Burbank Says Neigh to Whole Foods

In a tight vote, the Burbank city council chose not to allow a Whole Foods Market sell their organically grown foods, beverages, and vitamins in the city.

Claiming it would add too much traffic and disturb the unique equestrian style around the proposed location at 901 W. Alameda Avenue, the council basically told health-conscious shoppers that they will have to continue to drive east to Glendale or west to Sherman Oaks to pay and arm and a leg for what we should be getting in the first damn place.

The market was proposed for Alameda Avenue - a busy four-lane road - and Main Street, a narrow two-lane road that empties into the Los Angeles Equestrian Center.

The store, which was to include two levels of underground parking, was slated for a 76,000-square-foot lot. The projected car trips to the proposed store were cut to about 4,170 per day, down from 4,854 according to the most recent estimates. The number of car trips from the office building now on the site totals about 1,700 trips per day, city studies said.

"The Whole Foods Market fits this site," said Davies, the project's Westlake Village-based developer. - LA Daily News

We'd had thought that with the proximity from the proposed site to the Disney, NBC, and Warner Bros there would have been a good deal of powerful people who would have preferred that their assistants, interns, and underlings wouldn't have to drive all the way to Burbank to pick up all sorts of delectables. But maybe no one ever thought that a Whole Foods would be shot down in LA?

photo by That Other Paper