‘Up-zoning’ Glendale
04/05/2007
Voters decided Tuesday that the time has come to rethink rapid development in Glendale, favoring slow-growth City Council candidates John Drayman and incumbent Councilman Dave Weaver out of a field of eight.
Meanwhile, the election of school board members remained too close to call, with 30 votes separating the second- and third-place finishers in that at-large contest for two open seats, making for a nail-biter to be decided after an unknown number of absentee and provisional ballots are counted.
A businessman who campaigned on checking what he called runaway development, Drayman ran numerous cable television ads promising to keep Glendale “one of Southern California's most livable cities.”
Weaver, who was first elected to the council in 1997, told the Weekly during a recent interview that he would take steps to prevent residential overcrowding by supporting new rules that would stop developers from turning single family homes into multi-unit apartment complexes, a process he referred to as “down-zoning.”
In the at-large contest for two seats, Drayman took 8,576 votes, 23.3 percent of those cast, and Weaver received 6,582 votes.
Council incumbent Rafi Manoukian, who also vowed to fight overcrowding, lost his bid for a third term, finishing next with 5,906 votes.
Lenore Solis, the only woman running for a seat on the perennially all-male council, finished with 892 votes.
Glendale Unified School District Governing Board member Greg Krikorian also failed to gain enough support to win a seat on the council, but is expected to serve as the board's president for the next two years.
Incumbent Mary Boger finished first in the at-large race for two school board seats.
At press time, university professor Nayiri Nahabedian edged out businessman Todd Hunt for the second seat by only 29 votes, but an unknown number of absentee and provisional ballots had yet to be counted, said Assistant City Clerk Rita Buchanan, who expected final results before the weekend.
To find out how that race turned out and for more election results, visit www.pasadenaweekly.com or www.ci.glendale.ca.us .
— Joe Piasecki
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