Land Use, Taxation & Civic History · Special Investigation

Tucked Behind Public Storage: Burbank’s Elks Lodge, Fraternal Land Holdings, and the Self-Storage Economy

Along the western edge of North Hollywood Way, a peculiar land-use juxtaposition catches the eye of anyone driving toward the airport: the towering, multi-story orange-and-blue monolith of Public Storage, and tucked directly behind it, sharing the exact same original parcel subdivision, the sprawling banquet hall, lounge, and member RV compound of Burbank Elks Lodge #1497. This investigation examines how a century-old fraternal order was relocated by downtown redevelopment, how self-storage developers capitalized on scarce industrial zoning, and what authoritative municipal ArcGIS parcel records reveal about the 72.7-to-1 tax disparity, Proposition 13 base years, and the myth of fraternal tax exemptions.

Data as of Nov 2, 2026 from City of Burbank ArcGIS FeatureServer (PublicWorks/Parcels/FeatureServer/0) , Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor Roll (AINs 2463-010-020 & 021) , Burbank Commercial Parcels Tax Roll Database , California Revenue & Taxation Code § 214 (Welfare Exemption Restrictions) , Burbank In Focus Historical Photo Collection (145 E Palm Ave) and City of Burbank Title 10 Zoning Code (M-2 Industrial Regulations) . Recomputed from official source records; see methodology.

Interactive Map: Burbank Fraternal Network & Commercial Self-Storage Hubs

The map below plots Burbank’s historic fraternal and veteran properties alongside the city’s major commercial self-storage facilities and the historic downtown site razed for redevelopment. Hover over any node to view parcel size, assessed valuation, and tax base year.

1. The Bizarre Driveway on North Hollywood Way

At 2240 North Hollywood Way, just south of the Hollywood Burbank Airport flight path and the Empire Center retail basin, sits a massive 124,439-square-foot, climate-controlled commercial storage warehouse operated by Public Storage (NYSE: PSA). With its security gates, keypad terminals, and roll-up metal doors, it represents the epitome of modern corporate real estate efficiency.

Yet if you steer past the storage facility’s perimeter gates and follow the driveway curving around its southern flank, you enter another world: Burbank Elks Lodge #1497 (2232 N. Hollywood Way).

There, sitting on 0.91 acres in the shadow of the storage building, is a 13,835-square-foot facility featuring an American flag pavilion, a 300-seat multi-purpose banquet hall, a full-service members' lounge and bar, an outdoor barbecue patio, and a paved lot accommodating visiting member recreational vehicles (RVs).

How did a 101-year-old charitable fraternal order end up sharing a driveway and parcel boundary with a Wall Street self-storage giant?

2. The Shared Parcel Partition: Parcel Map 295, Pages 56–57

A forensic review of Los Angeles County Assessor maps and City of Burbank subdivision records reveals that this physical juxtaposition is not a coincidence—it is the direct product of a commercial parcel partition:

• The Master Tract: The entire 3.15-acre site fronting North Hollywood Way was originally a single industrial holding zoned BUM2* (Burbank Industrial/Manufacturing within the Airport Influence Zone).
• Parcel Map 295, Pages 56–57 (P M 295-56-57): The master parcel was legally subdivided into two distinct lots:
  • Lot 1 (AIN 2463-010-020): Comprising 2.24 acres (97,757 sq. ft.) with direct, high-visibility frontage along Hollywood Way.
  • Lot 2 (AIN 2463-010-021): Comprising 0.91 acres (39,640 sq. ft.) tucked directly behind Lot 1, granted an ingress and egress access easement wrapping around the southern boundary.
• The Acquisition Timeline: The Burbank Elks Building Association acquired Lot 2 following their displacement from downtown Burbank, opening their lodge in 1989. In 2006, Shurgard Resco III LLC (subsequently acquired by Public Storage in a $5.5 Billion buyout) developed Lot 1 into a state-of-the-art multi-story self-storage facility, constructing its concrete structure directly in front of the lodge.

