City, airport officials explore land-use options
Roughly a couple dozen residents attended a community workshop Wednesday centered around land use and transportation improvements at the Bob Hope Airport and the area surrounding it.
City and airport officials have been studying ways to improve land use on the 540 acres of airport-adjacent land, half of which is made up of surface lots and vacant land, for 18 months, and will present the results to the Burbank Planning Board and Burbank City Council in the coming months.
Officials presented four land-use options, each focused on prioritizing different uses.
The first option assumes the airport terminal will stay at its existing location and preserve a majority of the industrial uses, while the other options assume the airport terminal will be relocated, and includes various levels of industrial-land preservation and transit-oriented development.
“We have to decide which one we want to implement,” said Deputy City Planner Patrick Prescott. “The city could decide none of them, or a mixture, a combination of them.”
Residents, he added, didn’t voice a strong opinion Wednesday in support or opposition of any of the land-use alternatives.
Residents did, however, ask that city officials begin considering how a potential high-speed rail station would impact the area because state officials have proposed building a station near the Bob Hope Airport.
Others have asked the city to minimize impacts on existing Burbank residents with any improvements.
“We had some folks who were really interested in seeing some of the existing industrial buildings reused for other things rather than be demolished,” Prescott said.
City documents point to rehabilitated warehouses in the greater Los Angeles area that were developed into lofts, a craft brewery and a creative office.
A final report on the study will likely be completed next month, Prescott said.
City officials also applied for a $450,000 grant from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to develop a specific plan for the area and expect to hear back in the fall.