Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] Good evening and welcome to the Monday, February 23rd, 2026 regular meeting of the city of Burbank Plan. Planning Commission. Before we begin our meeting, there will be one general period of public comment tonight. During oral communications, persons speaking during the general public comment period may provide the planning commission oral communication on any matter concerning city business. Members of the public may comment in person or by telephone during the general public hearing public comment periods. If you would like to participate in the public comment period by making an in-person comment, please present a completed speaker card to planning staff. If you would like to participate in the public comment period by telephone, please call 818-238-3335. We will announce when the phone lines are open. Please join me for a moment of reflection. This moment is intended to begin our community with a positive and collective support for our beloved community. The planning commission welcomes everyone joining us this evening. We encourage you to take a moment to reflect on our community and the work we will be doing tonight. Although each of us has our own unique reasons for being here, we are united in our passion for our wonderful city. As we pause, let us consider our own

individual contributions and what they mean to those around us. Let us find solace in knowing that by working together with a shared spirit of community and partnership, we will always act responsibly for the betterment of Burbank. Will everyone please join us in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madame clerk, will you please conduct the roll call? Uh, Chair Wick, present. Vice Chair Safarian,

present. Commissioner Van Gordon, present. Commissioner Bennett, I'm here. And Commissioner Mendes is absent. Great. Thank you very much. Do we have any announcements from city staff this evening? Um, just real quick, someone attend someone came into the meeting right before it started with a notification from parks and recreation. I believe there's a meeting for the Starlight Bowl, but it's actually online. So, I think uh they had inadvertently believed it was in person. So, just in case there's people in the audience or someone that's watching, uh, there is a separate meeting occurring at 6:00. So, I just want to let you guys know that. Okay. Okay. We can't get like a picturein picture thing. No. Uh, no. No, that's be too advanced for us at this point. Okay. Thank you. [laughter and gasps]

Thank you. All right. Moving on. Now is the time for oral communications from the public. Any person speaking during this period may address the commission on any matter concerning city business. Each person may address the planning commission for a maximum time of three minutes. For members of the public who wish to comment in person, please present a completed speaker card to the planning division. For members of the public that wish to comment by telephone, please call 818-238-3335 to address the planning commission. Callers will be placed in a queue until all inerson comments have been received. U madam clerk, do we have any speakers? Uh, we have no speakers or callers.

Okay, we'll give it a minute. Nothing. Nothing. No Starlight Bull people. Got it. All right. Moving on. There is one public hearing item on tonight's agenda. Now is the time and place for the public hearing on project number 25-00004181, a proposal for a general plan amendment to establish a general plan land use designation to lowdensity residential and zone map amendment to establish single family residential R1 zone for portions of the 17 properties located on the 600 to 700 block of Rosali Street that are proposed for the annexation into the city of Burbank. Before we begin, do any planning commission members have any legal, financial, or any other conflict of interest regarding this item?

No. No. No. No. Great. Have any planning commission members had any communications, including written or oral, with any communication with any person about this project? No. No. No. No. Great. Mr. Ramirez, have the notices as required by law been given? Yes, they have. Great. Are there any written communications on this matter? Uh we haven't received sorry we haven't received any written communications. There were some phone inquiries uh but those were all responded to by staff.

Thank you. Will the representative of the community development department please introduce yourself and summarize the matter for us? You will have a maximum time of 20 minutes to make your presentation. May I have the presentation on the screen, please? Good evening, chairperson Wick and planning commissioners. Uh, I'm Karen Chavez Hernandez, an associate planner um with the city of Burbank. Uh I'm here tonight to present a general plan map amendment and a zone map amendment uh to consider establishing general plan land use designations uh and zoning designations for portions of Roselli Street that are proposed for annexation into the city of Burbank. I am also joined by outside legal counsel Jennifer Misrahi from Colen Huber LLP and Steve Lewis from Lewis Civil Engineering who have worked with city staff on the project. There are 17 properties located on the even side of the 600 and 700 block of Roselli Street uh that are bisected by the jurisdictional boundaries of the city of Burbank and the city of Glendel. This results in the rear approximately 50 ft of each of the subject properties uh being in the city of Glendel while the majority of each uh lot of the subject properties is within the city of Burbank. Um the subject properties front Rosselli street um a city of Burbank street and therefore have city of Burbank addresses. These properties also receive municipal services from the city of Burbank, including water, electricity, sewer, and solid waste collection services.

