Studios, Residents Clash Over Burbank Growth

Burbank homeowners and film studio executives faced off at a Burbank City Council meeting Tuesday night over proposals to control growth in the city’s Media District.

Studio executives asked the council for more flexibility to develop their facilities, while homeowners complained that the restrictions on development contained in the proposed Media District Specific Plan will not adequately protect their neighborhoods from increased traffic, air pollution and noise.

“People don’t want to look out their front windows and see massive high-rises,” said Ted McConkey, a member of the Burbank Rancho Homeowners. “We’re asking that no building in the Media District be more than five stories in height.”

Jack O’Neill, vice president of real estate for NBC, said the studios should be allowed to build up to 20 stories high.

“The five-story restriction is an extreme position, which I think would just cut off development completely in the city of Burbank,” O’Neill said. “The studios have a special role and a special economic base in the city and the Specific Plan should respect that.”

More than 100 people attended the meeting, at which the council was to consider the proposed Media District Specific Plan. When the plan reaches its final form, after a process that includes revisions, an environmental impact report and more public hearings, it will guide development in the Media District.

The district, dominated by several motion picture and television studios, is a 1.2-square mile area bordered roughly by the Ventura Freeway, Oak Street, Keystone Street and Clybourne Avenue.

Studio executives argue that they need to build more office and studio space to keep up with competitive demands. But homeowners complain that the studio properties are already overdeveloped.

All the studios that have offices there have said they want to expand their facilities. The Burbank Studios, which include Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures, want to build almost 3.8 million square feet of space. NBC and Walt Disney each want to build 1.4 million square feet.

For the past three years, Burbank officials have been attempting to formulate a plan that will accommodate those landowners who want to develop their properties as well as nearby residents determined to keep noise, traffic and pollution from overwhelming their neighborhoods.

Included in the proposed Media District Specific Plan is what city officials say may be one of the strictest building controls in the state. Under that provision, developers might be allowed to build only one square foot of floor area for every square foot of property they control.

Height limits on high-rises are also being considered, and developers who want to build structures more than 35 feet high might have to apply for conditional-use permits, which would require them to hold public hearings.

The Burbank Rancho Homeowners has also called for developers to be assessed a special “neighborhood preservation fee” of $1.50 per square foot of office and commercial space. The money would be used to mitigate increased traffic, noise and other problems caused by the new development.