A Visit to Glendale City Council

I attended the Glendale City Council meeting on 1-22-08 with STNC's Education Rep, Lydia Grant and community stakeholders. Also in attendance and providing comments on behalf of Councilmember Greuel were Jim Dantona and Dale Thrush with CD2. Their meeting ran very long but we stayed the duration to be sure our comments were heard. The Glendale City Council was considering the details of their comment letter to the City of Los Angeles as well as whether to take an official role in the joint purchase of the property.

All five Glendale city council members expressed their firm and strong support to preserve the VHGC. However, they did not vote to pursue joint purchase at this time. Their position is to continue through the EIR process with a very watchful eye and visible involvement. They believe the environmental issues are extremely complex for this proposal. The Glendale City Mayor expressed the strength of the Sunland-Tujunga community and our well known efforts, making reference to our work on the Home Depot issue.

Reminder: January 31 is the deadline for public comments to be included in the VHGC Draft Environmental Impact Report, remind your neighbors to get their comments sent in and please include your own. Send to:

David Somers, Environmental Review Coordinator
Environmental Review Section
Department of City Planning
200 N. Spring Street, Room 750
Los Angeles, CA 90012

This process is open and available to us and the City expects the community to be their eyes and ears. We have a strong and active community and our participation in this process is of extreme importance. Follow-through by voicing your concerns while this door is open to do so.

Jim Dantona, CD2 Planning Deputy, announced there will be a four-way meeting on Feburary 5, with staffs of L.A. County, City of Glendale, SMMC and L.A. City to explore funding options for a VHGC purchase.  Due to the logistics, it is not possible for STNC/DAC board members to be part of this meeting. Although Glendale did not vote to officially support VHGC preservation efforts, they will be attending for informational purposes. 

I would like to direct you to additional resources and information regarding the VHGC. The savethegolfcourse.org website has detail information. Thanks to stakeholder Karen Zimmerman for her dedication to keep the details up to date. Also, the STNC web site at http://www.stnc.org/VHGolfCourseSite.html has new information and links to various documents.

As always, the best way to stay up to date with these issues is by attending DAC meetings, STNC monthly meetings, e-mail notices or by contacting the STNC office at 951-7411.