HOW MUCH HOUSING IS TOO MUCH? GLENDALE, BURBANK STRIVE FOR GROWTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE.

Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis and Jason Kandel Staff Writers

Burbank and Glendale officials are hoping the way to solve Southern California's housing crunch while preserving suburban charm is the latest urban planning craze - neighborhood centers with condos over shops, within walking distance of public transportation.

But as city planners draw up blueprints for years of future growth, state officials are pushing for even more housing because of a deepening housing crisis. The pressure is forcing local officials to do a balancing act to avoid state penalties while also trying to protect the quiet neighborhoods residents prize.

Several multistory condominium projects have either been recently completed or approved in Glendale and Burbank. City officials have been careful to keep the projects as far away as possible from single-family residential neighborhoods, and close to shops and transportation.

``What we are trying to say to the state is, 'Look we're not 2-year- olds,''' said Glendale City Councilman Bob Yousefian. ``We don't need to have our hands held and be told exactly how many units need to be built.''

Still, Glendale officials worry they may be falling short of the state's housing goals, and if they do, they could lose out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants for neighborhood improvements, officials said.

Glendale officials plan to meet with state officials in coming weeks, in part to work out how Glendale's ``mixed-use'' projects of condos over shops fit into the state's overall housing goals.

Burbank officials expressed similar concerns as they are working to update the housing element of the city general plan - Burbank's basic master plan for development.

``The pressure for housing is enormous,'' said Burbank Mayor Jef Vander Borght. ``There's millions of people coming into the state, and thousands of houses being built. The gap is huge. We're not going to solve the housing crisis ever. There's just too many people. The reality is: cities will become denser.''

The state's Department of Housing and Community Development, which works with cities and counties to create housing, estimates California needs 220,000 new housing units a year to keep up with demand. But the last year that many homes were built was 1989.

Housing must be affordable or companies will move out of California to places where their workers can afford to live, said Janet Huston, the spokeswoman for the DHCD.

``If, as a state, we can't provide that, then we threaten our economic competitiveness. We (face) an increasingly disparate society of haves and have-nots,'' she said.

Burbank and Glendale are ``old-growth'' suburbs with little room to expand and skyrocketing housing prices for single-family homes. Glendale is more densely populated than Burbank because many neighborhoods south of the Ventura Freeway were rebuilt in the 1970s and 1980s by developers taking advantage of permissive zoning rules, turning blocks of single-family houses into multistory apartments.

Glendale officials reacted by ``downzoning,'' or reducing the number of units developers could build on each parcel. That was meant to protect the quality of life in residential areas and keep the city's streets, sewers and other infrastructure from getting overburdened.

But the state has continued to demand Glendale create more housing. Its latest target required Glendale to enable developers, through zoning and other measures, to build 6,100 new units between 1998 and 2005. Less than 1,000 units have been built, but Glendale met the goal on paper because its zoning would have allowed the 6,100 units to be built.

Glendale officials contend it is up to developers to build new units, if the market can bear it. But in August 2005, the state sent Glendale a letter stating ``housing production in Glendale is significantly lagging behind'' need.

The letter urged Glendale to create incentives for affordable housing, monitor how much new housing is being created and encourage more development if housing creation slows down.

Glendale officials have complained about the state directives.

``Glendale frankly doesn't like a lot of growth,'' said Glendale City Councilman Ara Najarian. ``And to slap us with a number that we've got to build in X number of years I think is an injustice.''

Burbank has also downzoned substantially, reducing density by about a third to give residents ``more elbow space,'' Vander Borght said. ``It's a tight-wire act, trying constantly to appease the state while recognizing that we cannot fit more people into our community.''

Today, Burbank has a total of 43,338 housing units - 19,935 of them are single-family; the remaining 23,403 are condos, townhomes and apartments. Since 2000, that is an increase of 40 houses and 451 condos, townhomes and apartments.

The state set a target for Burbank to enable developers to build roughly 2,500 new units over the next five years or so, officials said. City officials project that Burbank will add an average of 400 new units per year through 2020, most of them multifamily units, according to the city's Housing Element of its General Plan adopted in 2001.

Vander Borght said Burbank relies on state grants to do housing and street improvements.

``If we lose state grants, we would find ourselves unable to build improvements that are badly needed,'' Vander Borght said. ``We have not lost out on these grants because we are in compliance with state requirements. But our risk to be out of compliance is rapidly increasing. That's the threat.''

Most of the growth in the state's population is coming from new babies being born, Huston said.

``Communities should be responsible of taking care of their own population increases, and the population increases that are generated by job growth,'' she said.

Cities also face opposition from residents who decry crowded neighborhoods. Jose Chavez, 50, a Glendale sales executive, recently joined dozens of residents to call on the Glendale City Council to change the zoning on his neighborhood to keep it from getting built up.

``It's still a good city to live in,'' Chavez said. ``But there's still a lot of concerns in terms of traffic, in terms of over-development. We don't want that.''

Alex Dobuzinskis, [phone]

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

A CLOSER LOOK

New mixed-use projects considered, approved, or recently completed in Burbank and Glendale:

GLENDALE

--338 units at the Americana at Brand, Brand Boulevard and Colorado Street. Construction scheduled to begin soon.

--240 units at Central Avenue near the Ventura Freeway. Project designs given preliminary approval.

--162 units at Wilson Avenue and Orange Street. Project designs given preliminary approval.

BURBANK

--``The Collection at Downtown Burbank,'' 118 units bounded by Palm Avenue, San Fernando Boulevard, Orange Grove Avenue and First Street. Officials expect to break ground in March. Expected to be complete by summer 2008.

--Burbank Village Walk, 140 units, bounded by Olive and Angeleno avenues, Third Street, and San Fernando Boulevard. Recently completed.

--Senior Artists Colony, 141 units for people over age 55 at 240 E. Verdugo Ave. Recently completed.

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A CLOSER LOOK (see text)