January 14, 2017

Public Works Department – Traffic Engineering

City of Burbank

275 E Olive Ave

Burbank, CA 91502

jkeeler@burbankca.gov

Re: For the January 26, 2017 Traffic Commission Agenda

Proposed parking restrictions on the 900 block of North Avon St

To the Public Works Department of Burbank:

I thank the Public Works Department for their responsible stewardship of the common areas of Burbank over the years. And further thank the members of the Traffic Commission for taking up the urgent parking and traffic issues around the Magnolia Blvd – Avon St intersection, and for seeking public input in your decision-making process. Let’s get right to it:

Real Problems with Serious Consequences.

Increased commercial traffic has suddenly transformed our formerly relaxed and family-friendly neighborhood in the following ways:

• Residential street parking is suddenly scarce.
  • Residents often walk 500+ feet from car-to-door, difficult for the elderly and for families with young children, or anyone transporting groceries or bulky items.
  • Frequent blocked driveway incidents.
  • Worse parking and farther walks on days of street cleaning: tight parking means residents can no longer leave their car at the right place in the evening, and instead must get up early to move their car.
  • The same for trash pickup, except that trash bins reduce parking more and so the problem is even worse. Sometimes people will move or block trash bins that have already been placed, and residents must move them again later or miss the pickup.
  • Less friendly behavior. Some car-parkers, including both business customers and residents, have become “parking hoarders,” protecting spots by taking the center between two driveways and leaving “half-spaces” in front and back to block space from others, exacerbating the problem for everyone but themselves. While enforcing considerate behavior is beyond the scope of the Public Works Dept., it still is a real example of the unfortunate, unnecessary changes in the neighborhood due to increased commercial traffic.
• Increased Vehicle Accidents, reported and unreported. Bits of plastic and broken glass on the streets are much more common than before.
• Traffic Buildup. Cars sometimes now wait multiple traffic-light cycles at the Avon-Magnolia intersection to enter and to leave Avon street, as the small street has become clogged. When it happens, it appears largely due to people waiting for parking spots, and sometimes from inconsiderate (or cell-blinded) pedestrians. As a result, the Avon crossing is less dependable than before, and Magnolia is a less effective thoroughfare.
• Dangerous Alley Traffic as cars circle to look for parking, or to avoid waiting for lights.
• Increased Pedestrian Danger from all the above. One woman died last November when hit by a car in full daylight hours when crossing Lima Street at Magnolia. While nobody can remove all danger from traffic intersections, and not all accidents can be prevented, heavy traffic in a residential district not built to handle it clearly doesn’t help. It is also troublesome to have the traffic so close to Roosevelt Elementary.
• Significant Crime Increase. From car theft, to car break-ins, commercial break-ins, to litter on residents’ lawns and noise complaints, all have increased in recent months.

An Obvious Cause.

Business brings traffic. But most businesses are welcome in the neighborhood, as they can enhance and serve the general community, even if they bring some trade-offs. Bank of America, DIY Hardware, American Thrift, Chase Bank, and Rite Aid all have significant traffic, but also provide reasonable parking for their customers. Porto’s has brought parking problems, but has also made a large commitment to providing their own parking, and spent significantly over time to supply more parking, even employing attendants to manage it more efficiently and posting signs encouraging consideration for the neighbors. While it’s both a challenge and cost, they and most businesses try to get along.

This is in marked contrast to Morphe. I am sorry that the finger must be pointed at anyone, but there is no point to ignoring the reality: this business greedily planned on soaking up the entire supply of the shared public resource of residentially-zoned area parking, parking that was once willingly shared. Any company using heavy promotion and advertising to create a steady flow of customers from across a wide region, and knew its heavy customer traffic in advance, had no business moving into an area unable to handle it. With its traffic flow, Morphe’s owners should recognize that it belongs in a mall or a similar area with ample shared infrastructure, if it was unwilling to supply its own parking. Instead, knowing that it had hundreds of customers daily, Morphe plainly decided to take advantage of (all) the parking in the residentially-zoned area, disregarding the needs of all other residents and businesses. The neighborhood’s resources of parking and calm streets are being abused just the same as if we all lived around a shared lake and one company moved in to take all the water for itself to bottle and make a profit, leaving residents thirsty.

Put simply, Morphe is not a good neighbor, and is harming everyone in the neighborhood, residents and responsible businesses alike, by their irresponsible and disproportionate use of the neighborhood’s infrastructure. Now, the question is: What can be done to fix it?

