Oakmont Project May Be Halted

Glendale officials and a developer announced Friday that they are “close to an agreement” that would shelve the proposed 572-home Oakmont V subdivision and preserve the land as open space.

“The deal being worked out would be for no development of the property,” said Lee Gregg, vice president of Gregg Artistic Homes, which owns the 238-acre site in the Verdugo Mountains.

The plan calls for the city of Glendale, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority to buy the property. Involved parties are still “in mediation” and therefore prohibited by law from discussing the sale, including the price, Gregg said.

Oakmont has been one of the hottest issues in Glendale for more than a decade, drawing hundreds of residents to public hearings that ran as long as 11 hours. An agreement “gets us past that divisive issue,” City Manager Jim Starbird said.

The Glendale City Council has scheduled a special meeting for 6 p.m. Tuesday to consider the purchase. If everything comes together, title to the property could be transferred to the city, the conservancy and the authority within 72 hours, Starbird said.

“This is a complete purchase that takes the entire property and moves it into public ownership ... to preserve a significant, valuable open-space resource in the city,” he said.