Street Barriers Don’t Block Residents’ Heated Debate : Burbank: One side says speeding motorists have been stopped. Others claim they themselves have been.

The Battle of the Barricades reached the Burbank City Council on Thursday in a heated meeting dominated by Toluca Lake residents quarreling over street barriers designed to block commuter shortcuts.

Many of those in the crowd of more than 200 at Stevenson Elementary School said the temporary wooden barricades had been effective in stopping motorists from speeding through their residential neighborhoods. Before the barriers were erected as an experiment, they said, motorists had used the streets as shortcuts and alternatives to crowded major avenues surrounding their community such as Olive and Pass avenues and Riverside Drive.

“Since the temporary barriers went up, I’ve seen many small children playing in the streets,” said Cathy Fogel, a four-year resident of Toluca Lake. “Before that, children were not visible at all because of the unsafe conditions. I would see neighborhood pets run over and stop signs ignored.”

Others complained that the barriers were unnecessary and should be taken down, arguing that they stymie residents trying to maneuver in their own neighborhoods, and that angry commuters do not stop in any case, driving through them or around them onto lawns and driveways.

“We live in the United States,” said Michael Eskenaci, who has lived in the area for eight years. “This is a free country. Why would we block the roads?”

The residential area, composed mostly of single-family homes, is next to the Media District, dominated by the headquarters of several motion picture and television studios.

Some residents had complained for years that residential streets in their neighborhoods had become dangerously fast-moving thoroughfares, and had pleaded with the city to put in some kind of speed control.

The barricades were erected in January as part of an experimental program to gauge the effect that permanent blockades would have on traffic in the area. But city, police and fire officials said in a report released last week that the barriers should be taken down and that alternative traffic control measures--such as stop signs or speed bumps--would be more effective.

The report said that it had become too expensive to replace barriers wrecked by angry motorists and that permanent closures could bring lawsuits against the city if they delayed police, fire or ambulance services in emergencies.

Department of Public Works Director Ora Lampman also said the cost of installing and maintaining permanent cul-de-sacs might be too high. The council meeting was held in the school to accommodate the large crowd expected to debate the heated neighborhood issue.