Burbank to Limit Growth in Media Area : Development: Some call the high-rise plan one of the most restrictive in Southern California, while others say it does not go far enough.

After five years of study and debate, Burbank city officials Wednesday outlined a plan to control growth in the city’s Media District, fast emerging as one of the country’s largest centers of entertainment-oriented industries.

Although city and studio officials called the Media District Specific Plan one of the most restrictive in Southern California, homeowners complained that it does not do enough to control the encroachment of commercial and industrial development into their neighborhoods--resurrecting the disagreements that have kept the plan tied up in hearings since the mid-1980s.

Home to such studios as Disney, Warner Brothers and NBC, the Media District grew largely uncontrolled during the early 1980s, transforming the often joked-about but virtually non-existent “Beautiful Downtown Burbank” into an attractive commercial strip. The district’s glass-and-steel high-rise office buildings each day attract about 20,000 people employed by the studios and other entertainment businesses that straddle the Ventura Freeway in southwest Burbank.

But the growth has been felt by residents of nearby neighborhoods. Their quiet, tree-lined streets have become virtual freeways during rush hour, and tall buildings have decimated the country-like atmosphere of upper-middle-class neighborhoods such as Toluca Lake and the Burbank Rancho.

“During the early 1980s, there was a tremendous influx of high-density, high-rise office buildings,” City Manager Robert (Bud) Ovrom said. “Quite frankly, not enough thought was given to the cumulative effects of all those buildings combined.”

If approved by the City Council later this fall, the Media District Specific Plan will become the blueprint for future development on the 557 acres in the southwest corner of Burbank. The plan would impose height limits, density restrictions and design standards on new construction and would seek to protect nearby residential neighborhoods from commercial and industrial intrusion. It would encourage the use of alternative transportation and would require companies to reduce by 38% the auto traffic they generate over the next 20 years.

At the same time, however, the plan would encourage enough growth to keep the district an attractive location for the studios and other entertainment-oriented industries that are its largest tenants.

City officials, faced with the departure of Lockheed Corp., have taken an active role in making the city attractive to business, a sore point with some homeowners who claim that they are being sold out.

Many residents interviewed Wednesday complained that the plan is not restrictive enough. They said the city’s plans for the Media District pay lip service to controlling development, but actually will increase traffic to gridlock levels and destroy the surrounding neighborhoods of single-family houses.

“It is really a placebo to make everyone feel good,” homeowner Robert Olson said of the plan.

City and studio officials acknowledged that the plan, hammered out during five years of hearings, is less than perfect. It is the best compromise between the needs of business looking to expand and the concerns of homeowners wanting to protect their quiet streets, they said.

“It’s the best plan we could hope for because no one is ecstatic about it,” said Jack O’Neill, vice president of real estate and facilities planning for NBC.

The plan seeks to unite the different elements of the district, which is dissected by the Ventura Freeway and lies roughly between Buena Vista Street and Clybourn Avenue. Commercial construction would line Olive Avenue from the middle of the district--known as Media Center and located between Hollywood Way, Alameda and Olive avenues, California Street and the Ventura Freeway. Industrial uses would be reserved for the studio lots. Peppered throughout are several apartment complexes.

Pedestrian traffic would be encouraged throughout the district with the construction of plazas. City planners especially want to maintain heavy pedestrian use of Riverside Drive.

The plan would impose a height limit of 205 feet on new construction that receives a conditional-use permit. Buildings without a conditional-use permit would be under 35 feet in height.

In addition, the plan would limit the floor area ratio of new construction. For example, an 11,000-square-foot building could be built on a 10,000-square-foot lot. However, denser projects would be allowed near Media Center. Even so, a building similar to the Tower-Burbank, which has a floor area seven times larger than the property on which it sits, would be prohibited.

Studios would also be impacted, but some officials said Wednesday that the plan’s publication will allow them to proceed with projects that have been put on hold.

Alan Epstein, vice president of Disney Development Co., said all Disney projects in Burbank have been delayed for five years as the company waited to find out what restrictions the plan would impose. O’Neill said NBC has delayed development of its 800,000-square-foot NBC Plaza for at least a year.

In an effort to strike a balance between the needs of business and the concerns of residents, the plan includes a neighborhood protection plan intended to preserve nearby residential streets that are not formally within the boundaries of the district.

Several would be barricaded to create cul-de-sacs that would divert drivers looking for shortcuts to Olive and Alameda avenues and Riverside Drive. Traffic on some residential streets has increased threefold in the past five years.

At a City Council meeting last month, about 50 residents applauded the plan to barricade their streets. Many said they have been afraid to let pets and children play outside for fear that they would be hit.

In addition, office buildings within the Media District would be required to stairstep away from residential neighborhoods. For instance, buildings within 50 feet of a single-family house must be under 25 feet high, while buildings 150 feet away could be up to 35 feet.