Condos planned for scenic corridor

At the last Calabasas City Council meeting, Barry Groveman, Dennis Washburn and Jon Wolfson voted to approve 86 condos in massive three-story buildings along Las Virgenes Road, a designated scenic corridor, adding 504 new car trips per day.

The developer has been given additional units and reduced parking requirements, and, although the project is right next to the Shea project that was such a grading disaster, the city claimed there wasn't time to ask for a full geology report on the project, in spite of the fact that the project has been in the planning department in one stage or another for years now.

Groveman pushed repeatedly to approve the project as presented without any modifications, reductions or concessions, in spite of the fact that community organizations on the west side of Calabasas voiced many objections to the project.

Groveman has commented extensively on his absolute faith and reliance on city staff. That same city staff reported that the Council had previously voted down the 40 homes, though there is no record of such a vote.

That is the same staff who reported that tandem parking is superior to parking garages. And this is the same city staff who, in the face of objections about road widening, have stated in writing that the city intends to use its eminent domain power to take the property of the Pontoppidans, who own the land on the west side of Las Virgenes Road, if they refuse to sell it to the city so that the city can widen the road to accommodate the new development it is approving.

The Standard Pacific proposal went from 40 single-family homes at approximately 100,000 square feet and 380 car trips to 86 condos at 170,000 square feet and 504 car trips per day. No attention has ever been given to the environmentally superior alternative proposed in the environmental impact report of 13 estate homes generating just 169 car trips per day.

It seems we have become what we once incorporated to escape. Mary Hubbard Calabasas