Potential Solutions.

Solution #1: Parking Restrictions.

The simplest answer is the most powerful: prevent the commercial use of parking space in residentially-zoned areas. This would help the situation for the residents in the protected zone. But it would also have a cost: residents will have a new burden in the form of managing permits for guests, transferring passes when cars are in the shop or newly purchased, etc. And the responsible businesses will be harmed along with the offenders.

But the biggest problem with the current proposal is that restricting only one block won’t solve anything. It will just move the problem around like a game of “Whack-a-Mole!” As soon as parking is protected on the 900 block, the same parking issues will immediately be driven (literally) to all the surrounding blocks, and will intensify the traffic problems as cars circulate more to find non-existent spaces. Besides, a quick survey of residents in the surrounding blocks reveals that they already suffer the same effects today. If the problem is worth fixing on the 900 block, it is worth fixing everywhere. (With all due sympathy to the residents of the 900 block, it’s worth noting that if any one block has a better capacity than others to absorb extra parking, it would be that block: one side of the street has no houses at all for most of its length. Blocks with houses on both sides along the whole street will suffer even more acutely.)

So although a real fix for some, it will only dump the problems from one block to another. For fairness’ sake, it must be applied across a wider area, to include Cordova, Avon and Lima streets, from Clark to Chandler. Although that will work better, and will punish the offending business, it is not a small consideration: every small business in the area would be hurt and some would surely close; the city’s parking administration load would increase; and residents would have the extra burden of managing permit use and difficulties accommodating guests, all to fix a situation caused by one abusive business. In the end, this drastic step may be necessary, but it is not the only solution.

Solution #2: Business Restrictions, via Licenses and Operating Permits.

Business licenses typically require projections of customer traffic flow and parking needs, to prevent issues like we have today. A business with excessive traffic is denied a permit in a zone without appropriate infrastructure. Any business that deceives the city should pay penalties up to and including revocation of their license, and businesses that grow beyond their reasonable, sincere projections should expect to pay an increasing tax for the city’s costs. If Burbank already has such a process, it should be determined if the city approved the license for Morphe in error, and if the license application was correctly submitted in good faith. In either case, the city attorney could proceed immediately to revoke Morphe’s business permits and licenses. Although a severe consequence for a business, given the dramatic impact on the neighborhood in such a short time, it is warranted if the licensing process was abused in any way.

Even if the process was followed properly, new zoning restrictions and policies can ensure that the city enacts procedures to prevent the renewal of the company’s operating permits once they expire this coming June.

Solution #3: Facilitate a Move Through Dialog and Cooperation.

Nobody wants to shutter a thriving business, or deprive a business owner, their family and employees of their livelihood. The city can be business-friendly and helpful, even while it sends a signal to future business owners that zoning enforcement is strict in letter and in spirit. The most appropriate solution is to move the business: the city can provide outreach help for it to find and move to a better location, one that can support its parking needs. For example, the Burbank mall certainly looks as if it could use tenants like this, has ample parking, and the other mall businesses would probably welcome the additional foot traffic. There are other vacancies around town, most with more parking than this intersection by the school.

Outreach should begin immediately, to determine if a cooperative approach like this is even possible, and what it might entail. Even an absentee landlord can be compelled to forgive or share the cost of a broken lease, if the alternative is a permanent devaluation of their property through the withdrawal of parking privileges.

In Conclusion

The Public Works Department has the duty to seek the best solution for all, as soon as possible, rather than satisfy one group, or take short-term actions with long-term detriments. The problems are real and must be addressed. My opinion, and the opinion of those who have signed this letter, is that the Public Works Department should promptly pursue their options in the following order:

• 1)Discuss relocation options for Morphe, assisting where possible. At the same time,
• 2)Examine the currently issued business permits for possible restrictions, fines, and causes for revocation. If these do not exist, pursue the policy and legislative changes to enable revocation or non-renewal of the license before the next renewal.
• 3)Restrict all parking on Cordova, Avon and Lima Streets to residents-only, from 11am-7pm, seven days per week, not just in the 900 N Avon St block, but throughout the affected area, to serve as a model for the entire Magnolia Park area.

In the interim, all neighborhood residents and business will share alike the risks and problems caused by high traffic and scarce parking. If the simultaneous efforts of #1 and #2 do not produce a solution within 2 months of this meeting (even if the solution is carried out in June), then use the remaining solution as the only one:

Respectfully yours,