18-Story NBC Plaza Gets Tentative OK at Burbank Hearing : Development: Opponents tell the City Council the project would create too much traffic. Others contend the effects will be eased.

The Burbank City Council on Tuesday tentatively approved a proposed 18-story development by NBC Studios that city officials say would become one of the most distinctive projects in the city.

The council’s vote followed a lengthy public hearing at Burbank City Hall at which residents expressed opposition and support for the project, known as atNBC Plaza.

Council members voted unanimously to approve the project after the developers, NBC and Cushman Investment and Development Corp., agreed to reduce the height of the two office buildings, which had originally been planned as 21-story and 18-story towers.

Councilman Robert R. Bowne called the project, “a beautiful complex that will be an asset to Burbank.”

Several residents who spoke at the hearing attended by more than 100 people said they felt that the project was too massive and would bring too much noise and traffic to nearby neighborhoods.

But others argued that NBC was providing landscaping and distinctive features, such as fountains and terraced balconies, that would lessen the impact of the project.

The project was the first major development to be considered by the council since its adoption in December of the Media District Specific Plan, a growth-control ordinance for an area of southwestern Burbank dominated by movie and television studios.

The development will consist of an 18-story office building and a 15-story office building, connected by a two-story atrium containing stores and restaurants. The location would be a 4.4-acre triangle of land bounded by Olive Avenue on the northwest, California Street on the northeast and the Ventura Freeway on the south.

City officials said extensive landscaping and features such as fountains and terraced pavilions would make the complex “the focal point” of the Media District.

The Media District Specific Plan, designed to strike a compromise between residents living adjacent to the area and the studios, imposed some of the most restrictive limits in the state, if not the country, city officials said.

The plan usually restricts developers to only one square foot of floor area for every square foot of property. The plan also places height limits on buildings closer to residential neighborhoods and a maximum height limit of 15 stories on most new buildings.

Taller buildings--such as the proposed NBC Plaza--must be approved under a conditional use permit, which requires public hearings before the planning board and the City Council. Developers who want to exceed the 15-story limit must provide “super-enhancement” qualities such as open space, increased parking and day-care centers.

Tuesday night’s action was the final such hearing for the NBC project, but the council still must grant formal approval in another vote.