The under-construction Ikea in Burbank will be the biggest in the US when it's finished in the spring of 2017, but Burbank is not taking any chances that shoppers won't be able to find the 456,000-square-foot home furnishings store. The Burbank Leader reports that "despite objections from some prominent Burbank business owners," Burbank City Council voted to change the name of a segment of First Street to Ikea Way. The change will affect a few crucial blocks the entrance to the purveyor of $1 cinnamon buns and the nearest freeway connection.
In 2014, the city council had given the go-ahead to renaming a new extension of First Street between Santa Anita Avenue to the future Ikea's parking lot entrance on Providencia Avenue, but this most recent approval means that a few more blocks between Angeleno and Santa Anita avenues will also be getting a name change. Supporters of the plan say that it will help create a "more favorable traffic pattern" and help let people know that they're definitely on the right path if they're trying to get to Ikea.
The name change was not suggested by Ikea honchos, but by a member of the city's traffic commission, who said that the new name would "enable the city to seek California Department of Transportation signs along the freeway pointing drivers to the Verdugo Avenue exit." CalTrans doesn't put up signs specifically pointing to a business, the official said, but they might have to if it just happened to be in the name of a street.
· Part of Burbank's First Street to become IKEA Way [Burbank Leader]
· Work Begins on the Biggest Ikea in the United States [Curbed LA]