Calabasas Voters Approve Cityhood by Large Margin : Election: More than 90% of the count supports incorporation. Five leaders of the drive win seats on the new City Council.

Calabasas residents, who have been fighting to free themselves from county zoning authority for more than a decade, voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to establish the county’s 88th incorporated city.

They also elected five leaders of the cityhood campaign to serve on the first City Council, which will face the task of establishing services, a long-range plan, and governmental structures for the new municipality.

“It’s overwhelming, the culmination of so many years,” said Marvin Lopata, a successful council candidate who served as treasurer of the cityhood committee for five years. “My God, it’s here. We are a city.”

Of the new city’s 9,292 registered voters, 4,167 cast ballots, with 91% of them supporting incorporation, according to the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s office. Only 9% voted against cityhood for the about 11-square-mile area, which is home to about 27,000 people.

The 45% voter turnout confirmed the depth of feeling in the area over the cityhood issue, cityhood campaign leaders said.

“The results vindicate the community’s desire to be independent and self-governing,” said Dennis Washburn, first vice president of the cityhood committee, who was elected to the council with more votes than any other candidate. “We really meant it.”

Voters also selected Bob Hill, Lesley Devine and Karyn Foley from among 13 candidates to serve on the first five-member City Council to guide the new city in its formative years.

Voters were also asked to decide whether, in future elections, council candidates should be voted on by district or at large. About 69% favored selecting council members at large, and 31% preferred to select by districts.

At the Calabasas Inn on Tuesday night, leaders of the cityhood movement and many City Council candidates gathered to await the election returns and to celebrate their victory.

Arnold Sank, a member of the executive committee of the cityhood drive, who did not run for the council, said he was “just elated. It took seven years but seven years to be right is still time enough.”

The city does not formally come into existence until the vote is certified by the Local Agency Formation Commission, which has 60 days to do so.

The election, notable for the lack of any type of public opposition to cityhood, was a quiet culmination to an intense 11-year battle against developers, politicians and county bureaucrats who opposed early incorporation efforts.

Calabasas residents initially proposed creating a 44-square-mile city to be known as Rancho Las Virgenes, which would have included the area now incorporated as Agoura Hills, after a new, pro-development Board of Supervisors took steps to permit more intensive growth in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Rancho Las Virgenes proponents contended that creating a city with the power to set its own zoning laws was the best way to save the natural mountain environment. But their proposal was called financially unfeasible and was rejected.

However, community residents worked long and hard to draw up a proposal that would win the approval of the Local Agency Formation Commission, which oversees creation of new cities. In the process, they became experts on the financial base of the community, and some even testified in state proceedings to reform LAFCO rules and procedures.

However, with victory in sight, the conservationists said it was too late to preserve hillsides in the way they once hoped. The intervening years of development left little vacant land in the area, except for a large tract owned by The Baldwin Co. But to secure the developer’s support for incorporation, cityhood movement leaders have already agreed not to oppose the company’s plans to build 550 houses, a church and a commercial center on the land.

Also, against the wishes of many cityhood leaders, much of the still-vacant land in the Santa Monica Mountains was excluded from the proposed city boundaries and will remain under county jurisdiction. And many already-approved projects within the proposed boundaries are too far advanced to be halted by a new city.

But despite the lack of total control over future growth, cityhood advocates say incorporation would still bring many benefits to the area, including local control of revenues, better services and more responsive officials.

ELECTION RESULTS

CALABASAS

9 of 9 precincts

BALLOT MEASURES

Simple majority vote required.

Incorporation of the city of Calabasas:

Vote % Yes 3,668 91 No 355 9

Election of City Council members by district or at-large:

Vote % At-large 2,476 69 District 1,098 31

CITY COUNCIL

The top five vote-getters were elected to the new council because cityhood was approved; they appear in bold type. The top two will each serve four years; the next three will each serve two years. Unofficial results are:

Vote % Dennis Washburn 2,667 15 Bob Hill 2,204 12 Marvin Lopata 1,942 11 Lesley Devine 1,802 10 Karyn Foley 1,626 9 Doris La Violette 1,565 9 Ronald Gold 1,453 8 Bill Melcher 1,178 7 Gary S. Klein 889 5 Michael Fichera Jr. 765 4 Peter L. Eason 658 4 Jack Sinclair Bethel 596 3 Jeffrey S. Kurtz 537 3