Apartment developer now wants single-family homes
By Sharon Makokian
Acorn Staff Writer

The Calabasas City Council last week sent a modified development plan back to its planning commission, which could end years of contention about an 11.63-acre site located on the east side of Las Virgenes Road, just south of Agoura Road.

The developer, Pazar Associates, came before the council to appeal the planning commission’s rejection of its proposal to build a 134-unit luxury apartment complex on the land, located within the city’s Scenic Corridor and the Las Virgenes Gateway Master Plan.

After years of debate over the proposed apartment complex, the developer changed a plan to construct 48 single-family homes on the land and asked that the new plan be treated as a modification of an existing proposal. This would enable the developer to proceed without going through all the steps and fees associated with a new project.

Although some councilmem-bers disagreed with that assessment, in the end they voted unanimously to treat it as a modification and sent it back to the planning commission, where it will again go through scrutiny and public hearings.

The original project had been in the works for many years and even waited through a building moratorium that was imposed in 1998, when the Gateway Master Plan was being written.

Over the years, the nearby Stone Creek Homeowners’ Association vehemently opposed the project, but now it favors the new plan.

"We were against the apartment complex all along, but (developer) Pamela Azar came to us with the modifications and Stone Creek is for that," said George Spourdos, president of the association, who asked the city council to treat the new project as a modification.

Several other Stone Creek homeowners spoke in agreement.

Neighbor Erik Pontoppidan told the council he liked the decreased density (from 134 apartments to 48 houses) on the land, but felt it "imperative that (the development) meet the Las Virgenes Corridor Plan."

"It’s time to put this project to bed. I see (the changes) as a modification," said Mayor Pro Tem Lesley Devine.

However, City Councilman Michael Harrison disagreed, saying it was "doublespeak" to call the new plan a "modification."

"I’m glad that Stone Creek supports the project, but that doesn’t make it a modification," he said.

City Councilman Dennis Washburn agreed, however, with Devine, asking his colleagues to treat it as a modification to expedite matters.

"I think that expeditiousness would be kind to the people working on this for 10 years," he said.

Mayor Janice Lee emphasized that the project "should go back to the planning commission and heard on its own merits, as do all other projects."

Although some councilmem-bers wanted a joint meeting with the planning commission to discuss the issue, Lee said she was "not inclined to encourage a joint meeting for every project that has contentiousness."

The motion for a joint meeting was voted down and the project was remanded to the planning commission. It will come back to the council after the commission makes its decision.