Development Plan in Calabasas Assailed

* My family and I live in the new Warmington development on Paseo Primario in Calabasas.

We moved from Van Nuys to Calabasas three months ago because we were seeking a semi-rural, low density environment with a low crime rate. Now it appears that the very character and attractiveness of Calabasas is about to be radically changed.

At the moment, twice a day, the overwhelming number of cars that exit Parkway Calabasas and Valley Circle contain people who live in the Calabasas area, have a financial interest in property in Calabasas, and desire to keep the area in a fashion reasonably related to the way it was when they moved in.

If the Kilroy development presently under consideration is adopted, the overwhelming number of cars and respective occupants that exit Parkway Calabasas and Valley Circle will not be residents of our community, will not have an interest or desire to maintain the integrity of our community.

The traffic will become overburdened, and the increase will not come from residents; it will come from a transient population coming in and out of our community. Just imagine the traffic flow and density on the freeway ramps and on Calabasas road with the multi-screen theater as now desired by the developer.

Of special concern will be the teen-age and young adult transient population. Once the movies let out for the evening, especially on weekends, imagine what a tempting target the residential community will be for taggers and thieves!

Are we willing to trade the relative safety and security of our community for the slight increase in tax revenue that the proposed Kilroy plan is claiming to generate? I think not. The community will already be harmed by the present Kilroy plan; why add further insult to existing injury?

Why does this residential community need to be transformed into an industrial park? Are we prepared for even more vacant office space and “For Lease” signs posted along Calabasas Road? Haven’t we all seen the great number of shops and stores in the Valley malls and strip centers going out of business and closing up? Calabasas is not immune from such blight.

We all know that money talks. We all became acutely aware of the loud voice money has in political decisions, as evidenced in the recent political corruption trials involving (former) state Sens. Alan Robbins and Paul Carpenter and lobbyist Clay Jackson.

It is the hope of the vast, vast majority of homeowners in Calabasas that the money of the Kilroy development does not speak louder than the voices of the concerned residents who oppose this expanded project.

To the non-resident developer, this expansion is just a way of making more money; to us this area is not our home!

SUSAN HARRIS

Calabasas