The Los Angeles Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) recognized the City of Glendale and the Community Development Department (CDD) with several awards at their annual Awards Gala on June 12, 2012 at the Historic Los Angeles Theater in Downtown Los Angeles. These awards set the City of Glendale apart from other municipalities for its overall excellence and innovative approach to community development.
Distinguished Leadership Award – [Public] Agency for 2014
Recognizes CDD as a leader in its field. The main distinguishing factor is the Department’s multiple divisions’ ability to continue to perform at an outstanding level, with internal consistency and collaboration between the divisions, in the face of the recession, loss of Redevelopment funding, major staff cuts and increasing workload.
Some highlights include:
- Building & Safety’s Back to Business Program (B2B) and the Concurrent Review Program.
- Planning & Neighborhood Services’ in-house production and implementation of highly successful plans such as the Downtown Specific Plan, North Glendale Community Plan, South Glendale Community Plan, the Greener Glendale Plan, and the constantly updated and streamlined Zoning Code.
- The Housing Division’s exceptional Section 8 program with over 50% transfer vouchers efficiently run despite 20% reduction of funding charged by source agencies, being named a “High Performing Housing Authority” and the development of a high number of excellent quality affordable housing units in a relatively short period of time.
- Excellent customer service provided by the Development Concierge Service.
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| Children were encouraged to plan their ideal community. |
The South Glendale Community Plan is a General Plan level community-based policy document that will promote a vision of how Glendale constituents want their neighborhoods to develop and prosper. Many residents in this area are constituents who would not normally attend traditional planning-related outreach meetings. In order to engage this community properly, CDD’s outreach team developed two non-traditional specialized outreach events.
• Food and Film at the Train Tracks on October 3, 2013, drew the community to the Historic Glendale Train Station. It featured a walking tour, food trucks and the screening of “Double Indemnity”, a movie that was originally filmed at the station. As a result, 157 surveys and 25 Walking Tour Photo surveys were completed; the most ever for a Glendale planning effort.
• Fall Festival in the Park on November 16, 2013 attracted families from the South Glendale area. A variety of unconventional tools and activities were designed for the target audience and resulted in over 150 responses.
A variety of print and online social media platforms were used to promote both events which saw unprecedented public participation. These events created a new strategy for how CDD will conduct outreach in the future.
Urban Design Award – Award of Merit – Space 134 Vision Plan
The Glendale “Space 134” project is a concept study for a "freeway cap park" over the 134 Freeway from Central Avenue to Glendale Avenue. As Downtown Glendale moves forward with the 18-hour workday, by promoting the opening of restaurants, bars and nightlife opportunities in the City’s new Arts & Entertainment District, Space 134 will become a key component in furthering that vision.
Transportation Planning Award of Merit – Safe & Healthy Streets Plan
The design of our city, work sites, and streets influences how much physical activity we get and plays an important role in preventing many chronic conditions – such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and asthma. Glendale’s Safe and Healthy Streets Plan has the potential to boost levels of physical activity and help reverse current trends among residents. It provides policies to make Glendale a safer and friendlier city for pedestrians and bicyclists.
