PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is to update the Council on the current status of the parking and transitional issues associated with the sale of NBC�s approximately nine acre �Catalina� parcel.

BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS:

Last year, NBC/Universal (NBC) sold a portion of their lot to M. David Paul.  This portion of the NBC property, known as the Catalina parcel, is in the northeast corner of the property and is bounded by Parkside Avenue on the south, Bob Hope Drive on the west, Alameda Avenue on the north, and the property boundary of Providence St. Joseph Hospital on the east and consists of approximately 9.3 acres.  At the Council meeting of January 10, 2006, staff was asked to provide an update on efforts to work with NBC on the parking and transitional issues associated with this sale.

Staff has requested NBC representatives to submit a plan of how they will vacate buildings, employees, and parking from the Catalina property and where replacement parking will be located.  NBC has provided staff with the following information:

1. NBC is required by the purchase agreement to vacate the Catalina site by April 1, 2006.  They will face financial penalties if they do not, and therefore have stated they intend on meeting this date.  They have removed all temporary trailers from the parking area and vacated some staff from the permanent buildings and will complete this process during the month of March.  NBC will continue to have the use of surface parking on the Catalina property until the end of March.

2. The employees who work in the Catalina buildings have been (or will be by the end of March) relocated to office space on the Universal City lot.  There were 308 parking spaces on the Catalina parcel reserved for these employees.  This number is based on the 102,895 square feet of building area that existed on the Catalina property.

3. The Catalina parcel also contained 368 unreserved spaces that were available for daily hires, visitors, show guests, contractors, etc.  They stated they conducted spot audits of the parking which indicated a typical range of 140 to 250 spaces being utilized and on only one audited day did the number exceed 300.

4. All full time, non-represented NBC employees are assigned parking in a designated area of the main lot.

5. NBC has removed the helipad from the main lot and is currently utilizing that space for additional employee parking, approximately 100 spaces.

6. As part of the purchase agreement, NBC has the right to lease up to 300 non-reserved parking spaces in the Pinnacle building.  The initial period of the lease is for two years with three one year options to extend.

7. NBC intends on leasing the spaces from Pinnacle for employee parking and then parking daily hires, visitors, and show guests on the main lot.

8. Although no plan is in place at this time, NBC has also evaluated some options such as re-striping or valet parking to add capacity.  These may be longer-term solutions if the additional leased off-site parking spaces prove insufficient.

These items were previously discussed with Jack O�Neill, but since his retirement, staff has continued discussions with Tom Smith, with NBC, who is continuing these efforts.

Staff is pleased that NBC has expressed a desire to address parking shortfalls on their lot, especially with the sale of the Catalina property.  However, this plan includes options which do not appear to meet code.  The following lists the specific concerns:

1. When the master plan was approved, that Catalina property contained 762 parking spaces and 102,895 square feet of building area.  The parking may be reduced based on the square footage demolished.  Therefore, by removing 102,895 square feet of office space, 308 parking spaces may also be removed (this corresponds with the number of reserved parking spaces on the Catalina property).  However, this leaves a balance of 454 parking spaces to be replaced.  NBC states they have only 368 spaces to replace, but this is likely because an added temporary trailer removed parking which was assumed to be replaced when the temporary trailer was removed.

2. NBC proposes to replace some of the parking by removing a helipad on their main lot.  Staff would need to review this plan for proper circulation and verify that 100 spaces can fit into this former helipad space.

3. NBC states they have the right to lease up to 300 non-reserved parking spaces in the Pinnacle building.  This has not been confirmed and staff questions the availability of such a large number of parking spaces.  Staff is verifying the amount of square footage constructed in both Phase I and Phase II of the Pinnacle project and the number of striped parking spaces.  At this time, staff does not believe Pinnacle has 300 spaces in excess of their code required parking.  M. David Paul has indicated that the current demand of parking at the Pinnacle site is well below the parking supply, however Phase II is not fully occupied and any reduction based on demand must be confirmed through a parking study.  Even then, in order for NBC to use the spaces to meet their requirements, they must enter into an off-site parking covenant that the City must approve and only after a parking study is conducted confirming the spaces are available.  Excess parking may be a temporary fix until Phase II is fully occupied.

When this Planned Development was approved, parking requirements were identified by treating the entire Project Site as one site. The Project Site includes the Catalina portion as well as the rest of the NBC campus. Parking was allowed anywhere on that Project Site, no matter where lot lines existed. This unique shared parking concept survives the sale of any individual parcels. The Catalina lots provided some of this shared parking for the NBC campus. Those parking spaces, approximately 454, must remain on the Catalina portion as shared parking spaces serving the main lot of NBC, or if not, those spaces must be replaced by NBC on-site. Alternatively, off-site parking is allowed but only in accordance with the Burbank Municipal Code.  Should the shared parking spaces on the Catalina property be removed without providing legal replacement parking, then a zoning violation of the Planned Development and related Development Agreement, will be occurring, and the City will have no choice but to enforce its parking requirements. Due to the unusual situation of the Planned Development now involving two different owners, each owner will be individually responsible, as the parking was, as stated above, a shared parking concept, over the entire Project Site.

Staff is concerned that NBC has stated they must vacate the Catalina property by the end March, since doing so without providing legal replacement parking will result in a violation of the Planned Development Zone and the Development Agreement to which both property owners are subject.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION:

Staff has sent a letter to NBC and M. David Paul asking them to retain all shared parking on the Catalina portion of the Project Site, or provide adequate replacement parking that meets the Burbank Municipal Code requirements.  The letter also requests clarification to several issues that were discussed above, such as the actual number of parking spaces in excess of code requirement in the Pinnacle building.

Staff recommends placing this item on a future Council agenda once a response to our letter has been received identifying how NBC and M. David Paul will continue to meet parking requirements.