Calabasas : Public Comments Sought on Facility

The community is being asked to comment on a regional gymnasium and community center to be built by Agoura Hills and Calabasas.

At a Jan. 8 public meeting at Calabasas City Hall, officials said, the public will be able to review and comment on a draft proposal outlining the facility’s interior and exterior dimensions.

The draft proposal was reviewed Monday by a committee formed to develop a design. Calabasas Community Services Director Greg Johnson said that to date, the committee has indicated it would like the facility to include a gymnasium, large community room, dance and aerobics room, activity room, weight room, and an office and small kitchen.

The facility would be open to people from throughout the region, probably on a fee basis, Johnson said.

“We need to come up with ways to offset the expenses for this facility, and the way to do that is to charge fees,” he said. The two cities, he said, are in the process of setting up a joint powers authority, which would decide what fees would be charged.

The facility will be built on a 3.7-acre plot near the Lost Hills sheriff’s station, on land formerly owned by the county. The site could accommodate a 26,000-square-foot building, which would cost about $3 million to build, officials say.

The two cities began working on the project in July 1993. Officials say they hope to complete the facility sometime in 1997.