3. Forensic ArcGIS Parcel & Assessment Audit: The 72.7-to-1 Prop. 13 Tax Disparity

Querying the City of Burbank’s authoritative enterprise GIS FeatureServer (PublicWorks/Parcels/FeatureServer/0) and the Los Angeles County Assessor tax roll reveals a stunning financial contrast between these two adjacent properties sharing the same subdivision map:

The numbers demonstrate the profound impact of California's Proposition 13 framework on adjacent commercial real estate:

• The Valuation Asymmetry: Despite occupying nearly an acre of prime industrial land on Hollywood Way, the Burbank Elks Lodge has an assessed total valuation of just $242,961 ($200,348 land value and $42,613 improvement value). That equates to an assessed land valuation of just $5.05 per square foot.
• The Adjacent Storage Monolith: Next door, Public Storage sits on an assessed valuation of $17,666,856 (ranked #124 on Burbank's Top Commercial Parcels Tax Roll), or $142.00 per building square foot.
• The Fiscal Inversion: While Public Storage contributes approximately $194,335 annually to the Los Angeles County and Burbank tax collector, the Elks Lodge pays only $2,672 per year. Yet, as demonstrated below, this low tax bill is not due to any non-profit charitable exemption, but entirely to Prop. 13 base year protection.

4. The Fraternal Tax Exemption Myth: California Rev. & Tax Code § 214 and the Zero-Exemption Reality

A widespread belief in civic affairs is that fraternal organizations (such as the Elks, Freemasons, Eagles, and Moose) operate with total property tax exemptions similar to houses of worship, hospitals, and universities.

However, the ArcGIS parcel database reveals an unexpected fact: every single historic fraternal and veteran hall in Burbank has a recorded REALESTEXM value of exactly $0.00.

Why Fraternal Lodges Pay Full Property Taxes Under State Law

Under California Revenue and Taxation Code Section 214 (the Welfare Exemption statute), non-profit organizations must use their real property exclusively for religious, hospital, scientific, or charitable purposes to qualify for an exemption:

• The Bar and Lounge Disqualification: The California State Board of Equalization (BOE) and county assessors have repeatedly ruled that social clubs, fraternal dining rooms, member bars, and private banquet halls do not qualify as "exclusive charitable uses." Because fraternal lodges operate members-only social facilities, their halls are disqualified from the Welfare Exemption.
• 501(c)(8) vs. 501(c)(3): The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks operates as an IRS 501(c)(8) Fraternal Beneficiary Society. While exempt from federal corporate income tax, 501(c)(8) organizations are not charities under state ad valorem tax law.
• The Proposition 13 Lifeline: How do fraternal lodges survive in expensive Southern California markets without an exemption? They survive through unbroken tenure and Proposition 13 base year preservation:
  • American Legion Post 150 on Olive Ave and VFW Post 8310 on Magnolia Blvd remain on their 1975 Proposition 13 base valuations ($14,946 land base for the Legion; $5,280 land base for the VFW). For over 51 years, their assessed valuations have been legally capped at 2% annual inflation.
  • If American Legion Post 150’s 17,063-square-foot lot on Olive Avenue were reassessed at current commercial land prices (~$150/sq ft = $2.56M), its annual tax bill would leap from $3,034 to over $28,000/year.
  • If the Elks Lodge property at 2232 N. Hollywood Way were reassessed at market value (~$4.75M for land and hall), its tax burden would escalate from $2,672 to $52,250/year—an 1,855% tax increase that would instantly bankrupt many volunteer civic organizations.

5. The Great Downtown Displacement: From 145 E. Palm Ave to Hollywood Way

To understand why the Elks Lodge sits behind a self-storage warehouse in an industrial flight path, one must examine the history of Downtown Burbank's redevelopment.