And here are images of the existing conditions of Roselli Street. The boundary bisection had no known impacts on the residents uh until the November 2022 election when the Burbank city clerk's office became aware that residents living on the subject properties did not receive City of Burbank ballots. It was then discovered that that there was a precinct boundary change implemented during the 2021 redistricting process. Due to the precinct boundary change, property taxes for the city for the subject properties were credited to the city of Glendel rather than the city of Burbank. And since voter ballot assignments are based on the jurisdiction in which the property taxes are paid, residents of the subject properties began receiving City of Glendel ballots instead of City of Burbank ballots. To correct the situation, it was determined that the jurisdictional boundaries would need to be adjusted and the city of Burbank would enex the portions of the subject properties currently within the city of Glendel and the city of Glendel would concurrently detach the properties from its jurisdictional boundaries. To adjust the jurisdictional boundaries referred to as the reorganization, the city of Burbank would need to initiate proceedings and prepare and submit an application to the local agency formation commission for the county of Los Angeles referred to as the LAFCO. Accordingly, the uh Burbank City Council adopted resolution number 24-29567, which one requested that the LFCO initiate proceedings for the annexation to the city of Burbank and concurrent detachment from the city of Glendel of portions of the subject properties and two directed staff to process any and

all documents necessary. The LAFCO has an established process for jurisdictional boundary changes and it includes submittal of an application to the LAFCO, LAFCO staff review of the application, LAFCO consideration of the request at a noticed public hearing, and a decision on the request for jurisdictional boundary changes from the date an application is submitted. This process typically takes approximately 2 to 3 years to complete. One requirement of the LAFCO application is the submittal of a pre-zoning ordinance. A pre-zoning ordinance is a zoning ordinance um that would preemptively establish zoning designations for portions of the subject properties proposed for annexation. To be able to submit to the LAFCO the required zoning ordinance, the city needs to preemptively establish a zoning designation and a general plan land use designation for the subject properties. Um the designations would only take effect upon LAFCO's approval of the reorganization. Accordingly, staff proposes a general plan map amendment that would by resolution amend the general planned land use map in exhibit LU-1 of the Burbank 2035 general plan. And this would establish general plan land use designations of lowdensity residential for portions of the 17 properties that are proposed for annexation into the city. And second, staff proposes a zone map amendment um which would by ordinance amend the city of Burbank zoning map um as referenced in BMC section 10-1-302A. Um, this would establish a zoning designation of single family residential R1 for the portions of the 17 properties

that are proposed for annexation into the city. staff reviewed the general plan MAP amendment uh and associated resolution and found that it is consistent with several of the land use goals and policies in the Burbank 2035 general plan uh that pertain to ensuring that development within Burbank's residential neighborhood is consistent. Uh it will also ensure that there are no abrupt changes in density, intensity, um scale and height since the portions uh being annexed into the city of Burbank will have the same general plan land use designation as portions of the lot that are already within the city of Burbank and in the surrounding neighborhood. And this makes progress towards fulfilling the city council's request through resolution number 24-29567. Staff also reviewed the zone map amendment um and the associated ordinance and found that it is consistent with the Burbank 2035 general plan. It ensures consistency with the existing development pattern on site and in the surrounding neighborhood which is zoned R1 and also makes progress towards fulfilling the city council's request through resolution number 24-29567. The proposed general plan map amendment um resolution and the zone map amendment ordinance have been reviewed for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act and it is staff's assessment that they are exempt from SQA pursuant to uh one annexations of existing facilities and lots for exempt facilities under SQUA guidelines section 15319 [snorts] and two the common sense exemption under SQUA guidelines section 15061B.

