20. November 2007 by Ana Connell.

Items of note from the last Burbank City Council meeting:

• Quiet zone was established on the Metrolink Ventura Subdivision at Buena Vista Street and Vanowen crossing. Vote was unanimous.
• The new California building and fire codes were unanimously adopted. Because of past complaints this ordinance will change the Burbank Municipal Code with respect to construction hours. The new hours will be Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. No work will be allowed on Sundays and holidays. For homeowners working on their own houses, they will be allowed to work on Sundays and holidays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Unanimous adoption of the wind power agreement between Burbank and the Pebble Springs Wind project in Oregon. Through these and other efforts our power rates could increase less than 1% next year.

Items of note for this week’s City Council meeting:

• New Area Code update-Staffers to update the Burbank City Council about the October 22nd held by the California Public Utilities Commission to seek public comment and input on this issue.
• Citizen’s Option for Public Safety(Cops) Grant-The City of Burbank received a $207,000 grant from the state for the Cops program which provides funding for local law enforcement agencies.
• Alley Vacation-Conditional vacation requested for the alley near the 3800 block of Olive Avenue. This vacation would allow the developer of a proposed 33,420 sq. ft. project to build 14 parking spaces. This will be a mixed use development with office space, restaurant and residential units.

The Burbank City Council meets at City Council Chambers in City Hall, 275 E. Olive Ave. Tuesday at 6:00pm.

Don’t forget that you can watch the City Council meetings live on Charter Communications Channel 6 or online at City of Burbank’s website.

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5. November 2007 by Ana Connell.

Burbank Mayor Marsha Ramos gave a positive report on the state of Burbank.    In her annual State of the City address she emphasized how “robust”  Burbank’s economic outlook is along with with the City Council’s committment to maintain a community with positive opportunities for it’s residents.

Unemployment in  Burbank is at 3.9%, which is lower than the California state average of 5.3%.  Mayor Ramos highlighted that five years ago the median price of a home was $256,000, today it’s $650,000 and that despite the current downturn area prices remain an excellent investment.

Focus was given to the communications system that allows police, fire and other safety agencies to remain in contact during emergencies.  It was also mentioned that the Lake/Alameda area will get a walking path with lighting, native plants and doggie stations.

Items of note for this week’s City Council meeting:

Study session for Downtown parking.  Looking for ways to improve shopping and parking in the downtown area.

Platt Project - Rick Platt, developer of the project, a planned 220 residential units and 20,451 sq. ft. of shops at 3400 Olive, filed for bankruptcy.   City has the right to terminate the current agreement, staff is expected to recommend that council waive the cancellation hearings.

Last week the council did approve the purchase of 5 new Compressed Natural Gas buses(City will receive a $1M+ grant from LA County MTA with a local match of $450,000).

Also approved was the landscaping of portions of Downtown Burbank with $355,000 in redevelopment funds.

The Burbank City Council meets at City Council Chambers in City Hall, 275 E. Olive Ave. Tuesday at 6:00pm.

Don’t forget that you can watch the City Council meetings live on Charter Communications Channel 6 or online at City of Burbank’s website.

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28. October 2007 by Ana Connell.

We don’t have a very heavy agenda this week, but there were items of interest both for last week’s and the upcoming agenda.

Items of Note:

Last week the Burbank City Council approved the parking amendment for multifamily dwellings.

This week the Council will look at the Rancho Amendment again, following up from the September 11th meeting. This time the text has been changed to make grocery stores a prohibited use in the Rancho commercial zones as opposed to just requiring a conditional use permit for the stores to operate.

The Burbank City Council will be meeting Tuesday at 6pm in the Burbank City Hall Council Chambers.

Remember that you can watch the City Council meetings live on Charter Communications Channel 6 or online at City of Burbank’s website.

If you are interested in reading the actual Burbank City Council agendas, please visit the City of Burbank website, City Council Activities!

Have a great week!

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23. October 2007 by Ana Connell.

Congratulations to City of Burbank for winning a clean air award from the South Coast Air Quality Management District(AQMD).

Thanks to Burbank’s environmentally friendly policies they joined with other Southern California cities to form the Five Cities Hydrogen Program in 2006. The other cities that participate in the program are Ontario, Riverside, Santa Ana and Santa Monica. The AQMD has promoted this demonstration program in order promote public awareness of both the efficiency of hydrogen fuel technology and to show how safe the technology is for transportation use.

Given the population growth that will be coming to Southern California over the next 10-20 years it is imperative that we develop and utilize energy efficient, zero emission technologies. Part of the problem is that while these technologies have been around for some time, they are not getting the support they need to go mainstream. It starts with individuals and small cities that want to make a difference. Please contact your government representatives and let them know that you want these types of viable technologies to get the support and funding they deserve!

The City has a “green” fleet that includes 14 buses, 35 heavy-duty trucks and 40 passenger cars for city use. The hydrogen fleet includes 5 toyota priuses that were converted for hydrogen gas and the cars can go for 80 miles per fill of hydrogen!

For more information, please visit the links provided in this article!

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23. October 2007 by Ana Connell.

Burbank City Council meets weekly at 6pm in the Council Chambers at Burbank City Hall. There are a couple of interesting items on the agenda tonight that are noteworthy.

Items of Note:

Parking Requirement Changes

The council will consider changing the amount of parking spaces required for multifamily residential projects. This item is especially interesting when you look at the amount of people that park around multifamily projects. The current Municipal Code requires 1 guest parking space for every 5 family residential units……yes, you read that correctly!

The current proposal requires 1 guest space per every 4 residential units and no less than 2 guest spaces overall. The council may consider this change for all or only certain projects.

My view may be a bit myopic, but even this change, although helpful, seems inadequate. Given the amount of cars usually parked around multifamily units it would seem that either you are trying to discourage people from inviting guests or that you really believe only 1 in 4 or 5 units will have a guest over at any given moment. The reality seems to be, especially on the weekends, that multifamily unit dwellers do invite friends to come visit and that the current requirements are woefully inadequate.

Please share your thoughts on this issue.

Housing Subcommittee

The council is reviewing whether to set up a subcommittee on housing. It’s role would be to provide general oversight of the housing element update to the General Plan. This could be a great vehicle for residents to provide their input and ideas.

Don’t forget that you can watch the City Council meetings live on Charter Communications Channel 6 or online at City of Burbank’s website.

Have a great week!

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