Calabasas City Council fills two posts on planning commission
By Sharon Makokian
Acorn Staff Writer

Toby Keeler

The Calabasas City Council appointed Toby Keeler and re-appointed Scott Solomon to the city’s planning commission at its meeting last week. Both will serve two-year terms, unless the new council reorganizes the planning commission after the March 6 election.

Keeler’s been active in land use and community issues since Calabasas became a city in 1991. That year, he chaired the Scenic Corridor committee and helped draft the scenic corridor ordinance. He also helped co-found a nonprofit homeowners’ association in Old Topanga.

From 1992-94, he served on the first planning commission, and was a three-term president of the Las Virgenes Homeowners’ Federation (an umbrella group that represents more than 20 homeowner associations in the Las Virgenes area) from 1994-1997.

Keeler has been the president of the Old Topanga Homeowners’ Association from 1997 to the present (a position which he’ll probably have to vacate while serving on the planning commission, he said). Additionally, he served on the Civic Center Design Advisory Committee in 1999 and was a member of the group that worked on the Old Topanga overlay last year.

Scott Soloman

"I have a working understanding of the neighborhoods in the city," he told councilmembers during his interview.

Keeler, an independent filmmaker, told The Acorn that he wanted to be on the planning commission again to make sure that the city adheres to its General Plan.

"It seemed there, for a while, we were kind of getting away from the goals of the General Plan, with plan amendments, etc. We need to hold the line a little more on stuff folks generally don’t want to see," he said.

Solomon has served on the planning commission for eight months, after having filled a position vacated by William Pauli, who was ill.

"What I have learned is that this is a serious job for serious people, not people who take themselves too seriously," he told the council during his interview.

Solomon told the council that he uses the two weeks between meetings to discuss the issues with city staff, councilmembers and the public for guidance, so he can "use the meetings productively to make decisions."

Like Keeler, Solomon told the council that disagreements between members could be worked out civilly.

"In my professional experience as a business lawyer, while both sides have the same goals, you still can have serious disagreements … and shake hands afterwards, and know you’ve done a good job," he said.

Solomon also has been active in the community, having served on the board of directors of the Deer Springs Homeowners’ Association and the Las Virgenes Homeowners’ Federation, acting as president in 1998 and 1999. He also served on the government relations committee of that group.

The city council interviewed eight people to fill the two openings on the planning commission.