Apartment complex nixed a third time
By Sharon Makokian
Acorn Staff Writer

After hours of testimony and tense differences of opinion between members, the Calabasas Planning Commission recently voted against a proposed 134-unit luxury apartment complex after a third public hearing on the issue.

The complex was set for development on an 11.63-acre site on the southeast corner of Agoura and Las Virgenes roads.

The apartment project, which city staff said met all requirements for its location in the Las Virgenes Gateway Master Plan (approved in December 1998) has been in development for three years and even waited through a building moratorium that was imposed when the Gateway Plan was being drafted.

The proposal was deemed complete in June 1999 and a community meeting took place last July. In December, the planning commission had a study session to review the project.

Since then it bounced around a bit, including two public hearings during planning commission meetings in January and February earlier this year.

At February’s meeting, the planning commission deadlocked on a 2-2 vote.

The applicant then filed an appeal to the city council in March, but on May 17, the city council remanded the item back to the planning commission for further review and study of traffic, view impacts and grading issues.

After that was accomplished, the issue recently returned before the planning commission, but the project still didn’t fly with some commissioners who said they wanted even more information and studies that could be costly and time-consuming to the applicant. Commission co-chairman David Brown announced early on in the meeting that he wouldn’t be able to vote for the project without additional information.

Attorney for the developer, Allan B.Cooper, looked pained after meeting with his team in the hallway, in what seemed more like a car sale negotiation than a planning commission meeting.

"We have spent time discussing it and frankly we believe we’ve given all the required information. We’ve extended the time frame three times. It’s not fair to ask for a fourth," he told the commission.

Cooper later told the Acorn that he would appeal the commission’s decision to the city council.

In the time since the applicant first showed its plans to the most recent appearance, the developers made many changes to answer some of the previous objections made by the city and community. Buildings were moved and rotated and eight units were removed to lessen the density of the project. Setbacks were increased to cut down on the visibility from Las Virgenes Road. Three to four oak trees, formerly slated to be cut down, are preserved in the revised plan.

"The project is consistent with the Las Virgenes Master Plan," said environmental expert Steve Craig. The tiering and grading are consistent with hillside building rules, he said.

Not everyone agreed.

Russ Dingman, district planner for the Angeles District of the California Department of Parks and Recreation, told the commission that the project would "transform natural views. The backdrop will be marred and disfigured by the project."

About 20 people from the Stone Creek area protested the apartment complex because they felt it would increase traffic. They said that it sometimes took them 15-20 minutes to make a left turn from their homes on Oak Glen and Willow Glen onto Las Virgenes Road and that the new project could increase that.

However, Robert Yalda, transportation and intergovernmental relations director, said their claims were exaggerated and the new project could actually help traffic problems.

The developers would put up a traffic signal at the apartment complex, which would be synchronized with the new signal in front of A.E. Wright Middle School, to enable timed intervals in which the Stone Creek residents could complete their turns. The time allotment could be adjusted as needed, Yalda said.

One major sticking point was the project’s architecture, which consists of Spanish colonial and Monterey. Although the design was said to be "consistent with the gateway plan" in a letter from Main Street Architects, the company which drafted the gateway plan, some of the commissioners took exception with it.

The term "Monterey" is used in the Las Virgenes Gateway Master Plan, which also mentions the evolution of the design and how it is influenced by other Spanish architectures. The document doesn’t strictly limit buildings to the Monterey style.

But Planning Commissioner Scott Solomon insisted that the Monterey style be followed to the letter.

"This is the first major project since the gateway plan was implemented … if we were to ignore or deviate (from the plan), it could set a bad precedent for the future," Solomon said.

"Monterey implies less massing. Spanish colonial is denser. It would be a smaller project if it were Monterey," he added.

Commission chairman James D. Leewong disagreed, emphasizing the flexibility of the master plan.

"We strive for the perfect, but we get the best we can," he said.

"I think this is a class project. I don’t want to see it get away … Monterey is preferred, but we might need to use other styles to meet other requirements," he said. "We should leave ourselves some flexibility," he said later.

Commissioner Mike Tingus, who served on the commission when the gateway plan was being developed, said the idea for the "Monterey style came only from one person, Bill Pauli, because the liked that style."

Tingus was one of the two commissioners who voted in favor of the project, along with Leewong. Commissioners Brown, Solomon and Michael Harrison voted against it.