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Downtown plan with heights up to 300 feet reviewed; comments get attachments · Burbank

• 0:07
  Maya: This is CivicFM, with the week at Burbank City Hall.
• 0:11
  Maya: The Planning Commission took another look at the plan to remake downtown Burbank around the train station. Written public comments to the council can now carry attachments. And a children's play center got the go-ahead on San Fernando Boulevard.
• 0:26
  Maya: This episode was produced with AI from the public recordings of the week's meetings. Links to the sources are in the show notes.
• 0:36
  Maya: Our top story starts Monday at the Planning Commission. It held a second study session on the draft Downtown Transit Oriented Development Specific Plan, which came out of a six-year planning effort. The plan would shape what can be built around the Metrolink station, the Burbank Town Center mall and the San Fernando corridor. This was a check-in, and no vote was taken.
• 0:59
  Theo: Staff walked through what the plan would change for anyone who wants to build downtown.
• 1:04
  Maya: Staff said almost all of downtown would allow mixed use and housing. And today, larger projects get approved one at a time through long negotiations. The plan would instead set heights a builder can use by right, with development review still required. Heights would start at forty feet next to single-family homes. In an overlay along the freeway they could reach three hundred feet, but only with a conditional use permit.
• 1:28
  Theo: One member of the public spoke, a representative of the union Unite Here Local 11. The union welcomed more housing, but it asked the city to require development agreements for hotels downtown. Staff said it had heard the same request at the last study session and would consider it for the final draft. A few weeks ago we told you the commission voted that same idea down for the Media District, two to three. This time one commissioner backed it, saying downtown should lean heavily toward housing. Another said hotels near transit help visitors who don't have cars.
• 1:59
  Maya: Commissioners also asked about the mall. Staff said its drawings are a vision, not a plan of what will be built, and described options for running San Fernando Boulevard back through the Town Center, either as a street or as a walking paseo. A commissioner pointed out that many people, especially seniors, use the mall for morning walks.
• 2:20
  Theo: Staff expect the draft environmental impact report to go out for public review later this year. Adoption hearings at the commission and the council would follow by spring 2027. Commissioners asked for a publicly noticed walking tour of the area before then, and staff said they're working on a date.
• 2:41
  Theo: Next, Tuesday's City Council meeting. If you want to attach a document to a public comment, you now can. On October thirteenth, Vice Mayor Zizette Mullins asked for a report on how written comments are handled. She said it followed concerns from the public that email attachments were being left out of agenda packets.
• 3:00
  Maya: The council didn't vote on putting it on a future agenda. Instead the city manager reported changes that had already been made. The city's eComment system now accepts attachments, starting right away: up to three documents, each up to ten megabytes. Emails sent straight to the council will get an automatic reply sending people to the eComment portal, which is the official record.
• 3:23
  Theo: The vice mayor asked that the reply make clear that comments on agenda items should go through that link, and staff said the wording is being finalized this week. The comment window for public hearings hasn't changed yet. Staff said they need more time, partly because the city clerk is away at training this week and partly to work through technical and logistical issues, and they'll report back.
• 3:44
  Maya: Staff said that window was something one resident had raised. In public comment, that resident told the council that written comments are now held to roughly three to five short paragraphs, which the resident called unrealistic for the Media District Specific Plan and its environmental report, thousands of pages by the resident's count. The resident asked the city to take comments by email again, as it used to. The council's hearing on that plan is set for Tuesday, November tenth.
• 4:15
  Maya: Back to Monday's Planning Commission meeting, where a children's indoor play center won approval downtown. Super WYLD plans trampolines, ball pits, slides, arcade-style games and party rooms in a vacant space at 330 North San Fernando Boulevard. There would be no alcohol, and food would be only for paying customers. The commission approved it five to nothing.
• 4:37
  Theo: The commission also gave it later hours than first proposed. The applicant's representative asked to stay open later now and then for special events, like a glow night. Staff had no objection, and the commission allowed closing as late as ten p.m. every day.
• 4:50
  Maya: A commissioner asked about safety. The applicant's side said children can't be dropped off, everyone enters through a reception desk and a turnstile, and parents sign a waiver with their own name and their child's. The arcade games are games of skill, with no gambling-style or ticket games. One commissioner noted that storefronts on San Fernando should draw in people walking by. The applicant's side said the windows would be covered during construction and stay clear once it opens.
• 5:16
  Theo: The operator plans to apply for building permits soon. At that point the fire department will set how many people can be inside.
• 5:26
  Maya: Now a few shorter items from around City Hall.
• 5:30
  Theo: On Tuesday the council passed its consent calendar five to nothing, except two police grants, which passed four to nothing with Council Member Konstantine Anthony abstaining. The calendar included six point two two million dollars from Metro for the Downtown Burbank Sidewalk Enhancement Project. It also included an amended agreement with the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority so BurbankBus can serve the new airport terminal.
• 5:53
  Maya: Also on the airport, a council member reported that the San Fernando Valley Council of Governments supports Metro running service seven days a week from the North Hollywood station to the new terminal. If Metro does, the council member said, the city would no longer need to run its own.
• 6:09
  Theo: The council voted five to nothing for the city treasurer's annual investment policy. It now spells out that stocks, exchange-traded funds, real estate investment trusts and annuities are off limits. It also adds a screen that bars buying from companies the city's data provider rates as lagging on environmental, social and governance measures. In a separate report, the treasurer put the city's portfolio at seven hundred fifty-seven million dollars as of June thirtieth.
• 6:35
  Maya: City staff also noted that the general municipal election is next Tuesday, November third. Three city measures are on the ballot. Measure C would raise the hotel tax from ten percent to twelve. Measure CC would allow more flexibility in how council members are elected, and Measure CD asks whether to switch from citywide to district elections. BurbankBus rides are free all day on election day.
• 7:01
  Theo: And the vice mayor reported that she met Armenia's consul general in Los Angeles to talk about a possible sister city in Armenia. That idea is waiting on a recommendation from the consulate.
• 7:15
  Maya: Before we go: if you heard something we got wrong, the episode's page has a link to tell us, and we read corrections on air.
• 7:22
  Maya: That's the news from City Hall. See you after the next meeting.