Calabasas no-growth residents speak loud and clear

EDITORIAL

The embattled West Village condominium and retail store development at the intersection of Agoura and Las Virgenes roads likely took its last dying breath Monday when the City Council voted unanimously to oppose the 77- acre project at the foothills of the Calabasas grade.

Las Virgenes Road running from the freeway south to Malibu Creek State Park has long been a flash point in the tug of war between developers and residents. The once rural roadway flanked by rolling hills and chaparral grassland is now dotted with stores, condos and office buildings. A new hotel is being built where the road meets the 101 Freeway. West Village would have occupied one of the last remaining open space areas on the city’s scenic west side, and it did not sit well with the Calabasas citizenry.

Voters signaled their feelings about open space when they approved the city’s Measure D in 2005. The open space initiative won by a whopping 84% to 16%, and in the 16 years since then not an inch of Calabasas city land zoned as open space has been lost to development. The measure was renewed in 2015.

The problem with New Home Company, the developer, is that they wanted to encroach upon 22 of the project’s 66 acres of open space with concrete shoring and landslide buttressing. (The buildings would have sat on a separate 11 acres). Critics felt that because the open space was being encroached upon, the project should be subject to a vote of the people, per Measure D. Whether the landslide remediation and concrete protection of the fields constituted actual open space encroachment is debatable, but the point is now moot because when West Village went before the City Council on May 17, it lost by a 5-0 vote. Councilmember David Shapiro, who supported the Canyon Oaks development at the same location, which also failed, voted against West Village.

What next?

The developer could come back with an even smaller plan—the same site has been fiddled with for more than five years—in hopes of a more favorable vote by the council. Or they could file a lawsuit, which seems a likely bet because the builder had the necessary zoning and they had a plan that checked off most of the city’s building and environmental requirements.

Most, but not all.

In the end, West Village, downsized or not, would have scarred some of the city’s only remaining open space and added more cars to an already traffic-laden Las Virgenes Road. The area is dangerously fire-prone—more congestion is exactly what is not needed.

The downside for Calabasas?

Once again the city is left grappling with the problem of how to bring more homes to the city as required by state law. Plus, 27 of the 180 condos would have been affordably priced. For now, Calabasas appears to be closed for business, and new home buyers will have to go elsewhere.