Burbank’s Face Lift Isn’t Painless

Burbank once was so uncool, Johnny Carson regularly lampooned it on late-night TV.

For decades “beautiful downtown Burbank,” as Carson mockingly called the city, was a sleepy bedroom community on the other side of the hills from Hollywood and a world away from the show-biz glitz. Although home to several major movie and TV studios, including the one where Carson taped his show, the city retained a decidedly suburban, working-class feel.

Many of the starter homes that lined Burbank’s tree-lined streets were originally inhabited by factory workers at Lockheed Martin.

But over the last decade or so, the once dominant aerospace economy has faded, and more entertainment industry jobs have moved in. With this evolution, the city’s landscape has changed -- and not everyone is happy about it.

It started in the early 1990s downtown, where the once sleepy row of mom-and-pop shops have been transformed into a huge retail center that includes department stores, dozens of movie screens, upscale restaurants and an enclosed mall.

Now the city is trying to create more urban-style high-rise condos downtown and in the Media district around the Disney and Warner Bros. studios. On residential streets, homeowners are tearing down modest ranchers and replacing them with much larger houses.

As housing prices in tony areas of the Westside and Hollywood Hills soar, even some entertainment-industry types who once shunned Burbank are giving it a second look, said Shelley and Christopher Rizzotti, married real estate agents who live and work in town.

“They thought Burbank was Podunkville,” Shelley Rizzotti said. “Now it’s getting a little trendy.”

Burbank is far from a media mogul hangout. But Rizzotti said the proximity to entertainment companies, coupled with the new retail attractions, is making a difference -- especially in some of Burbank’s wealthier areas.

“They can say they live in Toluca Lake, not Burbank,” she said with a laugh, referring to the upscale neighborhood where Bob Hope and Bing Crosby once lived.

But not everyone is pleased with the makeover, especially longtime residents who complain that Burbank’s small-town atmosphere is vanishing before their eyes.

“This city is not what I moved here for,” said lawyer Phil Berlin, a community activist and 24-year resident. “It’s contrary to the single-family nature that has been Burbank and should be Burbank in the future.”

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When Tracy Lynch and her husband, Patrick, first talked about moving from their small, cramped home in Burbank to a bigger place where they could raise a family, Tracy’s first instinct was to look in the Santa Clarita Valley, where homes are new and spacious. Patrick’s idea was to stay in Burbank.

In the end, he convinced her that they would be happier living close to their parents in Burbank and steering clear of crowded Interstate 5, the main artery between Santa Clarita and Greater Los Angeles that becomes unbearably congested during rush hour.

The couple had planned to remodel the small house with a pool that they bought last year on a quiet street near Toluca Lake. But after discovering that the foundation was rotting, they decided to tear it down and rebuild on the lot. They plan to move into their new two-story, 3,000-square-foot home this month with their 15-month-old daughter, Meghan.

“Some people cash out and move to Valencia, but I’d rather take that equity and buy a fixer-upper and give back to the community,” Patrick Lynch said. “I want to raise my family here and keep my money in Burbank.”

Driving down the city’s leafy residential streets lined with low-slung ranch houses, two-story Tudors and cozy bungalows, one can still see traces of the Mayberry-like town that Carson used to rib.

But in recent years, the streetscapes have become dotted with oversized houses that dwarf their neighbors’ homes.

“Mansionization” has become a hot political issue in the city of 105,000, where residents complain that super-size houses ruin the character of their neighborhoods, block their views of the Verdugo Mountains and the San Fernando Valley, and destroy their privacy.

The City Council is rewriting its building laws to better control the size and setbacks of new homes constructed on the city’s smallish residential lots.

Every resident seems to have an opinion on whether the new restrictions would help or hinder their city’s objectives.

“I understand they want to stop the box look of homes,” Patrick Lynch said. “But there has to be more of a compromise; otherwise, people are going to take their money and move to Santa Clarita.”

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Berlin and others activists have been battling plans to build a mixed-use complex of homes and retail space in an area of one-story homes in the Media district. The Burbank Media Center project would have 220 condominiums, plus retail stores, a restaurant, two parks, a church and more than 1,000 parking spaces.

Opponents say the proposed development near California 134 would destroy neighboring residents’ cherished mountain views while choking already congested city streets and ratcheting up the noise level.

But City Councilman Todd Campbell and others say that instead of contributing to the traffic crunch, mixed-use urban villages could make the city more pedestrian-friendly by integrating stores, restaurants, offices and housing into a single entity, thereby reducing residents’ dependency on cars.

Supporters of the urban village concept point to condos under construction across the street from City Hall and within walking distance of Ikea, Macy’s and the Metrolink train station. The three-story Village Walk will have stores and restaurants at ground level and 118 residential units above.

City leaders hope that those who buy homes in Village Walk, the Burbank Media Center and similar projects will work in the thriving entertainment industry, which accounts for 30% of the city’s 99,000 workers. In addition to the corporate headquarters of Disney and Warner Bros., Burbank is home to NBC Studios, ABC’s West Coast operations and numerous production offices that create movies, music and TV programming for export around the world.

Although they may disagree about the solution, many residents agree that traffic has gotten worse with the city’s improved fortunes.

“Traffic is a nightmare,” said longtime resident Marva-Lea Kornblatt, a retired city employee. “Even though some people hate to admit it, it’s because of the studios.”

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Situated at the western flank of the Verdugo Mountains, Burbank was founded in 1867 by dentist David Burbank, who bought portions of two Spanish land grants and combined them into a large ranch, where he raised sheep and built a house on what later became the Warner Bros. back lot.

For years, it was a classic manufacturing town dominated by Lockheed Martin Corp. and the movie studios. At its peak, Lockheed employed nearly 100,000 and was the original home of the legendary Skunk Works, which designs advanced military planes.

When the airplane manufacturer pulled out by the early 1990s, media companies stepped in to fill the void. Today, a subsidiary of Internet giant Yahoo Inc. plans to move into new offices being built at the former Skunk Works site.

All the changes have made his job a little easier, said Chris Rizzotti, the real estate broker.

“Burbank used to be a little boring,” said Rizzotti, who grew up in town. “When I was a kid in high school, we had to go out of the city to North Hollywood or Westwood to see a movie. We didn’t get a movie theater until about ’86 or ’87.”

They also didn’t have a mall, not to mention Morton’s or P.F. Chang’s, two recent additions to the Burbank dining scene.

“There’s always people who will make reference to the old Johnny Carson jokes about Burbank,” Rizzotti said. “But when they get here and look around, they say, ‘Hey it’s a neat town. It’s got everything.’ ”