Officials disagree on criteria, goals for acquiring Calabasas open space
By Sharon Makokian
Acorn Staff Writer

Although Calabasas officials agree on the need to acquire more open space in the years to come, they couldn’t agree on the criteria for purchasing such land at a joint meeting of the city council and planning commission last week.

The Calabasas General Plan calls for the acquisition of 3,000 acres of open space. So far, the city has about one-third of that amount.

In October 1999, the city council directed staff to research the concept of preparing an open space plan. During the first nine months of 2000, the city’s environmental commission developed a set of criteria to evaluate open space.

It assigns point values to certain aspects of land and incorporates some of the same factors that the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy uses to evaluate parcels for possible acquisition. Those point values caused the most disagreement between officials at the joint meeting. Many said they didn’t like them and wanted modifications.

Some referred back to the city’s General Plan to outline open space criteria while others felt that the General Plan spells out open space criteria. Others disagreed and said that priorities needed to be continually updated.

"We don’t get a single message in the General Plan about what open space is for," said Planning Commissioner Dave Brown.
"My hope for this council and evening is to … decide what we want to preserve and why," said Mayor Dennis Washburn.

The goal was for city staff to prepare some guidelines after a consensus was reached. But that didn’t happen.

"There’s been about nine different approaches," said City Manager Donald Duckworth at one point during the meeting. "It’s difficult to focus on as a staff."

There are 800 vacant parcels in Calabasas that could be acquired for open space. But Mayor Pro Tem Janice Lee expressed concern over parcels that are outside the city’s jurisdiction.

"Some of the most scenic and migratory pathways don’t fall within city limits," she said, adding that she wanted flexibility to purchase some of them.

One theme of the evening was determining the most important reasons for acquiring open space, such as preserving view sheds, creating trails and taking developable land off the market.

Planning Commissioner James Leewong said that such decisions shouldn’t be "made in a vacuum," but be site- and time-specific, for example, if an opportunity for free or low-cost land comes up. "The council needs to be flexible," said Leewong, stating that a point value system could change from year to year as municipal goals change.

Planning Commission Chairman Mike Tingus said "there needs to be a vision and goals set."

Environmental coordinator Steve Craig agreed. As a consultant to other nearby cities, Craig said each has a specific goal—for example, "Thousand Oaks decided that it wanted a trail system to encompass the whole city—that’s their driving vision," he said.

Neighboring Agoura Hills has a goal of saving Ladyface Mountain, he added.

"We need goals. You don’t spend the money on whatever comes in the door next," said Planning Commissioner Scott Solomon.

Brown contended that scenic views need the most protection.

"Calabasas is a beautiful setting … what makes it is the hillsides. The general public of Calabasas would (agree)," he said. Brown said he felt the numerical criteria that the environment commission had developed was "skewed."

Participants talked of a public survey or workshop to reveal public preferences, but the idea wasn’t followed through. "One thing missing in the criteria is how many people are benefited by it," said Lee. "We need to try to preserve the areas of the community that have the most benefit for the most people," she added.

However, the criteria weren’t developed totally with public interest in mind, according to Kathy Berkowitz, an environmental commissioner who helped create the controversial numerical point system.

"It was developed, in part, as a way of getting grants, so that people who don’t live in this area could read about the land without seeing it," she said.

Berkowitz later told The Acorn that the needs of the citizens and the environmental reasons for preserving land might not be the same.

"(Grant providers) are looking at resources, such as blue line streams—natural pristine resources that are worth saving," she said.

The meeting concluded with goals unresolved. City Councilwoman Lesley Devine said she felt that the discussion had "muddled the process."

Duckworth asked the panel to "give (the staff) some time to distill this information and make sense out of this, and then bring back some recommendations back."