Residents pool their opposition to development
Neighbors are not merely opposed to building. They want the Mountain Oaks area preserved.
By Tania Chatila
LA CRESCENTA -- Foothills property owners are uniting in their opposition to the proposed development of an Armenian high school and condominium village on 40 acres of undeveloped land near Crescenta Valley Park.
A group of homeowners formed the Friends of Mountain Oaks on Sunday in response to the proposed development, group chairman David Meyers said.
Granada Hills-based M. Jorjezian Investments Inc. purchased the vacant land between Crescenta Valley Park and the Verdugo Mountains in Glendale -- near the Whiting Woods neighborhood -- about two months ago from Mountain Oaks, LLC.
They are proposing a condominium village on nine acres of the land, and a high school -- which would likely serve about 500 students -- on six acres of the property, said Yeznik Kazandjian, M. Jorjezian Investments' corporate attorney.
The remaining 25 acres will likely be handed over to the Santa Monica Conservancy, Kazandjian said.
But the roughly 60 people who joined the Friends of Mountain Oaks group -- which is in the process of becoming a nonprofit organization -- believe that land, and any other open space in the Crescenta Valley, should be untouched.
"That area they are speaking of developing is a flat meadow area directly at the entrance of the property," Meyers said. "It is frequented everyday by a small herd of deer, and we have everything coming into that meadow and the surrounding foothills, minus bears."
Developing the land would be devastating, he said.
And while the idea of a school is a good one, it would be better developed at a different location, said Mike Lawler, president of the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley.
"I'm definitely not against the school," he said. "The school is a wonderful thing. I'm against the location. I would definitely want to see that property remain as open space."
But at a site such as Mountain Oaks, development is bound to happen, Kazandjian said.
"There you have approximately 290 individual parcels and its just a matter of time before somebody goes there and starts building.... You will have homes all over the hillside. What we are proposing is basically protecting the hillside," he said.
The developer is losing a lot by donating 25 acres of the land to preserve it as open space, Kazandjian said.
"We are definitely moving forward and we are definitely going to keep listening to the neighbors and the community," he said.
Officials from M. Jorjezian Investments said they will attend the Crescenta Valley Town Council meeting on Sept. 21 to flesh out some of the plans and get community input.
Meyers said the Friends of Mountain Oaks is trying to set up a meeting with the developer to get more concrete plans about what is being proposed.
"We are willing to listen and take every concern, and reasonable, concern into consideration," Kazandjian said.
QUESTION
Do you agree with a group of property owners in setting up an association to fight a proposed development near Crescenta Valley Park? E-mail gnp@latimes.com or write to News-Press and Leader Community Forum, 111 W. Wilson Ave. Suite 200, Glendale, CA 91203. Please include your name and tell us your hometown and phone number for verification purposes only.
