Some Residents Pan City’s Video About Area Plan : Burbank: A work billed as an explanation of the Media District development proposal is criticized as a one-sided attempt to sell the project, which neighbors oppose.

A video circulating around Burbank lately is getting some people all steamed up.

No, Madonna isn’t in it. There are no sex scenes and no rock scores. It does use a few special effects, but not many.

The stars are a bunch of men in suits talking about buildings.

Despite its low-key images, the video is among one of the more popular requests at the Burbank Central Library, and the city’s public access channels show it regularly. Folks all over town are talking about it, and several people are angry.

The 35-minute video is a city-financed “newsletter” to explain the complicated Media District Specific Plan, a proposed growth-control guideline scheduled for a Tuesday vote by the Burbank City Council after more than six years of arguments, studies, haggling and complaints by developers, business owners and residents.

The Media District, dominated by several motion picture and television studios, is a 1.2-square-mile area in the southwest corner of the city that has become a battleground. On one side are property owners who want to continue developing. On the other side are residents who live in neighborhoods surrounding the district and who contend that they are already being overrun by high-rise buildings.

Officials say the video, which was put together by the city’s Communications Department at a cost of about $6,000, was made to explain the ins and outs of the proposal and was designed to be objective. But some residents have attacked the video as a one-sided “puff piece” that goes out of its way to downplay the effects of the plan on the adjacent neighborhoods.

“It’s ridiculous how one-sided this thing is,” said Carolyn Berlin of the city’s Verdugo-Magnolia Park Homeowners Assn. The organization doesn’t believe that the plan goes far enough in restricting future development.

“The entire video would leave you to believe that the only way Burbank will survive or remain vital is for this plan to be approved,” she said. “It’s really pitiful. It’s leading people to believe there will be quiet residential streets in Burbank if the council passes this. That’s a total untruth.”

Dianne Adams, another longtime resident, called the video a “well-done piece that should have showed both sides of the issue, since it was paid for by the taxpayers.”

In the beginning of the video, city Public Information Officer Larry H. Johnson narrates over scenes of the city that “Burbank has long enjoyed an excellent quality of life, a strong economy based on clean industry and a high level of services. . . . The Media District Specific Plan was formulated to protect that quality of life, with special attention to our neighborhoods.”

In another segment, City Planner Rick Pruetz stands in front of a high-rise building and says, “Almost anyone can get to like a high-rise building if it’s properly located and well-designed.” A resident who helped formulate the plan said the city should implement it immediately. An executive from Warner Bros. Studios, which is in the district, called the plan a good compromise.

Assistant City Manager Steve Helvey denied that the city deliberately slanted the video to show the positive aspects of the plan. He said it was designed to be objective.

“It was not intended to show a worst-case scenario or a doomsday look at what would happen,” he said. “It’s not meant to be overly optimistic, but it’s not overly pessimistic either.”