Homeowner Groups Find Strength in Numbers : Organizing: Burbank’s multiplying collections of disgruntled homeowner groups don’t agree on much, but they’re united in dissatisfaction.

Until recently, David Gordon, a Burbank optometrist, had never been to a City Council meeting.

That changed in December when Gordon, a city resident for seven years, learned from a member of a local homeowner group that Hollywood Way, the street his business is on, might be widened.

Incensed, Gordon set about organizing merchants along the thoroughfare to oppose the possible widening and has taken his case to City Hall. He said he fears that such an action would severely limit parking for his customers.

“It’s a direct threat to my business and other businesses along this street,” said Gordon, who named his new group Citizens Against Rapid Overdevelopment in Burbank. “I’m speaking up because I directly stand to lose if the city goes through with this.”

Gordon is one of a growing number of people in the community who have chosen to speak up. In the last year, the number of large homeowner and community groups in Burbank has doubled from four to eight, with the number likely to increase in the near future. And their presence is beginning to change the long-stable equation in city politics.

“This is the largest movement of homeowner groups forming into a political entity in the history of Burbank,” said Wally Berns, founding member of the Burbank Flatlanders Home Protection League and the All City Coalition, an umbrella organization for many of the neighborhood groups.

“I’ve never heard of so many groups banding together,” Berns said. “I think it has caused the City Council to wake up to the fact that they can’t do anything anymore without being accountable to the residents.”

Most of the groups are well organized and sophisticated in their approach to the issues. Members often devote hours to poring over city documents and consulting with attorneys about specific legal points, before addressing the council on a matter. Their diligence may be due in part to the fact that many of the group leaders have backgrounds in law and planning.

David Golonski, who heads up the slow-growth group Enough is Enough, has a degree in the political economy of natural resources from UC Berkeley; Michael Scandiffio, an outspoken member of the Burbank Rancho Homeowners group, is a licensed architect; and Phil Berlin, who with his wife, Carolyn, recently formed the Verdugo Magnolia Park Homeowners group, is a labor attorney.

Most of the groups have specific agendas. The Burbank Flatlanders’ primary concern is expansion of the Burbank Airport; the Burbank Rancho Assn. focuses on preserving the equestrian atmosphere of the neighborhood near Griffith Park; Enough is Enough works on slow-growth and the preservation of single-family neighborhoods.

Concerns about development and resulting increases in traffic, noise, pollution and crime are the key elements that unite these groups. Their concerns were underscored in last year’s election when voters overwhelmingly approved Measure One, an ordinance that supporters hope will tighten controls on development.

But many residents said the ordinance has since been watered down by the City Council, which many activists have deemed pro-development.

“I think the presence of so many homeowner groups reflects the dissatisfaction that the electorate has with the City Council,” Berlin said. “I’m a labor attorney. People join unions because they feel like management is not listening to them. That’s basically why we have so many homeowner groups.”

Not all the groups share similar goals. Some members of the Burbank Rancho Homeowners, which was formed in 1963 and is the oldest neighborhood group in the city, decided to split off last summer and form their own organization called the Burbank Rancho Assn. Inc.

Members of the new group said they wanted to concentrate on protecting their neighborhood’s equestrian designation and not take on the rest of the city’s problems.

“Our main concern is that it’s a Rancho group,” said association member Dick Jones. “We don’t want to take up issues at the airport.”

But Scandiffio, still a member of the original Rancho group, makes no excuses for his organization’s strong activist stance on growth and other issues, including airport expansion.

“We’re concerned with citywide issues and helping others with their causes, and with them in helping us in ours,” he said. “Unity is the only way we’re going to fix Burbank.”

Scandiffio said his group’s most important achievement has been getting others--such as Gordon and the merchants along Hollywood Way--involved in the political process.

Although he doesn’t like having to devote so much of his time to the street-widening issue, Gordon said he recognizes his responsibility to be informed and to take his concerns directly to the City Council.