Chartered on July 9, 1925, the Burbank Elks Lodge #1497 was for generations the political and social epicenter of the city. For sixty years, the lodge owned and operated a landmark two-story headquarters at 145 East Palm Avenue in the heart of downtown:

• The Downtown Power Center: Throughout the mid-20th century, the Palm Avenue lodge was where Burbank’s civic leadership convened. Mayors, councilmembers, Lockheed aerospace executives, police chiefs, and merchants gathered for weekly dinners, charitable drives, and political organizing.
• The Redevelopment Agency Bulldozer: In the mid-1980s, facing retail decline along San Fernando Boulevard, the City of Burbank and its Redevelopment Agency initiated the downtown revitalization project. To assemble the superblock required to build the AMC 16 theater complex, multi-story parking structures, and pedestrian promenade, the city acquired the Elks' downtown property through eminent domain negotiations.
• The Relocation Compromise: Forced out of their historic home, the Elks purchased the rear 0.91-acre portion of Parcel Map 295 on North Hollywood Way. In 1989, they opened their modern facility at 2232 N. Hollywood Way. In exchange for losing their walkable downtown presence, the lodge gained dedicated parking, large banquet space, and an RV compound for traveling Elks.

6. The Self-Storage Land Economy: Warehousing Hollywood’s Props & Production Lockouts

Why did a commercial storage developer invest over $13 Million in 2006 to build a 124,000-square-foot facility directly in front of the Elks Lodge?

Burbank contains only about 15% of its municipal land area zoned for industrial manufacturing (M-1 and M-2). Because self-storage facilities require industrial zoning under Burbank Title 10, opportunities to construct storage warehouses in the Media Capital are exceptionally constrained.

Burbank’s Major Commercial Storage & Warehouse Ecosystem

Cross-referencing the city's commercial tax roll and business registries reveals a multi-tiered storage economy:

The Entertainment Machine’s Hidden Storage Locker

While self-storage in typical suburbs holds domestic clutter (holiday ornaments, sports equipment, excess furniture), in Burbank it serves as an indispensable ancillary backbone of the entertainment supply chain:

• Independent Production Lockouts: Thousands of freelance cinematographers, camera operators, gaffers, and sound recordists live in Burbank. Between studio gigs at Warner Bros., Disney, or Universal, they lease 10x20 and 10x30 climate-controlled units to secure expensive cinema cameras, lighting packages, and sound carts.
• Costume & Prop Staging: Independent wardrobe designers and prop rentals rent units along Hollywood Way and Thornton Avenue as flexible overflow lockers for episodic television shoots.
• Studio Scenery Offsite Storage: Major studios like Warner Bros. maintain massive dedicated storage warehouses (such as the 91,000-sq-ft facility at 3300 W. Pacific Ave assessed at $19.1M) to archive set pieces, backdrops, and practical physical assets between production seasons.

7. The Municipal Finance Dead-Zone: High Land Consumption vs. Zero Sales Tax and Few Jobs

From a municipal finance perspective, commercial self-storage facilities represent an acute land-use paradox:

8. Conclusion: Housing Mandates, Industrial Scarcity, and Fraternal Sanctuaries

As Burbank works to satisfy its state-mandated Housing Element obligation to plan for 10,753 new housing units by 2029, land along transit corridors and industrial peripheries faces unprecedented pressure.

Low-intensity commercial uses—such as open-air auto lots, parking structures, and low-employment self-storage facilities—are increasingly targeted by regional housing advocates for residential and mixed-use rezoning. A 2.24-acre parcel like 2240 N. Hollywood Way could theoretically accommodate over 200 units of multi-family transit-oriented housing, positioned within walking distance of the Hollywood Burbank Airport train stations.

Yet tucked behind that orange-and-blue commercial storage fortress, Burbank Elks Lodge #1497 represents something that cannot be calculated in rental yields or square-foot assessments: a century-old civic institution where scouts meet, veterans gather, community meals are prepared, and social capital endures in the quiet spaces sheltered behind Wall Street’s storage lockers.

For more investigations into Burbank land use, property tax rolls, and civic infrastructure, read The Prop. 13 Commercial & Studio Land Tax Audit, Inside Burbank’s $2.7B Studio Support Economy, and Burbank’s 1,217-Firm Media Supply Chain vs. The Housing Element.