Burbank Takes Step for Growth Control

The Burbank City Council has voted to adopt new design standards for apartment and condominium buildings despite protests from residents and developers.

The council voted 3 to 2 late Tuesday to tentatively approve the design standards recommended by the city Planning Department. Council members Mary Lou Howard and Tim Murphy cast the dissenting votes, saying the council should take more time to evaluate the proposed requirements.

The council is expected to take a final vote at its meeting next Tuesday.

Measure One, a controlled-growth ordinance passed by voters in February, calls for the council to establish design standards to force developers to reduce the size of large residential buildings and make them more compatible with their surroundings.

But many residents complained that the proposed standards will not protect their single-family neighborhoods, which they say are besieged by traffic, pollution and noise from development.

“We’re not getting what we voted for,” said Raymond Lambert, 62, a member of the Burbank Rancho Homeowners. “They’re making this a developer’s paradise.”

Some of the design standards include limiting the height of new apartment buildings to 23 feet if they adjoin single-family neighborhoods. The same buildings would have to be set back the same distance from the street as the adjacent houses; construction would be limited to 60% of a lot’s area, and at least 25% of a lot would have to be landscaped.

Lambert and several other members of the Burbank homeowners’ group said the council should limit the number of building permits issued. They said the city also should tighten controls on commercial and industrial development, which are not addressed in Measure One.

Some developers argued that the standards are too stringent and will cause rents to skyrocket and property values to drop.

Councilman Thomas E. Flavin, however, defended the design standards.

“I don’t think people who voted for Measure One wanted to put a stop to all residential development,” Flavin said. “I think they wanted fewer projects and less density. I think these design standards are the first step in that process.”