L.A. Still Not Budging on Calabasas Annexation Bid

Hey, Calabasas, keep your paws off our city.

That was the Los Angeles City Council’s message Wednesday in a unanimous resolution warning Calabasas officials that it will fight the Valley city’s attempts to annex a historic monument, the Leonis Adobe ranch, and a tax-revenue-generating eatery, the Sagebrush Cantina.

The two spots, one beloved by history buffs, the other by motorcycle riders such as Los Angeles Councilman Dennis Zine, are located in Calabasas’ folksy Old Town but are technically within Los Angeles city limits and Zine’s 3rd District.

Calabasas officials want to change that, arguing that the Leonis Adobe, in particular, is central to Calabasas’ history and belongs in that community.

Over the years, the upscale city of 27,000 has made previous attempts to annex the land, always unsuccessfully.

On Wednesday night, the Calabasas City Council debated a plan for getting the land from Los Angeles.

Several residents and council members spoke in favor of the annexations, while other council members worried that Calabasas is moving too fast and spending too much money on an effort that may not work out.

But in a preemptive strike hours before the Calabasas officials’ meeting, the Los Angeles council voted to tell Calabasas to forget about it.

Calabasas would have difficulty annexing the parcel without permission from Los Angeles.

“We just don’t give property away,” Zine said.

In a news release, Zine compared those backing the annexation to “poachers” and “rustlers” and warned them to “reverse their wagons.... The L.A. brand is forever stamped on that property.”

Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge was somewhat more conciliatory, though no less firm: “God bless the city of Calabasas,” he said during a meeting of the L.A. council. “But this is part of Los Angeles, and it should not be taken away.”

Back in Calabasas, where officials in the past have called the annexation a matter of “manifest destiny,” that talk did not go over too well.

Councilwoman Lesley Devine, who is spearheading the latest annexation move, said Calabasas can protect the Leonis Adobe ranch, better than Los Angeles.

Los Angeles officials take the opposite view, saying Calabasas does not have the same historical preservation standards. The ranch, believed to have been founded in 1844, was the first site to be declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

Both sides say that sales tax revenue from the Sagebrush Cantina -- one of the busiest bars in Los Angeles County -- has little to do with the debate.

Last year, however, Zine said the eatery with the cowboy murals and sawdust-covered floors was “a positive cash resource for our city” and jokingly proposed selling it to Calabasas for “$50 million or $100 million.”

Devine said Tuesday she was unmoved by Los Angeles officials’ professed love of the adobe. “They never come out here,” Devine said. “It’s surprising they know where it is.”