Land Annexation Moves Forward

The Calabasas City Council, at its meeting Wednesday night, unanimously approved an environmental document relating to the annexation of Mountain View Estates and, in deference to an area developer, included an amendment keeping a main thoroughfare under the control of Los Angeles County.

In the document, the city stated that the annexation of the 823.4 acres of Mountain View Estates will have no environmental impact, and the amendment was added to “meet regional transportation needs.”

Under the document’s terms, Thousand Oaks Boulevard--located at the mouth of the gated community--will be under the jurisdiction of the county.

“Our General Plan differs from the county General Plan in that Calabasas perceives Thousand Oaks as a two-lane road, while they see it as a four-lane road,” said Robert Searcy, principal planner for Calabasas.

Representatives of the Ahmanson Ranch development had threatened to block the annexation of Mountain View, fearing it would hurt plans to build an access road near the community for its own development.

But Searcy said the annexation had nothing to do with the Ahmanson Ranch project. He said the amendment was written in “the spirit of cooperation” and would “hopefully ease [the developer’s] anxiety.” The Ahmanson project, Searcy said, is inevitable and now the city must work to ease its impact on the area.

Mary Trigg, a spokeswoman for Home Savings of America, which owns the Ahmanson property, had no comment Thursday, saying the company had 45 days to study the document.

Mountain View Estates residents have pushed for annexation to Calabasas for nearly three years but were quiet at the council meeting Wednesday night about the amendment to the document, which will go to the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission in mid-August.

But Searcy said the environmental document may go again to the council for a public hearing before going to the commission, “just in case someone has any questions about it.”