UniteLCF! has weighed in on the latest steps in the Sagebrush territory transfer after the Glendale Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously to dismiss its California Environmental Quality Act litigation against the move at the March 12 meeting.
“UniteLCF! expresses its gratitude to the numerous Sagebrush supporters and volunteers, current and former LCUSD board members and city of La Cañada Flintridge Councilmembers who contributed to our collective success over the past decade,” the group said in a statement. “Now we can focus our energy on the final leg of our journey — getting out the vote in support of the transfer come election time.”
A petition for the territory transfer was first introducted in 1961, and as years passed, more petitions were proposed, but none came to fruition. In 2016, a fourth petition was filed by UniteLCF!, a coalition of residents living in the Sagebrush neighborhood.
On March 13, GUSD filed a Request for Dismissal with prejudice of its pending CEQA lawsuit, which the Los Angeles County Superior Court entered that same day to signal the end of the district’s last remaining legal challenge of the territory transfer.
GUSD filed its CEQA lawsuit with the Superior Court in 2019 following the approval of the territory transfer by the L.A. County Committee on School District Organization.
The lawsuit challenged the adequacy of the L.A. County Committee’s environmental impact review of the transfer, as required by CEQA. At that same time, GUSD also filed two appeals with the California State Board of Education, or SBE, challenging the county committee’s approval of the transfer.
In 2020, attorneys for the county requested that the court place the CEQA lawsuit on hold pending the outcome of the SBE decision to deny or uphold the GUSD appeals. At its Jan. 18 hearing, the SBE denied the two GUSD appeals, thus affirming the L.A. County Committee’s 2019 approval of the transfer and allowing the CEQA lawsuit to proceed to trial.
The court’s dismissal of the lawsuit clears the way for the territory transfer to be included in an upcoming election.
At the March 6 meeting of the L.A. County Committee on School District Organization, staff informed the committee that they had sent an election request to the office of the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder.
Staff added that they were working with the registrar’s office toward having the territory transfer included in the upcoming Nov. 5 general election. When the SBE approved the territory transfer at its January 2024 hearing, it also determined the election area for a transfer measure to be limited to the Sagebrush neighborhood of the city of La Cañada Flintridge. Only Sagebrush residents who are registered to vote will be eligible to cast their ballot for the transfer measure.
First published in the March 28 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
