Rush of Change Has Hit Hard in Calabasas, ‘Last of the West’

Even by Calabasas standards, next week’s launching of a community cityhood campaign shapes up as offbeat.

On Tuesday morning, incorporation leader Louis Melson is scheduled to meet with Los Angeles County officials to explain why he and his West Valley neighbors deserve the chance to vote on their municipal independence.

Immediately after that, Melson plans to meet with FBI officials to explain why he feels some of his neighbors deserve to go to jail because of an act of vandalism directed at him over a zoning dispute.

Both cases reflect the concern over the future of Calabasas, originally a legendary Old West robbers’ nest and country crossroads that for decades hung a noose on an old hangman’s tree on its main street.

The tree is gone. And, nearby, the modest Calabasas Road clapboard storefronts that as recently as 10 years ago still housed the community’s original garage, general store and saloon have been recycled into trendy boutiques and restaurants.

At the edge of town, grazing land now crossed by the Ventura Freeway is being eyed by developers for what could become the Valley’s last large-scale housing tracts.

‘Last of the West’

The rush of change has hit hard at the community that proclaims itself “The Last of the West.”

Alarmed by heavy traffic generated by new commercial centers along Calabasas Road, residents last summer managed to temporarily block development of an adjoining 52-acre business park. Since then, Calabasas Park homeowners on the east side of town have begun negotiating with landowners to minimize the effect of grading and traffic.

On the west side, some residents of the Malibu Canyon Park tract have protested an 800-unit apartment project proposed for a 51-acre parcel next to their homes. The homeowners claim the apartments would destroy the rural atmosphere and would be built in a dangerous, flood-prone area.

Melson, a 71-year-old retired businessman, supported the apartment plan in testimony two weeks ago before the county planning commission. Last week, his Malibu Canyon Park home was vandalized and a knife-stabbed voodoo doll in his likeness was left on his front porch.

Melson feels the the attack was intended to scare him and other apartment supporters into silence when pro-apartment testimony is solicited Jan. 14 by county planning commissioners. Although sheriff’s deputies are investigating, Melson said he feels the attack constitutes a civil rights violation and that the FBI should also investigate.

The pending incorporation campaign is viewed by some as the last chance to preserve Calabasas before its identity is eroded from within by developers or from without by neighboring cities.

The City of Los Angeles to the east has already annexed half of the historic blocklong Calabasas “downtown.” The city limit runs down the middle of Calabasas Road and the town’s oldest building, the 140-year-old Leonis Adobe, actually lies within Los Angeles.

To the west, officials of the fledgling city of Agoura Hills have petitioned county officials for permission to include hundreds of acres of the western edge of Calabasas in their “sphere of influence” in a move that could set the stage for eventual annexation into Agoura Hills. The county Local Agency Formation Commission is scheduled to rule on the sphere application on Jan. 9.

Cityhood would provide protection from the outsiders, said Doris LaViolette, a member of Melson’s incorporation steering committee and a resident of a neighborhood targeted to be in Agoura Hills’ sphere of influence.

“People in Calabasas Park keep saying they don’t want to be swallowed up by Los Angeles, and people in Malibu Canyon Park, where I live, don’t want to be annexed into Agoura Hills,” she said.

Private Meeting

Melson said the incorporation effort will start with a private meeting Tuesday with Ruth Benell, executive officer of the formation commission.

At that time, he expects to learn of the steps cityhood backers must take for the commission to review the legality and economic feasibility of incorporation. If the concept passes muster, the formation commission is required by law to set a cityhood election.

An incorporation study committee made up of Calabasas homeowner-group leaders, residents, landowner-developers and businessmen will be established Jan. 31, Melson said. The committee will gauge public opinion in the 2,764-home area and plan a petition campaign needed to formally initiate formation commission proceedings.

“I see it being about a 3 1/2-year process because we don’t have a tax base here yet that would support a city,” Melson said. “But we have a lot of commercial businesses being built that will be contributing to tax revenues in the future.”

The general boundaries of the city would be the Los Angeles and Hidden Hills city limits to the east, the Ventura County line to the north, Agoura Hills to the west and Mulholland Highway to the south.

“But, if any areas inside there don’t want to be in the city, that’s fine. No questions asked--we won’t include them,” Melson said.

‘99 1/2% Good People’

In spite of the vandalism, Melson said he feels Calabasas has “99 1/2% good people” who will create a successful city if incorporation is approved.