RITE AID WILL BEAUTIFY NEW STORE TO MEET BURBANK SPECIFICATIONS.

Byline: Mary Lou Aurelio Daily News Staff Writer

To the residents of Burbank, the new Rite Aid at Magnolia Boulevard and Hollywood Way with its windowless street front and sparse greenery is an eyesore too ugly to tolerate.

Now, after months of pressure from city officials and disgruntled neighbors, the company has agreed to begin a beautification plan to city specifications that will create a parklike setting.

``It's not going to win an award for architecture, but not for the ugliest design either,'' said Robert Tague, Burbank Community Development director. ``The Rite Aid people think it's the most beautiful building in the area, and some residents think it's too ugly to bear.''

Rite Aid's corporate spokeswoman in Harrisburg, Pa., insists pleasing the community is part of company policy.

``Rite Aid tries very hard in all of our development projects to work collaboratively with the communities in which we serve,'' said Jody Cook. ``We're happy to come to a conclusion with the community and our neighbors, which is a win-win situation for both, and make our store more aesthetically pleasing.''

But residents were not seeing the structure built last year and opened in the fall as a community-plus.

``I think it's ugly,'' said Jean Chapman of Burbank, who was waiting for a bus on the corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Hollywood Way.

``It's just too boxy, and there's no access from this side of the street,'' she said, lamenting that a customer on foot must go through the parking lot to enter the front of the store. The part of the building that faces the street has no windows.

``If you're waiting for a bus and you just want to run in and get some Kleenex, you wouldn't dare for fear of missing the bus,'' Chapman said.

Karen Custer, who lives across the street from the side of Rite Aid on Screenland Drive, said she was in favor of having the store built, but improvements are needed.

``The landscaping is as minimal as they could possibly have done it,'' Custer said.

The company already has tried to improve the look of the building - by installing awnings to make it look like there were windows.

``But people said they didn't go far enough,'' said Tague. ``They just look like insets with awnings.''

Tague did agree that the company has been cooperative in an effort to please the community and in working with the city to improve the project.

The new makeover will include a plaza with benches and a statue, textured walkways and larger landscaped areas with trees in the parking lot, he said.

Residents who complained to the City Council had an ally in Vice Mayor Stacey Murphey, who has called the design ``ugly'' at meetings.

``It's just a very unattractive project right now,'' Murphey said.

Murphey said the planned additions should take away from the starkness of the building and parking lot.

``I think it's going to soften it very much,'' Murphy said.

It couldn't come too soon for some.

``I definitely think more landscaping is needed,'' said Anne Cleeves of Burbank, who was visiting the store Thursday for the first time.

``I was noticing when I came in that it's so bare,'' Cleeves said of the parking lot, which is dotted with a few young trees.

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PHOTO This Rite Aid store at the corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Hollywood Way will get landscaping.

John McCoy/Daily News