$150-Million Complex Divided Residents : County Planners OK Calabasas Office Project

A $150-million office and hotel proposal supported by one group of Calabasas Park residents but opposed by another was approved Wednesday by a similarly divided Los Angeles County Planning Commission.

Planners voted 3 to 2 to let the Ahmanson Commercial Development Corp. construct a 12-building complex on 67 acres at the southeast corner of Calabasas Road and Parkway Calabasas.

Before construction can be completed, Ahmanson officials must contribute $6 million to a fund that will help pay for a new $10-million Parkway Calabasas-Ventura Freeway interchange at the edge of the project site.

The 1.5-million-square-foot commercial project was supported by the long-established Calabasas Park Homeowners Assn., which spent two years negotiating with Ahmanson officials over the project’s size and design.

Ridge Preserved

Calabasas Park residents persuaded Ahmanson to preserve a ridge that runs along the south side of the development site. The ridge blocks their view of the site.

Ahmanson also pledged to direct traffic from the project away from Calabasas Park residential areas and time its development to correspond with construction of the new freeway interchange.

The project site separates the original Calabasas Park residential neighborhood from an existing strip of offices and shops between Calabasas Road and the Ventura Freeway.

During the negotiations, Ahmanson officials agreed to reduce the height of their proposed buildings from 10 stories to six--a height that was later dropped to five stories at the request of county planners.

“As long as we can exit our homes and save ridge tops and open space, we’ve done our job,” Myra Turek, president of the Calabasas Park association, said after Wednesday’s commission vote in downtown Los Angeles.

But the Ahmanson plan was criticized by members of the newly formed Westridge Homeowners Assn. Members said they were unaware of the extent of the development proposal when they bought their homes last year. Their neighborhood of 112 luxury homes is just west of the Ahmanson site and has only recently been completed and occupied.

Westridge’s lone gate-guarded entrance is across Parkway Calabasas from the Ahmanson site. Some Westridge homeowners will look down upon Ahmanson’s office buildings and parking structures.

“It’s a travesty. I’m just sick,” said Marcia Abab, who lives in one of the new $1-million Westridge homes.

‘Small Century City’

“I consider it like putting a small Century City or Warner Center in front of our homes,” said Beverly Sondel, a Westridge association director. “We’ll be left without access to our homes in an emergency.”

Westridge residents had planned Wednesday to ask commissioners to order Ahmanson to lower the height of all buildings to two stories. But planners, who had conducted three previous public hearings on the project in recent months, did not take new testimony.

Commissioners Betty Fisher and J. Paul Robinson voted against the project.

“I’ve always been concerned about traffic that is out there,” Fisher said. “Putting this on top of it would be terribly burdensome for the people there.”

Robinson said he was worried about the construction phases and whether the proposed new Valley Circle interchange will be finished before the hotel and offices are occupied.

Two other commissioners--Lee Strong and Clinton Ternstrom--expressed unhappiness over the size of the project and potential traffic headaches it may cause.

But they voted to let construction begin when planning staff members told them that the county can hold up the project’s occupancy permits if traffic improvements in the area are not finished before the first phase of the project is completed.

The commission’s action is final unless appealed to the County Board of Supervisors.