Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Armenian Society of Los Angeles will meet to discuss a buildingproje

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Armenian Society of Los Angeles will meet to discuss a buildingproje

    Armenian Society of Los Angeles will meet to discuss a building project denied by the city.
    By Fred Ortega, News-Press and Leader

    Glendale News Press
    Published June 1, 2005

    GLENDALE -- The Armenian Society of Los Angeles will meet Friday to discuss
    its options following a denial by the Glendale Redevelopment Agency of a
    proposed 53,000-square-foot center on South Louise Street.

    In response to the Glendale Redevelopment Agency's denial of a plan to build
    a 53,000-square-foot center on South Louise Street, the Armenian Society of
    Los Angeles plans to meet to discuss its options.

    Under a 2003 agreement, the Redevelopment Agency agreed to a $5-million land
    swap with the society, giving it city-owned land on Louise Street in
    exchange for its current 11,000-square-foot building on South Brand
    Boulevard. The city needed the Brand property to make way for the Americana
    at Brand project. The city also agreed to give the group $250,000 to pay for
    temporary office space at 320 Wilson Ave. while the new center is built.

    The Redevelopment Agency, comprised of City Council members, voted 3-2 last
    week to deny the society's proposal, which would have included a theater, a
    banquet hall and a library within a modern, glass and steel structure. The
    proposed building received preliminary approval from the city's Design
    Review Board and Redevelopment Agency staff members.

    Councilmen Bob Yousefian and Dave Weaver, as well as Mayor Rafi Manoukian,
    felt the building would be out of place in the neighborhood and wanted the
    size reduced substantially.

    "I spent a long time going through the project floor by floor, trying to
    understand what they were trying to accomplish," Yousefian said. "We
    envisioned them having a building that was similar size or a little bigger,
    or even twice as big, so it could provide the same kind of services it had
    provided in the past. Our responsibility is to make them whole, not five
    times larger."

    The society's proposal also lacked the necessary parking for a building of
    that scale, Yousefian said.

    "The building they are proposing will require 5,000 parking spaces. They
    have provided zero," he said.

    But Vrej Agajanian, chairman of the society's board of trustees, countered
    that an initial memorandum of understanding between the society and the city
    did not require more than 300 parking spaces.

    "In addition, this was stage one of the process, dealing with the concept of
    the building," said Agajanian, who made an unsuccessful bid for the council
    in April. "In stages two and three, you do an environmental report and
    parking assessment, but we are not there yet, so I do not know why they were
    talking about parking."

    The society has already hired Linscott, Law and Greenspan, the
    Pasadena-based traffic-engineering firm used for the Town Center, as its
    parking consultant, Agajanian said.

    Yousefian also questioned the size of the proposed center, saying that the
    50-year-old society only has about 300 members.

    The group has 1,000 members in its database, Armenian Society of Los Angeles
    President Tomik Alexanian said, and he estimates that there as many as 2,000
    members that are not registered but that are involved in everyday
    activities, such as Sunday school and dance classes.

    "We are not trying to inflate or overestimate what we have," said Alexanian.

    "We need this space."

    The group also worked with a city architect for seven months and
    incorporated its suggested changes, including dropping the proposed
    square-footage to 53,000 from over 60,000, he said.

    Glendale staff members and the city architect went as far as they could in
    helping the society adapt its project to the city's design guidelines, said
    Philip Lanzafame, the city's interim director of development services.

    "But the agency felt the project was not headed in the right direction, that
    it was too big," said Lanzafame. "So next time, we will have the benefit of
    the agency's comments to help them redesign."

    The society's next meeting will be held Friday at 7 p.m. at its current
    location, 221 S. Brand Blvd.

    * FRED ORTEGA covers City Hall. He may be reached at (818) 637-3235 or by
    e-mail at [email protected].
Working...
X