City administrator to leave job in Calabasas




LISA ADAMS/The Acorn  MOVING ON-Steve Craig is the former Calabasas Community Development Director. He was also a major player in the fight against Ahmanson Ranch. Please see related story, upper right.

LISA ADAMS/The Acorn MOVING ON-Steve Craig is the former Calabasas Community Development Director. He was also a major player in the fight against Ahmanson Ranch. Please see related story, upper right.


By Michael Picarella
pic@theacorn.com

A major fighter in the battle to stop the development of Ahman-son Ranch is leaving.


Calabasas Community Development Director Steve Craig was instrumental in saving Ahmanson Ranch, a property north of Calabasas in Ventura County, according to opponents of the project. Craig stepped down from his position recently and will continue working with the city in a much smaller role.


Craig said he’s leaving under pleasant circumstances.


"My understanding with the former city manager, Don Duckworth, was that once Ahmanson Ranch was acquired, I would return to consulting in other cities and I would again limit my role in Calabasas to environmental and open space-related activities."


Craig said he enjoyed working with different city councils and commissions and that Calabasas was one of his favorites.


"I’ve worked for many beautifully designed and wealthy cities such as Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and San Francisco, and yet I was emotionally unmoved," Craig said. "I’ve worked for cities in the early stages of their modern development such as Fillmore, Santa Clarita, Ventura, Moorpark, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, which are similar in some ways to Calabasas in their stage of evolution. Calabasas, though, had a unique quality which is reflected in two things: the talent and vision of its councils and the overall sense that democracy in this city is real and truly authentic."


Craig said he’s glad to be returning to his previous role as the city’s contracted environmental and open-space coordinator.


"Frankly, I’m less skilled as an administrator," Craig said. "In my judgment, what the city now needs is a strong administrator, someone who can link and integrate the various city departments and lead the effort to complete the civic center and a number of other projects."


Craig started working in Calabasas as an environmental coordinator shortly after the city’s incorporation in 1991. About eight years later, the city manager invited Craig to serve as the community development director during a difficult period when the city was seeking to stop the development of Ahmanson Ranch and preserve it as open space.


"Prior to this experience, I had worked in about 50 cities, four counties and for numerous public agencies in Central and Southern California doing planning, environ-mental and expert witness work," Craig said. 


"I’ve also worked for a number of private clients over the years as an environmental consultant, working to design developments that preserve rather than destroy environmental resources."


Craig will be missed.


"The knowledge that he’s accumulated, not only about Calabasas but about the whole Southern California region in terms of planning issues and environmental issues, has been very valuable," said Calabasas City Councilman James Bozajian. "I felt he kept very much on top of the Ahmanson Ranch issue and was able to help (council members) on a daily basis if we didn’t understand something or if we weren’t familiar with all the environmental regulations or the administrative agencies involved."


Craig said he’s proud of his work with Calabasas, particularly regarding Ahmanson Ranch.


"I suppose the highlight of my career in Calabasas was working with the city council and the Ahmanson legal team to derive a winning legal and public relations strategy for the acquisition of what’s now called the Upper Las Virgenes Open Space Preserve (formerly Ahmanson Ranch)," Craig said. "This was a nearly 10-year effort and drew upon all my skills and mental and physical reserves. 


"The effort called for use of all my knowledge about CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act), NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act), the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and other environmentally protective laws," Craig said. 


The future looks bright for Craig.


"My most exciting new projects outside of this region near my home (a small family farm in southern Monterey County) involve lobbying work and scientific studies supporting the creation of the new Big Sur National Forest," Craig said.


The project, proposed by U.S. Rep. Sam Farr (D-Carmel), involves proposed restoration and protection of adobes in Central California. Craig hopes to expand his involvement in streambed restoration, which, he said, "integrates my interests with those of my life partner, landscape architect Charles Rowley of San Francisco."


Now that Craig has stepped down from his position in Calabasas, he’ll have more time on his hands, he said. He looks forward to spending more time with his daughter. 


"Probably of greatest significance personally, my daughter, Sienna Craig, a linguist and public health facility program designer, will soon return from Tibet where she has lived and worked for nearly a decade constructing hospitals, installing solar systems for monasteries and serving as the development advisor to the Tibetan Kingdoms of Mustang and Dolpo," Craig said. "I’ll soon become a grandfather and plan to spend considerable time with my new grandchild during the first year of his or her life." 


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