Wider lanes put on hold

CITY HALL — Some Magnolia Park residents will have to wait several months before city officials decide whether they will retain street parking in front of their homes.

In January, homeowners on Verdugo Avenue near Buena Vista Street were notified that city traffic engineers had plans to eliminate on-street parking to make way for wider travel lanes. The existing 9-foot-wide lanes fell below state standards and posed safety hazards, city traffic engineers said.

But residents, who brought their concerns to the Traffic and Transportation Committee on Thursday, argued that removing parking in front of their homes would lessen their property values and that the proposal aims to remedy a problem that does not exist.

"This is a solution in search of a problem," said Nargis Choudhry, whose home lies within the project area.

The Traffic and Transportation Committee opted to defer making a recommendation about the project until it could be discussed in the context of the broader city mobility element, which is the blueprint for future land use in Burbank.

"It just needs more study and I need more information," committee member Brian Malone said.

The city started to look into substandard lane width on Verdugo after a resident complained that the situation created safety hazards, city traffic engineer Ken Johnson said. In addition, a sideswipe accident near the Buena Vista-Verdugo intersection involving a trash truck put the city on notice that something needed to be done, he added.

But that accident was the only sideswipe accident reported in the area over a five-year period and expanding the lane width to 10 feet would not have prevented the accident because the trucks measure in excess of 10 feet, resident Renee Nahum said.

Nahum also provided the committee with a letter from a Burbank Realtor who testified that the loss of street parking on Verdugo would negatively impact property values in the area, turning them into "white elephants."

"I think this is an unfair burden and I wish somebody would consider that," she said.

State regulations say that 9-foot lane width is allowable in areas where there is an obstruction that would prevent engineers from expanding the lane, Johnson said.

But this case does not qualify as an obstruction because parking can be removed in order to make the lanes standard width.

"We do it reluctantly," he said. "And, because we've been on notice that this is an issue, we have the responsibility to the community to try to make the situation as good as possible. And we have to balance that [with residents concerns] and we try to do that."

QUESTION

Should city officials retain on-street parking in front of some homes in Magnolia Park? E-mail your responses to burbankleader@latimes.com; mail them to the Burbank Leader, 221 N. Brand Blvd., 2nd Floor, Glendale, CA 91203. Please spell your name and include your address and phone number for verification purposes only.