Burbank Council Rejects Mariposa Storage Project

The Burbank City Council on Tuesday night turned down a proposal to put a public-storage facility in the middle of a neighborhood dominated by the homes of families who own horses.

Developer John C. Bell has been trying for several years to build the facility in an area known as the “Mariposa Triangle.” The 10-acre area has been zoned for light-industrial use since 1955, but the adjacent property is zoned for single-family homes where horses can be kept.

Several members of an overflow crowd pleaded with the council not to allow Bell to build the facility, which would have housed 1,850 storage lockers. Dennis Jackson, who lives in the area, said the community had been zoned light industrial to accommodate the horse stables.

“This is light industrial, but we know it shouldn’t be light industrial,” Jackson said. “There will be consequences if we allow it to be light industrial.”

Appeal in Limbo

The city’s Planning Board turned down Bell’s request in October, 1986, and he appealed that decision to the City Council. The appeal was put in limbo while city officials considered a compromise between Bell and area residents.

For several months, city planners had tried to negotiate a land swap with Bell and some of the other property owners in the triangle. The swap would have given them land in Burbank’s redevelopment area in exchange for their property.

But the council rejected that option earlier this month as being too costly for the city.

Residents have maintained that Bell’s project would ruin the community’s equestrian atmosphere. Since the area near the triangle is dominated by single-family homes where horses can be kept, the city staff had recommended that it be zoned equestrian-residential, but the council rejected that proposal Tuesday night.

Another Project?

Bell told the council Tuesday night that he would consider putting another kind of light-industrial project on the property. But, he said, it would not be economically advantageous for him to be forced to put a residential-equestrian facility there.

The triangle is bordered by Riverside Drive and the Equestrian Inn on the north, Mariposa Street on the west, the Los Angeles Equestrian Center on the east and the Los Angeles River on the south.

The 3.6-acre property where Bell wants to put the 147,700-square-foot public-storage facility is the site of a horse-boarding business.

Bell’s proposal did not meet city parking requirements and, therefore, needed a variance.