Real Estate and USC Grad Students’ Sensitivity

We are the developers of the Maple Avenue Apartment Complex in Burbank, known more formally as “The Park in Toluca Lake.”

In his column, critiquing the efforts of students at USC’s new graduate program in real estate development, Sam Hall Kaplan states that “the Maple Avenue Complex . . . is well designed and detailed, but cannot overcome the raw fact that it replaced six single-family houses in what was once a quiet single-family neighborhood, with 80 units.”

We appreciate Mr. Kaplan’s compliment and sensitivity to our architectural achievements at The Park, but we feel that part of his comments were in error.

The property had been zoned R-3, or one dwelling unit per 1,500 square feet of land, for many years. This was reflected by the 22 “multifamily” units located there, and not “single-family” residences. The apartments that had previously occupied the site were in a state of general disrepair and were a blight to the neighborhood in this area of Burbank that has experienced an explosion of commercial growth in the past few years.

The majority of students of urban planing would view this situation in Toluca Lake as a natural and logical progression of urban growth. While painful to some, this change in Burbank is an example of good, solid land planning.

CHANDLER INVESTMENTS

Burbank

EL GRECO DESIGNER