Highlands debate

At the Nov. 15 Calabasas City Council meeting, after receiving an environmental accommodation from Assembly Member Fran Pavley, the city staff did everything in its power to circumvent environmental responsibility and "move this forward" (to use Mayor Washburn's phrase) the "inevitable" development of every single remaining legal lot in the Calabasas Highlands historic subdivision, without California Environmental Quality Act review.

Testimony from John Hodder, director of California Wetlands Research, talked about the project's potential impacts to the drainage and arroyo habitat downhill of the project. Hodder noted that federally endangered species such as the arroyo toad and California gnatcatcher may inhabit the site or forage there.

Hodder also concluded that the biology report prepared by the Sage Institute only considered potential impacts to the site itself. The report did not consider po

tential impacts to the area downstream of the site or other nearby habitats.

The project may cause a significant effect to the environment, and that exempting the project from CEQA in the face of such substantial evidence would constitute a prejudicial abuse of discretion.

Yet, rather than proceed in an environmentally cautious and responsible manner, after endless reassurances from staff that the application approved by the Planning Commission would actually "make things better," the project was approved in a deadlock vote of 2-2. Only council members Mauer and Bozajian had the vision to understand that the biological discrepancies warranted further investigation.

Once again we see the hypocrisy of a city pretending to be environmentally enlightened when, in fact, the only real goal is the "inevitable" development and buildout of the remaining rural lands. Toby Keeler Calabasas