“Unless people organize and unite to voice their feelings and positions on issues, then they will lose control over their future,” said Gordon, who has met with some success in getting the attention of city officials.

“I don’t want to restructure Burbank or take it over or anything,” Gordon said. “I’m not a politician. I’m a professional in the community and my livelihood is threatened.”

His group has persuaded City Manager Robert (Bud) Ovrom and city staff members to meet with them in an informal question and answer session regarding the proposed widening of Hollywood Way. The meeting, on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the auditorium at Robert Louis Stevenson School, is open to the public.

Ovrom said the central issue in the matter seems to be parking and he believes the city and the merchants can work out a reasonable solution.

Ovrom said he welcomed and encouraged the formation of such groups as Citizens Against Rapid Overdevelopment in Burbank because it provides a more efficient means of communication between city officials and residents.

“It’s a much more effective way of doing things,” Ovrom said. “There are 93,000 people in Burbank. Obviously, we can’t have a one-on-one with each resident. This saves time.”

Some leaders of neighborhood organizations have come under fire from city officials, who accuse them of using their positions to grandstand and build a power base for political purposes.

When Michael Scandiffio declared at a recent City Council meeting that Burbank should be called the “Developer’s Republic of Burbank,” Mayor Robert R. Bowne shot back that the remark sounded like the makings of a good campaign speech.

Scandiffio, however, denies having any political ambitions. “I’m mad about what city officials are doing to this city,” he said. “It’s a matter of principles.”

Berns and other neighborhood leaders said they are not surprised about the criticisms directed at them.

“I’m not after publicity,” said Berns, a television and motion picture actor. “I’ve got enough credits on films. I’m just after protecting our homes, and getting others off their duffs and getting them involved with what’s going on around them. We’re just putting a bee in the bonnet, so to speak.”

There may be more beehives forming.

Robert Olson, a lawyer who lives in the Burbank-Toluca Lake area, said he is also considering forming his own neighborhood group because of proposed development in the city’s Media District. The district, dominated by several motion picture and television studios, is a 1.2-square-mile area in the southwest corner of Burbank.

All of the studios--including NBC, Warner Bros. and the Walt Disney Co.--have said they intend to expand their facilities.

The concern about increased development in the area, coupled with a feeling that the council is not responding, has Olson and his neighbors seeking expression of their views in the same way hundreds of others have: formation of another neighborhood group.

“It’s a sign of frustration,” Olson said.

Councilman Tim Murphy, who along with Councilman Michael Hastings was a member of the now-defunct Neighborhood Awareness Committee, said he empathizes with the concerns being raised.

“What seems to surprise some members of the City Council is that these groups don’t seem to go away,” Murphy said. “I don’t think they’re going to go away. Growth was the number one issue in the election, and I don’t know why anyone should be surprised that it’s still the number one issue.”

MAJOR HOMEOWNERS/NEIGHBORHOOD GROUPS Burbank Rancho Homeowners: Formed in 1963, it is the oldest neighborhood group in the city. Has a membership of about 200. Primary concern is slow-growth, especially in city’s Media District.

Hillside Homeowners: Formed in February 1989. Has no formal membership enrollment, but organizers say they represent several hundred households. Primary concern is development in the hillside areas.

The Burbank Mountain Reserve Protection Assn.: Formed in 1984. Has a membership of more than 500. Primary concern is development on mountainside areas.

Burbank Flatlanders Home Protection League: Formed in 1988. Has a membership of more than 200. Primary concern is expansion of the Burbank Airport.

Burbank Rancho Assn.: Formed in 1989. Has a membership of about 200. Primary concern is preservation of equestrian designation for their neighborhood.

Enough is Enough: Formed in 1989. Has a membership of about 200. Primary concern is slow-growth and the preservation of single-family neighborhoods.

Verdugo Magnolia Park Homeowners: Newly formed group. Primary concern is slow-growth.

Citizens Against Rapid Overdevelopment in Burbank: Newly formed. Primary concern is proposed widening of Hollywood Way.