BURBANK : Council Delays Vote on Zoning Overhaul

At the request of school officials, the Burbank City Council has delayed action on a plan for a major overhaul of zoning restrictions to encourage more building.

The plan, supported by some council members as an antidote to the depressed local economy, would ease height and lot restrictions to allow greater building density.

“There are very few schools that would not be impacted by lessening these regulations,” said Vivian Kaufman, president of the Burbank Unified School District board.

Kaufman said city studies already predict 20 new single-family homes and 9,773 more multifamily units by the year 2010. That growth would affect Joaquin Miller and Ralph Waldo Emerson elementary schools as well as John Muir Middle School, each already at capacity or too crowded.

“I’m not looking for growth to be stopped,” said Kaufman, who asked for discussions with school officials before further action by the council.

The council agreed to wait.

City officials had cited a three-year drought in housing development as the motive behind creating the new development incentives, which include cutting open space from 200 to 150 square feet per unit and allowing taller buildings.

“You can’t build a wall around your community and say people can’t come here to live,” said Vice Mayor George Battey.

“The population is going to continue to grow whether we adopt these standards or not,” Battey said. “We have to plan for the future, and we can’t do it by building a wall around the community.”

But Councilman Tim Murphy opposed them. “When these are built, are these things that we will be proud of?” Murphy asked. “I say ‘No.’ ”

Some residents suggested that the council lacks the authority to revise existing restrictions on development, which were passed four years ago by voters.