Um therefore, um it is recommended that planning commission adopt a resolution to recommend the approval of the general plan map amendment resolution and the zone map amendment ordinance uh to the city council. and find that the general plan meant a ma general plan map amendment resolution and the zone map amendment ordinance are exempt from SQA as part of the next steps. staff will provide a recommendation to the city council. And if the city council approves uh the general plan map amendment resolution and the zone map amendment ordinance, um staff will prepare and submit a complete LFCco application uh for their review and consideration. If the LAFCO approves the reorganization, uh the portions of the subject properties will be officially annexed into the city of Burbank and the residents of the subject properties will once again receive City of Burbank ballots. And this concludes my presentation. Uh I'm available to answer any questions related to the planning process. Um Jennifer Ms. Rahi is available to answer questions about the LAFCO process and Steve Lewis is available to answer questions about the rear dimensions of the subject properties. Thank you. Thank you very much. We will now open the meeting to hear from any persons who wish to speak on this matter. Each person may address the planning commission for a maximum time of 3 minutes. For members of the public who wish to comment in person, please present a completed speaker card to planning staff. If you wish to speak, for members of the public that wish to comment by telephone, please call 818-238-3335 to address the planning commission. Callers will be placed in the queue until all inerson comments have been received. The phone lines are now open. Please bear with us as it may take a

couple of minutes for the first callers to get through the line. For callers, please remember to lower the volume on your TV or computer and take your phone off speaker when you deliver public comment. Madame Clerk, do we have any speakers here tonight or callers on the line for public comment? Two in person speakers.

Got it. All right. Our first speaker is Le Leslie Brain. Hello. Thank you. I just wanted to put a face on the people who live on Rosselli Street. So, um, we've lived um on Rosselli for like 23 years. Our children went to Burbank schools. We love Burbank. No offense to our Glendale neighbors, but it has been very um frustrating for us not to be able to vote in the last two local elections. So, for us, it's not really a zoning issue as much as it was. We've been disenfranchised from the city that we love. So, um I hope that you'll approve this measure and welcome us back into Burbank. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Our next speaker is Michael Braven.

Thank you. I have no idea how that woman got my last name. [laughter] Um I just wanted to reiterate what Lesie said. Um I understand that the process uh that we're here for tonight is to um push forward the approval of these amendments. And I just want to make sure in everyone's mind that while that is an issue, um the biggest issue is that we haven't been able to vote for Burbank um city council, which is very important to us. And um unfortunately, I think I realized tonight that it might be another two or three elections before we're able to vote. And if there's anything that this commission can do to push that forward, I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Do we have any more speakers or callers on the line? No, we do not. Okay. All right. There being no further public comment on this item, I now declare the public comment period closed. Would the representative of the community development department like to make any further comments this evening? No further comments. Thank you. Does the commission have any questions for staff?

I have one question, please. Um when I was looking at the parcel map and I this totally could be looking too far far ahead and it might just be an you know something that is looked at the planning level if a project arises but there were some dash lines through the properties that are going like where the annexation is going to happen. So, I'm not sure if those are like, you know, illegal lot splits or if something like that has been looked at by staff um or if you know this is what we're doing tonight and then later on if there is a project proposal then you'll look at it and potentially do like a certificate of compliance or something. Could you just clarify that? So um so tonight we are simply voting on the zone map amendment and or the commission is voting on the zone map amendment and general plan amendment. What will happen is after tonight uh we will be submitting well not after tonight but once we should city council approve these amendments at some point then at that point we would be submitting the formal application and we'd be working with LAFC and looking at the the property boundaries identifying whether anything needs to be done to rectify potential uh lot discrepancies to make sure that everything is is is clear on what's being approved into the city of Burbank um as part of that process and we do believe that lots have to be uh adjusted through any sort sort of formal lot tie or lot line adjustment. We would also do that at that point. I I don't have the parcel maps in front of me, but it is something that we can follow up on ahead of city council's uh uh consideration of this item.

