Officials created housing problem

The idea that “local officials in Calabasas are taking action to find more affordable housing” is really too little too late. Incredibly, these are the very same Calabasas officials who created the problem and are now discovering the median housing price in Calabasas is now $1 million and people working in Calabasas and providing services to their community can’t afford to live in the community.

In 1992 the Mountain View Estates Homeowners Association, out of concerns for the maintenance of their property values, started a fund to fight the proposed Ahmanson Ranch project. They believed the smaller, more affordable housing in quantity, would jeopardize property values in their enclave of large homes. The anti-Ahmanson movement progressed when Calabasas also declared war on the project. The “party line” became the preservation of open space.

Later, Los Angeles County was enlisted as an ally, using the 101 traffic excuse. In reality, the Ahmanson Ranch project was a dream community designed to preserve the majority of the land in its pristine state, offer large greenbelt areas, provide schools for the residents and at the same time offer a mix of luxury and affordable housing.

There is only one solution to our high cost of housing. Provide a supply to satisfy the demand and prices will be realistic. So long as selfish, short-term solution advocates determine policy, using conservation as an excuse, Calabasas will only apply a band-aid to the problem with subsidized housing.

Worthy, well-planned developmental projects have and continue to offer long term solutions.

Conservation and planned communities can co-exist. Norman Shubert Westlake Village