Company’s Plan to Rent Trucks Protested

Upset by what it says are the unneighborly practices of a local storage company, the Tarzana Property Owners Assn. has filed its second appeal in two months to protest plans by the company to rent moving trucks from one of its facilities.

In its latest move, the association is appealing a zoning board decision to allow Public Storage Inc. to rent trucks from an existing storage building at 18440 Burbank Blvd.

In August, the association appealed a similar decision that would permit the company to rent trucks from a planned facility at the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Vanalden Avenue.

“The conditions that allowed a storage facility to be built there seven years ago were very stringent,” said association President Helen Itrea Norman, referring to the Burbank Boulevard site. “Since Public Storage bought it, they have paid no attention to those restrictions.”

Among other violations, Norman said, the company has neglected to maintain landscaping, has added signage and used the facility to store trucks--even before it was granted a zoning variance to do so.

“If you go by there today, you see a lot of banners and pendants. It’s unsightly,” said George Moss, who owns three buildings in the area and who has supported the association’s appeal.

Public Storage’s vice president Hugh Horne acknowledged that his company inadvertently violated some of the original conditions, but said that it was working to correct any problems.

“We were not initially aware of those conditions, but we are trying to be good neighbors,” Horne said. “In the end, we will either get the permits to conduct our business the way we want or we will discontinue those operations.”

The Board of Zoning Appeals will hear the association’s appeal concerning the Burbank Boulevard facility on Sept. 30.

A hearing related to the proposed Ventura Boulevard facility will be heard Tuesday.

That project has also drawn the opposition of Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who has said that a storage building would be an inappropriate use of the tree-shaded property, which for more than 50 years has been the home of Garden Statuary.