Valley Focus : Calabasas : Group Against Adding Houses to Project

A group of Calabasas homeowners has said “no thanks” to developer Jim Baldwin’s offer of $500,000 to support his bid to add 110 homes to a large housing tract he’s building near their neighborhood.

As it is, the homeowners say, Baldwin’s 550-home development will increase traffic and place added burden on their neighborhood elementary school. An additional 110 homes, they say, would make it even worse.

“It’s not a matter of money,” said Calabasas Park Homeowners Assn. President William H. Pohle. “The proposal is just too big.”

Homeowners said Baldwin offered the money to mitigate the impact of the additional homes. The $500,000 would be used to improve city streets, according to the developer. Baldwin also has offered to replace any oak trees cut down by planting new trees in a nearby wilderness park.

The influential group grudgingly agreed to give its blessing to 25 additional homes, and plans to lobby city officials on the issue, Pohle said.

Jim Baldwin could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But Nick Gorely, senior vice president of the Baldwin Co., said the firm originally sought 198 additional units. City officials told him that city zoning laws limit the project to 110 additional units.

“We’ve already significantly decreased the density,” he said. “It just does not become economically feasible for us to reduce it any less.”

Gorely said traffic studies show that the additional units will not significantly impact the development. He said that the Las Virgenes Unified School District has assured the developer that the nearby elementary school would be able to accommodate the additional students.

The Calabasas City Council and Planning Commission will hold a joint meeting tonight to vote on whether to approve the proposal in concept. The meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall at 26135 Mureau Road. The project, called Calabasas Oaks, is at the end of Parkway Calabasas.

Baldwin originally wanted to build 1,487 homes when the project was first introduced in the late 1980s, before the city incorporated. The homeowners association fought it, and Baldwin eventually agreed to reduce it to 550 homes.