CALABASAS : Panel to Vote on Tree Removal Plan

The Calabasas Planning Commission will vote tonight on whether to allow a developer to remove as many as 16 oak trees to make way for a housing tract in exchange for a large parcel of vacant land that would be preserved.

As part of a development agreement, the city would receive 180 acres to preserve as open space. However, there is some community opposition to the proposal to remove the trees.

City officials say eight of the trees are classified as heritage oaks under the city’s oak tree ordinance, meaning they are at least 24 inches in diameter at a point 4 1/2 feet above the ground.

Toll Brothers Inc., which is headquartered in Philadelphia, wants to build 34 Mediterranean-style homes on a 219-acre site at the southwest corner of Shadow Hills and Malibu Hills roads.

The original entitlement, which was granted by Los Angeles County in 1987, allows for the removal of three trees, city officials said. The original plans, officials said, underestimated the number of trees that would have to be removed. The city, which incorporated in 1991, must approve any changes in the original entitlement.

Calabasas officials have offered a compromise in which the developer would be required to plant oak trees elsewhere to replace trees cut down. In the meantime, city officials said, the developer has vowed to try to limit the number of trees removed.

But residents say the environment would suffer if the trees were removed.

“I’m totally against that,” said Mary Ann Rush, a resident of Deer Springs, a neighborhood near the site. The old oak trees, she said, have deep root systems that help prevent landslides.

“There will be a lot of people there” at tonight’s meeting, she said.

By law, city officials said, Toll Brothers must do extra grading to reduce the threat of damage from an old landslide at the site. Jay Deckard, a project manager for Toll Brothers, said his company is happy to comply. “I think it’s a great deal for everybody,” he said.