Cityhood Prospect Becomes Lever to Pressure Builder

Homeowners in Calabasas have decided to start reaping the benefits of cityhood--even though it will be at least nine months before they can even vote on incorporation.

Residents of Calabasas Park, a wealthy enclave of Calabasas, said Wednesday night that they will use the cityhood campaign as a weapon to force a quick settlement of a lingering dispute over a major commercial project proposed for their neighborhood’s front door.

If the developer refuses to scale down the project, homeowners said, they will tie up the proposal with protests to Los Angeles County that will stall development until after an expected incorporation vote is held in November.

Would Face City Council

Then, if voters approve cityhood, the developer will have to apply to them and their new city council for permission to build, residents said.

The unusual strategy was outlined as 125 Calabasas Park residents met to review developments proposed for their master-planned community of 1,100 homes at the southwestern edge of the San Fernando Valley.

During the session, four subdividers disclosed residential construction plans for the rear of Calabasas Park that could nearly quadruple the size of the community over the next 10 years.

But it was the 52-acre commercial development proposed for the front of Calabasas Park that raised the hackles of homeowners.

The future of the site next to Calabasas Road has been a major worry for residents since 1984, when previous owners of the property filed for county permission to bulldoze a steep hill and erect a 10-building commercial complex.

Homeowners fiercely protested the bulldozing at the time, arguing that the hill is an important buffer protecting their expensive lakeside homes from noise from nearby Ventura Freeway.

The developers reacted to the opposition by dropping their grading plans and promising to redesign the project. Last year, however, they sold the site.

Leaders of the Calabasas Park Homeowners Assn. said they learned two months ago that the new owner, a partnership involving the huge H. F. Ahmanson & Co., has suggested a pair of 10-story buildings with 1.6 million square feet of office space for the site.

“We told them we didn’t think that would work,” said Robert Hill, a former president of the association who now heads the Calabasas Cityhood Committee.

“I think we set them back enough so they stopped to think about what they’re doing,” Hill told his neighbors. He said the partnership has suggested a series of meetings with homeowners starting next month.

Call for Hard-Line Approach

Residents at Wednesday night’s meeting urged a hard-line approach with the builders. “After what’s happened with that property, if they came back to us with two 10-story buildings, they can’t be trusted,” one homeowner shouted.

Hill, whose cityhood committee learned this week that its incorporation petition has been approved by the county as the first step toward a November vote, said that has given homeowners unexpected clout in negotiating with the developers. The incorporation move so far has attracted wide support from residents of a 30-square-mile area between Woodland Hills and Agoura Hills.

“If we become a city in November and they haven’t gotten their plan approved by the county, they come to us,” Hill said. “The last thing they want is to drag this out.”

James Foley, homeowners association president, said his group, which previously raised $30,000 virtually overnight to hire lawyers and lobbyists to defeat the hill-grading plan, is ready to fight just as hard again.

“It’s fairly obvious why the developers want to move quickly. It puts us in a good bargaining position,” he said.

Ahmanson development officials could not be reached for comment Thursday. However, county planning department administrators said no hearing for the project has been scheduled.

Will Work With Homeowners

Calabasas Park’s residential developers, meanwhile, have pledged to work closely with homeowners as they map out the final phases of the community’s construction, said Myra Turek, vice president of the Calabasas Park association.

The four developers have tentative plans for about 2,800 new homes on undeveloped land between existing Calabasas Park neighborhoods and Las Virgenes Road, Turek said.

Foley said the remaining residential construction will take up to 12 years. The last phase will occur when about 2,000 homes are built on the 1,300-acre western flank of the community, he said.

James Harter, planning director for the developers, Irvine-based Baldwin Co., said the firm will confer with residents as it designs roads and several small commercial sites for the western land.