Plan Aims to Put New Life in Old Magnolia Park : Neighborhood: Panel of local residents, merchants has developed a blueprint for revitalization of the district that lacks specialty stores, clubs, restaurants.

The city’s old Magnolia Park district between Burbank Airport and three major studios is primarily a residential community with a glut of liquor stores, fast-food restaurants and dry cleaners.

With several businesses still boarded up as a result of the Northridge earthquake, residents have a tough time finding a decent restaurant nearby and a place to shop for something special.

“Some [businesses] are barely surviving, others are doing OK, but all could benefit from some attention and revitalization,” said Carolyn Berlin, co-founder of the Verdugo-Magnolia Park Homeowners Assn. and a member of the city’s planning board.

“We’re hoping that by focusing on what’s missing, we can bring it back to life again.”

What’s missing from Magnolia Park these days are restaurants, specialty stores and live-entertainment clubs that could rejuvenate the once-bustling district, according to a report by a committee of residents and merchants in the area.

In an attempt to re-create Magnolia Park’s heyday, the committee has developed a plan for luring new businesses to the area, as well as a well-heeled lunchtime crowd from the nearby studios.

The plan calls for, among other things, improving facades of existing buildings with new paint and signs, and establishing a voluntary group of merchants in Magnolia Park to help find and encourage new businesses to move into the area.

Magnolia Park is bounded by the city’s Media District to the south, North Hollywood to the west, and Vanowen and Buena Vista streets to the north and east.

Residents and city officials say they do not want Magnolia Park to become a popular nighttime draw like Old Pasadena or the downtown Burbank Village, but rather a version of Larchmont Village in Hancock Park with practical goods and services located within walking distance.

“The neighborhood is not interested in making this a regional attraction,” said City Planner Rick Pruetz. “The intent is to re-create what was at one time a thriving neighborhood shopping district.”

From the 1950s to 1970s, some say, Magnolia Park was Burbank’s premier shopping destination with a wide variety of stores and restaurants on just about every corner of the area’s major thoroughfares.

The district’s fortunes reportedly began to turn for the worse in the late 1970s with the advent of shopping malls and increased use of automobiles, giving the area’s residents more options to buy elsewhere.

In addition, the Northridge earthquake hit the district harder than anywhere else in the city, forcing the demolition of nearly an entire block of stores and offices and leaving several businesses stores boarded up more than a year later.

The committee’s report estimates that the district’s 13,867 residents will spend up to $135.7 million on goods and services in a given year, money that could be going to businesses in Magnolia Park.