Walmart would alter the city’s fabric

I don’t think we can have such a huge store as Walmart in Burbank without losing what makes Burbank a great and special place.

It sounds like there are serious traffic considerations that have not yet been addressed, and will certainly need to be addressed, if a store the size of Walmart would move into the Empire Center. I don’t think any extra tax revenue would be worth it. The extra traffic, pollution, noise, and impact on the city’s small town feel would be significant. This store will have a huge impact and we should know what those impacts are.

I have shopped at the Empire Center and as it is without the Walmart store. I almost don’t want to go there since it’s so difficult to get around. The area was just not designed for that type of traffic. I’m pretty sure that if Walmart moves in, I will stop shopping there.

While we want to keep Burbank’s economy strong, do we really want to alter the fabric of what the city is about? I like the small town feel that the city has. If I want a big-city feel, I can just drive over to Van Nuys and deal with the headaches over there.

Is the city planning on having some town hall meetings to discuss this issue? Or are they just going to let this huge store move in and potentially damage the community in a multitude of ways?

This issue can have huge impacts and the citizens of Burbank are not all behind this project. Is the city listening to the concerns of the citizens, or just big business?

Peter Berg

Burbank