BURBANK : New Image Sought for Magnolia Park

An advisory committee created when the city of Burbank and residents clashed last year over traffic and parking problems in Magnolia Park is now tackling a somewhat loftier issue: how to improve the neighborhood’s image.

At the prompting of the 14-member Magnolia Park Citizens Advisory Committee--a group of merchants, residents and transportation and traffic experts--the city will mail 2,000 surveys to residents next week to try to gauge what is needed to revitalize the area.

“We’ve gone from a confrontational situation to a cooperative situation,” Dr. David Gordon, a local optometrist, said of the relationship between the neighborhood and the city. Gordon, who last year watched with suspicion as the city considered widening some intersections of Hollywood Way, is now chairman of the citizens advisory committee.

The plans for the street widening angered residents and merchants who worried that it would mean losing parking and business. The outrage prompted the city to form the committee to study how best to spend $3.4 million in transportation funds to improve the traffic flow. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is providing half of the funding.

Two versions of the surveys will be mailed Wednesday, one for merchants and the other for residents who live near the Magnolia Park business district, said Greg Herrmann, the city’s project planner for the Magnolia Park committee. The survey will solicit suggestions on improving the area, ask what businesses are needed, and inquire about the effect traffic has on the neighborhood.

“We’re trying to revitalize and improve the Magnolia Park district of Burbank,” said Gordon, who now applauds the attention the city is giving the neighborhood. “We’re trying to create a new atmosphere in the community, so instead of losing businesses and having business decay, we’re trying to put in a stimuli, a directed and planned method of improving the community.”

The city has scheduled two workshops to solicit public comment. They will be held April 7 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., and April 9 from 9 to 11 a.m. at Luther Burbank Middle School.