Developer Tries to Gain Support of Homeowners in Calabasas

A land developer blamed for torpedoing Calabasas’ cityhood drive last year is trying to win over angry homeowners in an attempt to get a controversial subdivision built.

Irvine-based builder Jim Baldwin has switched project managers for his proposed 1,290-acre Calabasas Park subdivision and hired public relations specialists to smooth things over with residents.

Baldwin’s new development team has begun a series of negotiating sessions with residents by saying that the company is willing to scale back the size of the project.

In exchange, the company wants the influential Calabasas Park Homeowners Assn. and Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation to drop opposition to the proposed luxury home development.

So far, Baldwin has reportedly offered to cut the density of the proposed 1,487-home tract by nearly two-thirds--to a maximum of 550 houses.

Homeowners are holding out for a maximum of 350 homes. And they are demanding that the company scrap plans to extend either Calabasas Road or Parkway Calabasas through the new tract to a proposed connection with Las Virgenes Road.

Alternative to Freeway

Extension of either Calabasas Road or Parkway Calabasas has long been viewed as a necessary highway improvement by Los Angeles County road officials anxious to have an alternate route to the Ventura Freeway over the Calabasas Grade.

The Baldwin acreage covers the hilly western half of Calabasas Park. It bisects the 10-square-mile community of Calabasas west of the San Fernando Valley, separating residential areas on the east from tax-generating businesses and industry along Las Virgenes Road on the west.

When Baldwin took legal steps to prevent his property from being included 16 months ago in a proposed city of Calabasas, the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission was forced to reject the incorporation application as financially unfeasible.

Cityhood supporters were infuriated when Baldwin’s sister--supposedly acting only as an “interested citizen” safeguarding county funds--filed a lawsuit that would block county funding for brush-fire protection within the proposed city limits if incorporation occurred.

Without that $675,800 payment, the commission ruled that Calabasas could not afford to incorporate.

Angry Calabasas homeowners countered by stepping up their opposition to a county master plan change sought by Baldwin that would allow him to build the 1,487 homes. The master plan calls for a maximum of 138 houses on the rugged site.

Compromise Urged

When the project’s density became an election issue last fall, County Supervisor Mike Antonovich traveled to Calabasas Park to announce that he would favor construction of no more than 350 homes. At the same time, he asked Baldwin officials to try to reach a compromise with homeowners on all details of the project.

After months of meetings, both sides describe the negotiations as cordial. Both sides agree that some hard feelings remain, however.

“I think basically what you can say is we are talking,” said Myra Turek, president of the Calabasas Park Homeowners Assn. “We feel we have made a big concession, a very big one, in agreeing to 350 homes that the supervisor called for. We have done an awful lot of compromising already.”

Said Jeff Taub, president of the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation: “I think the discussions are a good-faith effort. But at this time, it’s kind of in Baldwin’s court.”

Homeowners contend that the road extensions would funnel unacceptable amounts of outside traffic through the residential Calabasas Park area on the south side of the Ventura Freeway. They say a soon-to-be-built section of Mureau Road on the north side of the freeway will provide a suitable alternate route over the Calabasas Grade.

More Homes Feared

According to Taub and others, Baldwin would be required to build and sell more homes in order to cover the estimated $12 million to $66 million cost of extending either Calabasas Road or Parkway Calabasas through the rugged foothills.

Baldwin’s new Calabasas project manager, Robert Burns, said his company is willing to yield on the number of homes. He said the company is also willing to delete the road extension from its plans if the county will agree.

Burns acknowledged that the Baldwin Co. got off on the wrong foot in Calabasas.

“No question, it was a power struggle,” he said. “We initially asked something perhaps overly ambitious. The community asked something perhaps overly conservative.”

Because Baldwin did not live in the area, “he didn’t understand the feelings there,” Burns said. “The previous project manager was a West Pointer, a take-charge kind of guy. I’m a talker. I was brought in to see if we couldn’t get the dialogue going.”

Burns declined to reveal how low Baldwin will go when it comes to deciding the minimum number of homes to be built. He would not say where the company’s present offer to homeowners stands. He indicated that the density issue will eventually be determined in part by the county’s decision on the road requirement.

For their part, county officials say such a decision could be months away.

David Vannatta, chief land-use deputy for Antonovich, said county roads officials would have to study Mureau Road to determine whether it can serve as an effective alternate route over the grade. He said the zigzagging roadway would not provide a straight freeway bypass that some road planners have hoped for.

“We’d look to public works to tell us whether a road extension through Baldwin’s land is a necessity or just something that would be nice to have,” Vannatta said Friday.

No Apology

Homeowners point out that Baldwin officials have not asked the county to amend its long-range master plan to delete the road, however. And they say Baldwin representatives have neither apologized for killing the cityhood campaign nor withdrawn the lawsuit filed by Baldwin’s sister, Rita Noel Humphry.

“Their lawsuit enjoining LAFCO from hearing us is still in place,” said Dennis Washburn, vice president of the cityhood campaign committee. “I think Baldwin is trying hard to make up. But there’s still a great deal of hostility from citizens in the community.”

Bob Hill, president of the cityhood committee, said the lawsuit has not delayed his group from resuming its incorporation drive.

“We haven’t lost any time. Even under the best conditions, it would probably be September or so before we’d refile. We’re waiting for a full year of financial data,” Hill said.

He predicted that 1988-89 tax revenue figures from state and county officials will prove that Calabasas will be healthy enough financially to survive as an independent city.

“We’re very encouraged by the communication with Baldwin,” Hill said. “By putting another person on the project and starting out on another foot, they have tried to get over the past.”

Burns said his company left the lawsuit “lying dormant” while it hurried to get the negotiations going.

“Our position has been to leave everything where it is, and let’s sit down and try to unscramble this situation,” he said. “They very much want a city. We’d very much like to support one. But it has to be one that respects our property rights.”