Planners Vote to Maintain Old Town Western Zoning : Calabasas: Some residents hope permanent development guidelines will lead to stricter rules.

In a continued drive to preserve the Western flavor of Old Town Calabasas, the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission on Wednesday voted to turn temporary development guidelines into permanent zoning law.

The requirement that all future commercial development undergo review by the commission and that it fit into the Western theme is subject to approval by the Board of Supervisors. The supervisors initiated a temporary emergency measure in March to prevent a developer from demolishing the Kramer Store, a turn-of-the-century wooden structure, to make way for a three-story modern office building.

Old Town Calabasas contains the remnants of a village that served as a stagecoach stop during the last century.

Calabasas residents are scheduled to vote on incorporation in March, but even if the area becomes an independent city, Tuesday’s action is far from moot, county planners and local activists agreed.

Initially, the city will adopt existing county zoning and it may take new officials months to come up with their own regulations, said Dave Corwin, county planner.

Bob Ronka, a member of the Old Town Calabasas Coalition, also said many residents hope the more restrictive zoning will be a springboard for even stricter rules regarding protection of old structures and design of new ones.

“In the past, it was extremely insensitive and inappropriate for someone to come in and knock down an old building, but there was no law to stop that,” he said.

A representative of the developer who prompted last year’s emergency ordinance tried unsuccessfully to persuade the planning commission to exempt the property--at El Canon Avenue and Calabasas Road--from Tuesday’s vote.

The developer, which was identified as Tandam Builders Inc. last year but now goes by the name Calabasas Junction Ltd., has been negotiating with the Old Town coalition for months to try to address local concerns about its project, said Wendy Brogin, a Tandam consultant.

The commission’s action could force them into more months of delay if Calabasas is incorporated, she said. “We’d basically be a dead duck in the water.”

But Commissioner Lee Strong said: “To excuse this property is an exercise in futility. This is the entrance . . . to Old Town.”

Compromises made by the developer include proposing a wooden exterior instead of a steel and stucco facade, moving the building back from the street and adding wooden sidewalks, according to Ronka and the developer’s construction manager Charles Kneif. An old oak tree slated for removal also would be saved. The two said that final agreement is near.

Yet some confusion lingered about the fate of the Kramer Store. Kneif said it is too termite-ridden to be saved but would be replaced with a replica. Ronka said a historic preservation expert told them it could be restored.