Log in

More development on tap near 51st and Bell in Glendale

Posted 9/23/19

By Mark Carlisle

Independent Newsmedia

More development is planned for vacant land near one of north Glendale’s major intersections.

The 21-acre lot at the northwest corner of 51st Avenue …

You must be a member to read this story.

Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.


Already have an account? Log in to continue.

Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here

Otherwise, follow the link below to join.

To Our Valued Readers –

Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.

For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.

Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.

Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.

Sincerely,
Charlene Bisson, Publisher, Independent Newsmedia

Please log in to continue

Log in
I am anchor

More development on tap near 51st and Bell in Glendale

Posted

By Mark Carlisle

Independent Newsmedia

More development is planned for vacant land near one of north Glendale’s major intersections.

The 21-acre lot at the northwest corner of 51st Avenue and Bell Road began developing last year as a project called 51 Campana. Now a smaller nearby vacant lot is paving the way for development.

An 8-acre property directly to the southwest of 51 Campana is going through Glendale’s planning and zoning process to include retail and service businesses, drive-thru restaurants and/or residences on the site at the southwest corner of 53rd Avenue and Bell Road.

Earlier this month, Glendale’s Planning Commission approved, with several stipulations, a change for the site to shift from Business Park zoning to a Planned Area Development, which is a custom-made zoning designation for the site. City Council needs to approve the zoning request in an upcoming voting meeting for it to become law.

Diversified Partners is the proposed master developer for the site.

Ed Bull

Ed Bull, a lawyer with Burch & Cracchiolo, representing the applicant called Bell 53rd LLC, said the project would give use to a site that has long been unoccupied.

“The immediate corner has been vacant, I think, forever. The parking lot to the south has been vacant for at least 10 years or more, as best we can tell,” Mr. Bull said.

So far only one company, Service First Automotive Centers, is considering the site. The company is considering moving into the northeast corner of the site, at the corner of 53rd Avenue and Bell Road.

The Service First location is planned to include a 60-foot flagpole at the intersection corner and the Planning Commission’s approval stipulated that the existing olive trees at the corner must be “reasonably preserved.”

This sketch shows the entrance to a proposed Service First Automative Center at the direct corner of 53rd Avenue and Bell Road. Stipulations also require any bay doors from the Service First location that face 53rd Avenue to the east include an eight-foot concrete wall to screen the bay doors from the businesses across 53rd Avenue. A wall is also required should any self-storage facility be added to the east end of the site with roll-up doors facing east.

Mr. Bull said these, and several other stipulations, were creating by working “hand-in-glove” with representatives of the neighbors to the east and with city planning staff. East of 53rd Avenue is a commercial center that includes tile stores, a party bus and limousine company, a home for people with disabilities.

“While I can’t say that our neighbors are supportive, I can say that they’re not opposed,” Mr. Bull said in regard to the agreed-upon stipulations.

Aside from the Service First location, which has not been finalized, no businesses are planned for the site. The Planned Area Development allows for a large array of business types, some subject to conditions or requiring conditional use permits. Allowed uses range from retail or rental to bars to child care centers to gas stations to car washes to plant nurseries to exercise centers to schools to churches to car dealerships to banks to hotels to medical facilities to drive-thru restaurants. The site would be limited to three drive-thru restaurants.

At 51 Campana to the northeast, a Burger King has already opened and a Krispy Kreme donut shop, the only location in the Northwest Valley, is planned. A Dignity Health urgent care facility is also being built in the center.

Multi-family residential buildings, residences on the second floor of a building above commercial businesses on the first floor and boardinghouses are all allowed without conditions. Adult care homes, juvenile group homes and group homes for the disabled are allowed conditionally.

The applicant for the property at 53rd Avenue and Bell Road will be required to pay for any necessary improvement to the adjacent roads, including sidewalk, streetlight or signal pole relocations. There are two planned entrances into the site along Bell Road, the first of which will have a deceleration lane, paid for by the applicant.

Ocotillo District Commissioner Warren Wilfong questioned why only one of the entrances lanes would need a deceleration lane.

“It kind of defeats the purpose of having a first one if the second one’s not there,” Mr. Wilfong said.

City planner George Gehlert, who presented the zoning change to the commission, said one deceleration lane was the recommendation of the city’s traffic department but that he would get an explanation from traffic staff before the planning change went before City Council.

Glendale Independent News Editor Mark Carlisle can be reached at mcarlisle@newszap.com or found on Twitter @mwcarlisle.