Civic Center gets green light in Calabasas

The Calabasas City Council unanimously approved final design plans for the new civic center on Park Sorrento next to The Commons. The $27 million city hall, theater and library complex will come in on time and on budget, city officials said.

VIEW FROM THE TOP—A photograph of the civic center modelThe city scrapped original plans for an underground parking lot and moved the 50 parking spots to the theater site. The move, which would save the city about $4 million, allows the project to stay on budget, according to planners.

Some several members of the nonprofit Spotlight the Arts group were concerned that the alteration in the civic center site plan would negatively affect the theater plans.

SHOW PLACE—The new civic center includes city hall and library.“No one is turning against the concept of having a performing arts center in Calabasas,” said Calabasas Mayor Pro Tem Dennis Washburn, a member of the civic center task force. “There are a lot of rules yet to write and no one has put any rules down at this point that would prevent us from having all the dreams that we have fulfilled.” Spotlight the Arts, founded early this year, is trying to raise funds for the theater. Spotlight co-chair Toby Keeler said the community needs the theater so that groups will no longer have to perform in school multipurpose rooms and other venues.

The city set aside a 6,000-squarefoot theater space in January. Spotlight needed the reservation because nobody would donate money for a theater if there’s no place to put it, Keeler said.

The 7.7-acre civic center site includes a one-story, 25,700squarefoot public library with a 3,000square foot assembly hall; a twostory, 27,700-square-foot city hall; a public plaza with fountains and monuments; an outdoor amphitheater; and pathways that will allow pedestrian access to The Commons and adjacent developments.

Square footage on the community theater will be 6,000 to 7,000, according to plans.

Spotlight members and theater supporters said they feared the parking alterations would cripple the theater site aesthetically. They also worried they might have to downsize the theater or pay for additional parking costs.

“We are not removing the theater, as I heard one person say,” Washburn said. “And we are not putting an undue burden on any of the folks who are looking to create more value in this community (with the theater project). We will solve the problems together.” According to City Council and task force member Jonathan Wolfson, the above-ground parking will remain at the theater site until theater construction begins.

“The city will be responsible for those 50 (parking) spots,” Wolfson said. “(The parking lot) will have to go somewhere, whether it’s underground on the site there or somewhere else in the plan.... We’re not trying to put a road block in front of (Spotlight the Arts’) fundraising and the possibility of a theater there.” “Spotlight the Arts is not separate from this community,” Washburn said. “I certainly don’t hope that there’s an ‘us versus them’ feeling. If there has been, I’d like to dispel that. The first $18,000 (Spotlight donation) came out of this city.” The city’s next step is to select a general contractor for the project.

Officials expect to break ground on the civic center in spring of 2006.

The anticipated finish date is December 2007.

Washburn said he’s been at work on the civic center project for 10 years and has seen many different project renderings.

“Each time (the project) has been refined, it has gotten better,” Washburn said. “Even though we’ve had to economize along the way— all of us are learning what it takes to deal with the current economic forces that we’re facing in this world.” “The construction cost budget that we have is $27.3 million,” said Maureen Tamuri, Calabasas Community Development director. “We believe that this project will fall within a target range. . . . As the council is aware, we’ve had a lot of fluctuations in our bid market because of material. We are also competing with $15 billion worth of new school construction and other types of public projects that are quickly consuming the construction community in the area.” For more information about the Calabasas Civic Center project, visit them online at www.cityof calabasas.com.