Thank you. I was just curious, so wanted to just ask now. Okay. Thanks. Any further questions? Um I'm not sure who to ask. Um, but I mean if this if we became aware of this issue prior to 2021, um, why why did it take so long to get this here now tonight? Like I it it's upsetting that, you know, we've got 17 homes worth of people um who have been disenfranchised. Um um why the why the delay?

If I may, Chair, hi Kimberly Clark, city clerk. Um, this this uh situation became uh was brought to our attention right during the 2022 election and it was the Brabin family who said that one of their friends was on the ballot and why didn't they see their name? So, that's when we first became aware of it. I just want to go back to the property tax itself. I believe that that's been going on for a long long long time. I have to check my records, but I believe the city of Glendale has collected all of the property tax because I have a letter from another resident on Rosselli that I wouldn't mind sharing just to show you how confusing this is and how long it's gone on. This is from Tess McGregor and she lives at 638 Rosselli. She signed the landowner's consent. Each property owner was mailed one of these letters asking them to send it back. Jennifer, Miss Rahi, our outside council, said, "You don't need to have everybody respond as long as you have the majority." And the majority did by far. So, Tess McGregor sent her letter back and she said, "Flip over, see the reverse for some history." And I'll just share this with you. Back in 1970, my family of six moved into 638 Relli. My four kids were to transfer to the local school. I asked the real estate people about the local schools. They looked on their maps and named off schools in Burbank and Glendale both. That day we discovered the house we were moving into was in both cities. So this is in 1970. So this has been a problem for a while. And I'll go back to why it wasn't a problem for voting in a second. That day we discovered that the house we were moving into was in both cities. We would be paying property tax to both cities, which I don't think is true, but it could have been back then. and I I wasn't around in 1970 which gave us rights to both schools

which I had to now that could have been in 1970 because that was before schools started being funded through property tax through going it with the property tax going up to Sacramento first and then being aortioned back. So that could have been the way it was done which I gave which gave us rights to both schools which I had to prove to the school board of Glendale when my fifth child started school. I was told the city boundary line was determined by an old creek bed. Have a good day Tess McGregor. [laughter] So that's a little bit of kind of folksy history on it now. Um, back in the day when Burbank ran their own elections, we would send ballots to all Burbank residents based on their Burbank water and power bills. Makes sense, right? So, after SB421 got passed, we consolidated our elections with Los Angeles County. Do you want a little background on that? Why we did that, please? Okay. So, SB421 said if you have a low participation rate in your municipal elections, you have to and the threshold was 25%. We were well below that. It was like 18ish on a given year. You have to consolidate your municipal election with the county's election, either the gubanatorial or the presidential every two years so that more people would participate. The idea being if you're voting for governor or president, you're more likely to go down ballot and say, "Hey, I'm going to vote for school board, too." And participation went way up. So, as a city clerk, I love this, right? I handled this transaction for the school district down the hill. Um, we had to get out of the city charter and we we used to also run our own elections with the city, but we had to take take ourselves out. We as in the school district had to take ourselves out back then from the city charter and we also consolidated. I believe I got my resolution done before the former city clerk did the cities, but it doesn't matter because shortly thereafter the

