Calabasas Cityhood Drive Ready to Surface Again

Proponents of a failed cityhood campaign for Calabasas said Friday they are preparing to launch another drive to establish a city.

Robert Hill, president of the Calabasas Cityhood Committee, said an influx of businesses and an anticipated increase in tax revenue have inspired committee leaders to consider mounting another incorporation drive.

“We’re in the beginning stages of talking now, and we’re about to start up again,” Hill said. “We feel the economics have changed in our favor, and the sentiment is still strong here among residents that they want to become a city.”

Hill said the committee was frustrated but not discouraged when the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission last year rejected the incorporation application, saying Calabasas’ tax base was insufficient to support a city.

LAFCO is one of 57 county-based agencies set up by the state Legislature in 1963 to oversee incorporations and annexations. It has broad authority to reject cityhood proposals and redraw proposed municipal boundaries.

The Calabasas committee claimed that LAFCO based its finding that the city would be $450,000 in debt after its first year on inaccurate financial projections.

The cityhood backers claimed that Los Angeles County figures showed that the new city, which would have an area of about 10 square miles, would have had a $2.7-million cash surplus by the end of its first year.

Hill said a number of sizable businesses, including car dealerships and hotels, have recently set up shop in Calabasas, increasing the tax base. “Knowing that, there’s a real willingness to try again,” he said.

He said members of the core cityhood group would meet soon to step up their incorporation efforts.

The committee may gain added incentive from legislation signed by Gov. George Deukmejian earlier this week that allows cityhood proponents to challenge LAFCO’s decisions.

The bill, authored by state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), who represents Calabasas, stipulates that LAFCO would have to make public all records and documentation that support its decision. In addition, LAFCO officials would have to determine whether a proposed city would be financially viable during its first three years, not just its first year.

“We’ve felt that the commission has often fallen down on their decisions and only provides incomplete records on how they came to their conclusions,” said Charles Fennessy, a legal consultant for Davis. “This will require them to be more full and complete in their rulings.”

He said LAFCO often overestimates the expenses of a proposed city and underestimates its potential revenues.

Fennessy said the legislation should encourage organizers of the revived Calabasas incorporation effort. “They were really frustrated by the process before,” he said. “They felt it was arbitrary and capricious. But now they may have a viable opportunity.”