Residents object to bike path

CHANDLER PARK — Residents on Sparks Street in Burbank are bemoaning a proposed bike route that would utilize their street to connect the Chandler Bikeway to the bike route along the Los Angeles River.

The route would run along Sparks before cutting across to Beachwood Drive via Alameda Avenue on its way to the river wash near Riverside Drive, Assistant Community Development Director Greg Herrmann said. The bike path would share the roadway with motorists — as opposed to being cordoned off completely — and would be designated by a painted line.

But Sparks residents complain that the route would bring more activity to the neighborhood, increasing traffic and creating parking problems.

"My biggest concern about it is that we're connecting a Burbank bike path with an L.A. bike path," Raymond Ferrante said. "There are 100,000 people in Burbank, but there's 3.5 million people in Los Angeles. So that says that there will be about 35 L.A. bikers to every one Burbank biker coming through my neighborhood. My concern is why are we inviting all these people from another town to come through my neighborhood."

Ferrante would prefer to see a route that took bicyclers through the downtown area, which could even result in passers-by spending money at Burbank businesses.

Representatives from the city's Community Development Department have met twice with Sparks residents to listen to concerns.

"We did get a lot of comments, the majority of which were negative," Community Development Director Sue Georgino said.

Some residents worried that attracting more people to the neighborhood would result in higher crime rates, Herrmann said.

"The residents objected to this as something that would bring people into the neighborhood that they didn't potentially trust," he said.

But the opening of the bikeway along Chandler Boulevard has not brought increased crime to that area, Burbank Police Chief Thomas Hoefel said.

"To my knowledge we have had no additional crime reports along Chandler Bikeway," he said. "It is a very safe place."

Still, statistics about whether crime rates increase in an area with a new bike route should be considered to address residents' concerns, Councilman Jef Vander Borght said.