city did the same consolidation resolution. So what that means now is that the county sends out the ballots. So when the county sends out the ballots, that's when this error was discovered because these 17 properties, the people living there, started getting City of Glendale ballots and they're like, "Well, why? We've always voted with Burbank." So the problem with the disenfranchise is very troubling to me because not alone are they not able to vote for city council. They're not able to vote for school parcel taxes, school bonds. they have a uh district representative is up for election in their district and they're not going to be able to vote on that in the in this 2026 November election because the county once they get the application takes a minimum of two years I was told to process everything. So I'm hoping it's not going to be two or three election cycles before we're going to do everything we can to push this. But one of the big delays, Mr. Van Gorder was I reached out the moment I was elected as clerk and got nowhere with the city of Glendale to the point where and I shared this with Miss Chavez today. I got so mad I was going to drive down to Glendale and just sit in their office and say you've ignored my emails for the last nine months and my phone calls. I'm here to talk to someone and I'm not leaving until I talk to someone. So finally I said before I do that I'm going to write one more email. I did and I copied the city manager and I got a response within five minutes through the city manager. He responded directly to the city manager saying, "Justin, we've never had a problem with this." And I'm like, "Look through the whole trail of emails." It it there. It's just a long line of me saying, "Could you please respond to my email? I'm trying you again." So, that was a long delay. I would say nine to months to a year of no action from Glendale. So, finally, Glendale is now on board. the land owners consents have come back. So that's how we got to where we are now by way of background. I hope that answers

your question. It does. Thank you. Um this sounds like such a special case. Um is there any possibility that this exists anywhere else in the city? Um yes. Uh and as we've learned um this uh so there are other properties um that have these unique circumstances within the city of Glenda sorry city of Burbank and um uh after speaking with um our outside legal council it sounds like it's very common um in other jurisdictions

and if I can add uh commissioner so at this point the plan is to uh to work with LAFCO in establishing jurisdictional boundary changes for these properties um as part of a second phase, it may it may make sense. City council may direct us to look at other situations that are similar throughout the city, not only B not only bordering the city of Glendo, but also bordering other cities like the city of LA on the opposite end of the city. Uh so again, it may be a part of a second effort, but right now we want to address what's right in front of us and more urgent, which is known residents that um have this issue regarding voting. Cool. Thank you.

Any further questions? I I have a quick question for staff just just to clarify. So where do we go from here in since after this meeting assuming that the consensus is to approve from um the planning commission what are the next steps just for anybody in the public watching?

Thank you for your question commissioner. Um uh so after this meeting um we will uh go to the city council and provide your recommendation. Um after um if the city council approves uh then we will able to complete our application to the LAFCO um submit to them and uh start the process with them. Thank you please.

Thanks very much. My name is Jennifer Mahan with Cole Huber. So um at the LAFCO process it's a big process right so they have their own public hearing their own notification their own circulation um anybody uh who received this notice will receive the notice before the laugh uh board as well including residents of the city of Glendale. So they themselves have their own hearing process that they go through as well. Um and then after after the hearing process, I assume that they will make a decision and then that decision stands whether or not uh the 7 the you know the 50 ft or or so will be annexed into uh city of Burbank. So,

and commissioner, if I can just add one last thing, we we understand the sense of urgency and getting this started as soon as possible. And because of that, we are working with um with LAP identifying whether it's possible to submit the application ahead of uh potential city council approval. Understanding that should that be approved, we can then provide this zoning information after the fact. It seems like there may be some receptiveness to that, and it's something that we're actively working on to try to shave a couple months off that potential two-year minimum. Got it. And this is this is a question for our city clerk. It's more of a point of interest and I'm well aware that this is a land use commission. So I I see the city attorney looking at me. [laughter] [gasps] Is there just since this is a public hearing and the public is here, there's there's not a way to get them ballots because it's a county run election, not provisionally, not

unfortunately not. I reached out to the county and I said, "Is there any way these folks can vote provisionally? Is there anything we can do? I'm personally willing to drive out the ballots and collect them." And they said, "It just doesn't work that way. It's all regulated by the boundaries and who where they pay their taxes and I tried and tried and tried." So, I figured I just wanted clarification. Thank you very much. Any further questions from the commission? Nothing. I mean it seems like do we have any further questions before we deliberate? Is that a question or u Commissioner Vanguard? Yes, there is one more question.

