BURBANK : Developer Seeks City Parcel for Wetlands

The developer of a controversial tract of 129 luxury homes in the Verdugo Mountains wants to use city property to replace federally protected wetlands that would be destroyed in his project.

Sherman Whitmore, developer of the Burbank Hills project, asked the Burbank City Council to rescind a 3-year-old resolution that prohibits the relocation of wetlands onto city property. Whitmore has been fighting environmentalists and hillside residents for nine years to get the project built.

As part of an agreement with state and federal environmental agencies, Whitmore must rebuild 3.5 acres of wetlands. Unless he can use city property, he will have to build the wetlands outside of Burbank, he said.

“I can’t see the point of destroying something nature made and move it to a location where it would be man-made,” said Rory Zipp, one of several Burbank residents who on Tuesday again voiced disapproval of the project.

Whitmore’s request is an attempt to amend a set of 112 conditions imposed on the project when it was approved in 1987. Councilman Dave Golonski came out strongly against allowing Whitmore to convert the city lands in Stough Canyon to wetlands, saying it meant effectively relinquishing city title to the property, but the rest of the council had mixed feelings on the issue.

The council voted 4 to 0, with Bob Bowne absent, to have staff draw up a resolution approving Whitmore’s request, but Mayor George Battey Jr. and Councilwoman Susan Spanos said they were undecided about the issue.

The council did reject 3 to 1, with Battey dissenting, Whitmore’s plan to use aboveground water reservoirs rather than below-ground structures that had been required under the original terms of the approval. Whitmore also withdrew a request that the city drop a required emergency access road for the property.