New Hearing Ordered : Calabasas Opponents Get Final Shot at Apartments

Calabasas homeowners who last year failed in an attempt to block a 698-unit apartment complex planned for their neighborhood may soon have a new chance to argue against the project--despite the fact that construction has begun.

Los Angeles County has been ordered to conduct a new public hearing on the project to formally rescind an earlier development agreement that called for 560 condominiums to be built on the 56-acre site, county officials said Wednesday.

Although the county followed most of the required procedures in enlarging the original project, officials neglected one technical but important step--negating the old condominium plan.

Last Chance

The chances of the homeowners stopping the project are slim, but they seized upon the technical error in a last-ditch attempt to continue their fight.

The new hearing was ordered by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Irving Weil, who ruled on a lawsuit filed by homeowners after the county Board of Supervisors approved the apartment version of the project last June 12.

The $60-million development is being built by the Casden Co. It is being partly financed by a county bond program that will require that some units be reserved as “affordable” rentals for low- and moderate-income families.

In a Flood Plain

The project was opposed by the Malibu Canyon Homeowners Assn. The group argued that the apartment site is in a geologically unstable flood plain and complained that the development would add to traffic and school crowding.

Homeowners’ attorney G. Greg Aftergood said the suit was filed to “reopen the hearing for more discussion” and to make the county accountable for the 1983 condominium development agreement.

Aftergood said homeowners were unable to seek an injunction to halt construction while the lawsuit was being prepared because of the cost of a bond that courts require the association to post while the suit is being heard.

Karen A. Lichtenberg, deputy county counsel, said the time and place for the new hearing have not been set.

But Lichtenberg said testimony may be restricted to the technical issue of rescinding the original development agreement rather than the merits of the overall apartment project.