Drafting Beefed-Up Code for Builders : Burbank Seeks Law to Increase Parking

The Burbank City Council on Tuesday asked that an ordinance be drawn up to require future developers of commercial property to provide larger parking areas for employees and clients.

Such an ordinance, which would require developers to provide more parking than is now called for in the city’s municipal code, would head off worsening parking problems in Burbank, council members said.

The problems have intensified because of increased development of office buildings and large apartment buildings near single-family housing, city officials said.

“The new projects being built haven’t provided enough parking, and employees and customers are being forced to park on residential streets,” said William Kelly, the city’s community development director.

The Media District, headquarters of many motion picture, television and recording studios, is one of the worst problem areas in the city, officials said. The district is next to single-family neighborhoods.

Jeff Richmond, the city’s senior planner, said that, because dense commercial development surrounds the district, homeowners have to compete for a few parking spaces.

“When a new project is proposed, parking is the impact most residents are concerned with,” he said.

The council told the city staff it wants to increase parking at banks, gymnasiums and public places such as stadiums and theaters. The council also asked the staff to look into instituting tandem parking--in which cars are parked one behind another--at smaller commercial buildings.

For instance, the council said, it wants the code requirement for parking spaces at gyms increased from two per 1,000 square feet of floor area to 5.4 per 1,000 square feet.

Homeowners have complained that employees working in retail and office buildings are parking on neighborhood streets to avoid paying parking fees. Residential apartment builders have also failed to provide enough garage parking for tenants, homeowners have said.

Several months ago, the city launched a study on changing the city’s parking requirements, which have not been revised since 1967.

Several Burbank developers have maintained that existing requirements are adequate. They say that further requirements would force them to sacrifice floor area for parking spaces.

“This is a knee-jerk reaction to what the council perceives as too much growth in the city,” said Thomas Tunnicliffe, one of Burbank’s major developers.

Tunnicliffe said that adding parking restrictions to the municipal code would force commercial developers to build smaller buildings or leave out decorative features and landscaping.

“There are just going to be square box buildings,” he said.