Encino Residents Want Their Way, Seek to Block Restaurant

For some Encino residents, “having it your way” means not having it at all.

A group of homeowners is protesting a proposal to build a Burger King near them on a vacant lot at the northwest corner of Ventura Boulevard and Gloria Avenue.

“We just cannot have it,” said Marilyn Carrabino, who lives on Gloria about a block from the site. “It’s going to cause enormous problems.”

The proposal has drawn a smorgasbord of objections--from worries that increased traffic will lower property values to fears that the neighborhood will smell of french fry grease.

But Burger King proponents said the restaurant is a whopper of a good idea.

“This kind of restaurant is a convenience to people, especially children and younger people in a neighborhood, and it’s affordable,” said Victor Newlove, the architect designing the project for Cimms Inc., which runs more than 20 Burger King franchises. “I think a community is making a tremendous mistake in omitting affordable food in an area.”

Not that there’s an absence of foodstuffs. A spot check of Ventura Boulevard for five blocks on either side of the proposed Burger King found more than 30 eateries. Nonetheless, several people dining at restaurants nearby said they would welcome a Burger King.

“The only other Burger King is in Tarzana and the other’s in Van Nuys, and there’s nothing in Encino besides McDonald’s,” said Donna Lorber, 14, of Encino. Lorber said she would rather visit Burger King than International House of Pancakes, where she was eating.

As proposed, the 3,164-square-foot Burger King would have two entrances and two exits on Gloria and one exit for drive-through customers on Ventura, Newlove said. A patio skirted by wrought-iron trellises and festooned with bougainvillea would provide another area for dining on the 27,000-square-foot lot. A children’s play area with a jungle gym is also proposed.

The proposal is still in the early stages and the architect plans to discuss it with homeowners. But the project already faces several obstacles.

For one thing, he said, Cimms will seek an exception to the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan--passed in January, 1991, to control growth along the busy thoroughfare. Los Angeles officials said the plan allows only developments that cater to pedestrian use in the area and does not classify restaurants as such.

Homeowner groups along the boulevard are staunch supporters of the specific plan and have vowed to oppose most proposals counter to the plan.

Burger King faces residents with a number of beefs. More than 20 members of Homeowners of Encino have formed a committee to oppose the project.

Many neighbors said they have been besieged in past years by development, including the six-story, 400,000-square-foot Fujita Corp. building, which overshadowed houses when it was built on the north side of Ventura Boulevard between Densmore and Gloria avenues. The homes were later bought by Valley Beth Shalom synagogue and torn down for a parking lot.

Now, many neighbors worry that the Burger King will disrupt the flow of traffic on congested Ventura Boulevard as well as routing additional traffic through residential areas, Carrabino said.

Joyce Kishiness, who lives near the site, put her house up for sale Wednesday, saying that noise from construction, playing children and additional traffic would prevent her from getting the sleep she needs because she has multiple sclerosis. “You used to hear the birds sing, and now all you’re going to hear is cars,” she said.

Leah K. Cohen has her own reason for asking the builders to hold the restaurant, please.

“They don’t change the oil they cook the french fries in,” said Cohen, who lives nearby. “You drive by any fast-food joint and you can smell it.”