BURBANK LIMITS WHEELED FUN BICYCLISTS, BOARDERS, SCOOTERS RESTRICTED.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Staff Writer

BURBANK - The Burbank City Council voted Tuesday to limit where skateboarders, scooter riders and bicyclists are allowed to ride in the city parks, in part because they are tearing up railings and scaring pedestrians, city officials said.

With a 4-0 vote, the council decided the city needs to establish ``designated areas'' in parks that are off limits to skateboards, scooters and bikes. They did not specify immediately where those areas would be.

Michael Flad, director of the city's Park, Recreation and Community Services Department, said the city needed to deal with the damage skateboards are doing to the parks' planters and railings, as well as interference with pedestrians.

``(Skateboarders) just grind the surface clean off,'' Flad said before the meeting. ``This is for the safety of pedestrians, the safety for the skateboarders. These are designed to be walkways, walk areas, and that's not compatible with skateboarders doing tricks.''

Daniel Cornick, 11, of Burbank said earlier Tuesday that the skateboarders were not responsible for the damage. ``They're blaming us for things we don't do,'' he said, adding that he received a ticket two weeks ago.

Flad said the problem came to the city's attention as part of its new park ranger program. Staff members were having a hard time enforcing the city's skateboard, scooter and bicycle laws because they didn't specifically mention park areas.

The municipal code merely states that self-propelled vehicles, including skateboards, bicycles and scooters, are prohibited when signs are posted within a city-owned parking lot, structure or in the Burbank Village area.

Sgt. Mike Keeffe, supervisor of the Burbank Police Department's park ranger detail, said with the current ordinance, officers have the ability to arrest skaters and issue citations but generally warn them if they are found in the parks.

The council's action will add parks to that list and gives officers a broader range of response if they find skaters destroying public property.

``They probably won't like it, but it's necessary,'' Keeffe said. ``Some of the parks border us and North Hollywood, so we get kids from outside the city that do it, too. We put a lot of money in the parks to make them look really nice, and we're trying to keep them looking that way.''

Flad said the change will be an interim fix until the city opens its new skate park, a full-fledged facility to replace the temporary ramps and apparatus now available in Valley Park. The city hopes to be able to break ground on the new $225,000 skate park by the summer.

Armando Florez Jr., a 19-year-old Burbank resident who has received 12 citations since he turned 18 and owes $600 in fines for the tickets, was skating with about a dozen other people at McCambridge Park in Burbank on Tuesday. He said it will be a hardship for people to go to Valley Park near North Hollywood to skate. It will also have restrictions.

``Everyone around here lives around here and they want you to wear helmets, which are expensive. They want you to pay money to get in. It's a hassle for a lot of kids.''

Burbank Mayor Bill Wiggins was absent from the meeting Tuesday.