Calabasas : Home Depot Plan Subject of Meeting

Developer Pam Azar’s controversial proposed Home Depot store in Calabasas will be discussed Sept. 14 at a joint meeting of the City Council and Planning Commission.

The 7:30 p.m. meeting will be held at City Hall, which is located at 26135 Mureau Road.

The proposed project would be on 97 acres on the east side of Las Virgenes Road just south of the Ventura Freeway. It would include a Roman Catholic church and school.

Neighborhood residents have been cool to the Home Depot proposal, saying the store--part of a shopping center that would include a Hughes Market--would bring noise and traffic. Some opponents say the project would attract day laborers.

Developer Jim Baldwin, who would build the church and school, originally wanted to construct 124 homes as part of the project, but withdrew those plans saying there was little community support.

Others, however, say Baldwin was forced to alter his plans after Azar failed to gain easement to a strip of property that was crucial to the project.

Azar and Baldwin originally won permission from the city and county to build shopping centers at the site. They eventually decided to combine their efforts to come up with a master plan acceptable to both.

Meanwhile, Baldwin hopes to add an additional 110 homes to a planned 550-home residential development, Calabasas Oaks, at the end of Parkway Calabasas, just over the hill from the Home Depot.

Baldwin recently offered the Calabasas Park Homeowners Assn. $500,000 to mitigate the impact of the additional homes, but the organization turned it down, saying the proposal was too big. The homeowners said they would be willing to support a plan with 25 additional homes, but no more.