Burbank wants Caltrans to change freeway plans to deter cut-through traffic through nearby neighborhood

Members of the Burbank City Council want the California Department of Transportation to make some minor tweaks to its Empire Avenue interchange project in an effort to protect residents living in the Peyton-Grismer neighborhood just northeast of the freeway.

Council members unanimously voted during a meeting last week to have city staff contact Caltrans officials and suggest they change the new northbound on-ramp to the Golden State (5) Freeway from what is currently San Fernando Boulevard to not have access to Keeler and Landis streets.

Caltrans’ current plans are to have the off-ramp cross San Fernando and allow motorists who are exiting the freeway to continue north past San Fernando and turn into the Peyton-Grismer neighborhood, which is bordered by Grismer and Peyton avenues as well as Church Street and the 5 Freeway, said David Kriske, assistant community development director of transportation for Burbank.

Join the conversation on Facebook >>

The new Empire interchange will replace the former Scott Road off-ramp with a new diamond interchange and connect Empire Avenue to San Fernando via a new underpass.

“We feel that separating the fast freeway traffic getting onto the freeway should be separate from the slower neighborhood traffic,” Kriske said. “This is a current complaint of how San Fernando Boulevard operates today, and it was complaints that we’ve heard over the years and have been exacerbated as the freeway’s been under construction. We feel that this would deter cut-through traffic from using the neighborhood, especially new traffic that will be coming directly from the freeway and will have access into those streets to get to other parts of Burbank.”

Residents in the Peyton-Grismer neighborhood first brought up their concerns about cut-through traffic on their streets during a community meeting in March 2011, and they have been working with the city and Caltrans to figure out a solution, according to a Burbank city staff report.

Kriske said that allowing the new on-ramp to the 5 Freeway to only have access to the freeway would preserve the quiet aesthetics of the Peyton-Grismer neighborhood. However, he added that there is a possibility that doing so could generate additional traffic congestion on Grismer.

Because the on-ramp would only feed into the freeway, motorists getting off the interstate would have to go through Grismer if they wanted to go to that neighborhood or to the northern part of Burbank.

“All traffic into that neighborhood would be going in and out of Grismer, and that is a little congested today,” Kriske said. “Grismer is a collector street that serves a bigger area than just those few streets.”

He added that, though traffic congestion may increase on Grismer, “the overall benefit of separating and protecting the neighborhood far outweighs those potential negatives.”

--

Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio