Burbank Expected to Set Aside $554,000 to Purchase Builder’s Disputed Hillside

The Burbank City Council is expected to appropriate $554,375 next week to help purchase 61 acres of undeveloped property in the Verdugo Mountains from developer Sherman Whitmore.

If approved, the amount would be matched by state funds designated for parklands and channeled through the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy.

The council action could help settle a longstanding feud between the city and Whitmore, who has submitted several plans in recent years to develop about 170 acres in Burbank. The City Council has not approved any of his proposals.

The council last year rejected Whitmore’s plan to put 33 single-family homes on the 61-acre parcel in Craig Canyon. Council members said the development would ruin the environment.

Whitmore was then rebuffed when he offered to sell the 61 acres to the city for $1.36 million and donate another 18 to 20 acres of hillside. Negotiations broke off after the city offered $575,000.

Two alternatives were submitted by Whitmore after the rejection of the 33-home plan. One was for a 17-lot development, the other for a 15-lot development. Both plans met the design codes and were approved by city planners.

But City Atty. Douglas C. Holland said that in March, before those plans reached the City Council, Whitmore offered to sell the land.

An updated appraisal of the property was conducted, he said, that determined the $1.1 million price tag.

Whitmore could not be reached for comment Friday, but Holland said that discussions between Whitmore and the city indicated that Whitmore would accept the agreement.

“It would cost $1 million just to develop that property, so Whitmore apparently decided it would be more efficient and less time-consuming just to sell the parcel,” he said.

The property is on the south slope of the Verdugo Mountains, generally north of Kenneth Road, Joaquin Drive and Hamlin Place.

Burbank was awarded a $3-million grant from the Legislature in 1985 to help it buy 185 acres of privately owned hillside, including Whitmore’s property. The money was to be matched with $3 million from the city.