Braewood neighborhood wants to be gated in Calabasas
By Michael Picarella
pic@theacorn.com

Last night the Calabasas City Council was to discuss gating the Braewood neighborhood along Mulholland Highway near Freedom and Parched drives. Residents of Braewood have complained about youngsters loitering at Freedom Park all hours of the night and causing disturbances.

The Braewood Calabasas Homeowners’ Association wants to install one gate at Freedom Drive and another at Parched Drive. The planning commission recommended the proposal last week to the city council, and the topic will go before council members on Wed., March 24.

"Currently the roads in the (Braewood) community are public roads—they’re a public right-of-way, they’re owned by the city—and (the Braewood HOA) wants to privatize these roads," said Calabasas planner Adrian Fernandez.

Braewood residents hope that by privatizing the neighborhood they can eliminate loitering problems and also address another problem: too many vehicles parked on local streets.

"I understand what the community is going through and that’s why I’m voting for this," said Calabasas Planning Commissioner Dave Brown. "But I’m not in favor of gating communities in principle. I think if we gate every community in Calabasas, then we’re going to become a fragmented city and we will not be a community anymore."

During the day, pedestrian gates would be unlocked for access to Freedom Park.

"There’s a requirement that there’s access to the park at all times during hours of use of the park, which is from dawn to dusk," Fernandez said. The Braewood HOA must provide pedestrian gates and public access through the main gates for the elderly or those with disabilities.

The planning commission asked that all related costs be billed to the Braewood HOA.

"I don’t think it’s appropriate that the taxpayers be the ones to pay for staff to administer this," said Calabasas Planning Commission Chairman Gary Klein.

The gates would remain locked from dusk until dawn, allowing access only by those who live within Braewood.

Brown said that youngsters will probably still get into Freedom Park by hiking over a nearby hill and bypassing the gates altogether.

The city council wasn’t scheduled to take any action on this item last night.

If it does approve the request later this month, the soonest that Braewood could install the gates, according to Fernandez, is June. Braewood must go through standard procedures with the fire department regarding emergency vehicle access before any gates can be installed, he said.