Is there anything else we can do other than resolve uh adopt this resolution tonight to help this help these 17 homes? Uh if I may, Chair, um as far as what is within your purview? you know, this is all you can you can always advocate separately, but uh as far as a commissioner on tonight's meeting, it would be if you feel that you have a motion and a second to approve the request from staff and the recommendation to council, then that would be where I would focus your effort tonight. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. No further questions. All right. I now declare the public hearing closed and the planning commission will now deliberate. This is the time and place for the commission to decide whether we affirm or reverse and modify. Oh, this never mind. The planning commission will now deliberate. What is the planning commission's pleasure? It's a cut and paste on the script. Sorry. [laughter and gasps]

Sure. Just an expression of empathy like I'm I really feel for for the residents of Reli. you guys have been uh disenfranchised and that breaks my heart. So I concur. I mean it's it's a very very frustrating issue and I would be really really upset if I were them. So I share in their in their you know everything. So if I feel like if there was anything further we could do to push it along, we definitely would. Um thank you to the city clerk for being here tonight and for giving us some backstory. Um, always a fan of hearing Burbank history. So, it's exciting.

I'm surprised we had a creek at some point. I know. I'm going to look that up. I don't know if I trust that. [laughter] [gasps] Um, maybe we did. I said maybe we did. I don't know. All right. Um, any deliberation? Would anybody like to make a motion? Sure. I will make a motion that we uh recommend that the city council adopt the general plan map amendment and the zone map amendment as uh presented tonight. Would you mind reading the project number? Just I didn't see it, which is why I didn't read it, but feel free to give it to me. Oh,

if I could su suggest just reading out of off the resolution title and I can provide you a copy of that if you don't. Yes.

Thank you. All right. All right. I will make a motion that we adopt a resolution of the planning commission of the city of Burbank recommending that the city council adopt a resolution amending the general plan land use map to establish land use designations of lowdensity residential for portions of 17 properties that are proposed for annexation to the city and a zoning ordinance amending the zoning map of the Burbank Municipal Code to establish single family residential R1 zoning designation. s for the same 17 properties proposed for annexation into the city as project 25004181. Thank you.

Thank you. We have a motion. I'd like to second. All right. We have a motion and a second. Uh madame city clerk, would you please conduct a role? Uh chairwick present. Uh vice chair Safarian. Oh yes, sorry. Yes. Vice Chair Sapar. Vice Chair here. [laughter] Wait, no, wait. No. Motion to approve. I was like, wait. [laughter] I'm sorry. [gasps] Commissioner Vang Gordon. Yes. Commissioner Bennett. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everybody and good luck. This is live TV. What can we say? [laughter and gasps]

All right. Motion passes. Um, now is the time for reports from city staff. Are there any reports to the commission? Uh, no reports to the commission. Thank you so much. [gasps] Now is the time for the approval of minutes from January 12th, 2026 planning commission meeting. Are there any questions, comments, andor a motion? I will move we adopt the minutes as written. Okay, we have a motion. Second. All right. [gasps] All those in favor of approving the minutes, please say yes. Yes. Yes. Or I.

Yes. Any opposition? No. Okay, great. [gasps] Now is the time for introduction of additional agenda items. Planning commission members may introduce new items for discussion, but no action may take place except to place the item on a future agenda. Do members of the commission have any items to introduce? Nothing. No. Okay, great. Now is the time. Moving on to city planner comments. Now is the time for city planner comments. Are there any comments from the city planner this evening? No, they're not.

Great. All right. We will now adjourn the planning commission meeting to Monday, March 9th, 2026 at 6 p.m. This meeting will be held in person in the city council chambers at 275 East Olive Avenue. The public is invited to attend the meeting in person or to view the meeting online or on television. The public will be able to provide public comment in the following three ways. in person at the appropriate time during the meeting, by leaving an e- comment on the city web page at www. burbankca.gov/events, or by calling in directly to the planning commission at 818-238-3335. Thank you all for your participation and have a good night.