dues, residents are confirming that they believe the association represents them. By contrast, voting is free.

Percentage of Votes

Next, let’s consider who is “representative.” Does the City Council represent Glendale? Most would say yes (although people may disagree on one issue or another). Does the Governor represent the state? Does the President represent the county? Again, while we may disagree from issue to issue, the Governor and President are the elected representatives of the people.
But look at the percentage of the population that actually voted for these officials.

In the last election, 3.3% of Glendale’s 2003 population voted for Mayor Yousefian, 3.7% voted for Councilman Weaver and 3.5% voted for Councilman Gomez. In the prior election, 4.6% of Glendale’s 2001 population voted for Councilman Manoukian, and 3.8% voted for Councilman Gomez.

Governor Schwarzenegger was elected by 11.6% of California’s 2003 population. President Bush received votes from 17.7% of the 2000 U.S. population.

These figures are not meant to demean the significance of these officeholders being elected or to suggest that they do not represent their constituencies.

Rather, they illustrate that, if one is looking at the percentage of the population that “voted” for a representative, homeowners associations are actually among the more representative institutions in our community. And members have to pay to join!
If one is looking to gauge community views, one need look no further than Glendale homeowners associations.
For instance, as you know, we recently polled our membership to ensure that the positions taken by your Board represent the views of our members.

Overwhelmingly, the results came back in the affirmative on issue after issue. Our Association represents our neighborhood— and we have the “votes” to prove it.