Glendale approves $5.76 million Verdugo Wash master‑plan contract with milestone reporting

The Glendale City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize a $5,762,370 professional services agreement with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) to prepare a Verdugo Wash Master Plan, environmental review and supporting engineering studies.

City planners said the master plan will evaluate roughly 9.4 miles of the Verdugo Wash to study opportunities for a coordinated linear park, active‑transportation corridor and ecological improvements while preserving flood‑control functions. Staff told council the contract will be fully funded with state grant funds already accepted into the city’s budget and that the award would not itself authorize construction or require city general‑fund spending.

Teresa St. Hillenner, principal planner, presented the consultant selection process, telling council that nine firms responded and that MVVA — a national landscape architecture and planning firm with a Los Angeles office and multiple Southern California subconsultants — ranked highest after interviews. "The master plan will ensure that any build out that is approved in the future will be done in a well thought out coordinated and safe manner," St. Hillenner said.

In response to council concerns about transparency and accountability for $5.76 million in grant funds, councilmembers requested and staff agreed to build contract milestones and public check‑ins into the agreement. Councilmember Kosakian pushed for milestone reporting at regular expenditure intervals; the council settled on requiring periodic public reports tied to spending checkpoints (roughly quarterly increments of the contract amount), with the city attorney and staff to incorporate the reporting schedule into final contract language. Staff said the master‑plan process would include substantial public outreach, technical studies of flood‑control impacts, and regular updates to council during the roughly three‑year project timeline.

Opponents and supporters in the public comment period framed the item differently: some neighbors worried about potential park development near flood control infrastructure and urged study limits; other speakers and neighborhood advocates urged the city to accept the grant and study the full wash, saying the work will produce a transparent set of options and could produce shovel‑ready designs to attract future funding.

The council’s motion approved the consultant selection and directed staff to finalize a professional services agreement with milestone and reporting provisions; the vote was unanimous (Councilmembers Brautman, Garpetian, Kasakian, Najarian and Mayor Asatrian voting yes). The master plan will proceed with initial data collection and community engagement once the contract is executed.