In June, Calabasas City Council approved a 16-acre hotel project to be constructed at Las Virgenes and Agoura roads – right on one of the main arteries leading in and out of Malibu via Malibu Canyon Road.
Calabasas activists have started a petition in response to an ordinance that approves development for a hotel and housing units just north of Malibu Canyon.
The development could increase traffic to the Malibu area if patrons to the hotel visit any of Malibu’s well-known beaches.
The petition opposing the ordinance requires 1,500 signatures from Calabasas registered voters by July 22. If collected in time, the issue will force the Calabasas City Council to either revoke its approval or place the issue on the November ballot for voters to decide if they want to approve the development or not.
The project is being developed by the New Home Company, representatives for which have said it is well within its rights to develop as planned.
“This is a project that the planning commission approved. The city council approved. We did not want to get into this sort of a dog fight,” Vice President and Regional Manager for New Home Rick Bianchi said.
President of Malibu Canyon Community Association Mary Hubbard disputes that the development was approved as cleanly as Bianchi stated.
“Everything they did was contrived and manipulated to fit a square peg into a round hole,” Hubbard said.
The City of Calabasas has an ordinance called Measure O, which requires any “open space” that is rezoned to be put to a public vote.
The development from New Home bypassed Measure O by claiming it was remediating a landslide in the area, which made it a safety issue and didn’t require a public vote.
Hubbard’s organization has registered the website savemalibucanyon.com, championing the petition to block the hotel.
The petition against the development is adding more fuel to an already smoldering fire. The ordinance approving the development just barely passed Calabasas City Council with a 3-2 vote after multiple hours of public comment and council discussion.
Petitioners gathered outside of an Albertsons grocery store in Calabasas on July 9 to gather signatures, according to a report in the Calabasas Acorn. The group was met by a firm hired by New Home to spread pro-development information. The encounter ended with the police being called when eyewitnesses reported the firm had begun intimidating potential voters. No arrests were made.
Bianchi said even if the opponents to the development get their signatures and reject it, it would not be the end.
“We’ll come back with a much denser project,” Bianchi said. “We won’t have a choice. If the community turns this away [what would they approve]?”
Long term, Bianchi ruled out New Home letting go of the property, even if residents are against the development.
“It’s not something we can walk away from,” Bianchi said.
Hubbard said she recognized the location is still zoned for commercial, but didn’t see that as an issue.
“I can’t do anything about [the zoning], but what we can do is undo this project,” Hubbard said. “The geological impacts are huge. What we’re trying to do with the referendum is undo this project -— then it’s back to the drawing board. I think we have a year. They couldn’t bring back this particular ordinance. What we would like to see is something smaller.”
Bianchi has claimed that “alternatives” to the current development would impact the community more than the planned hotel and housing units New Home wants to build. For example: The current development is planning to build 71 housing units, compared to the 180 housing units approved in the general plan for that specific zone.
The development is partly enabled by the general plan that was approved by Calabasas’ planning commission in 2010. Before approval, the general plan saw over 20 public meetings and significant citizen involvement, according to planning officials at the City of Calabasas.
“We’re not against development,” said Hubbard, who explained there are two other hotel projects in Calabasas the group is not protesting.
Bianchi dismissed concerns that the development would increase traffic to the Malibu area, suggesting instead that patrons would use the 101, or other routes.
“The city council and planning commission— they read all the reports, they read the traffic reports. The vast majority of the public will never read those reports. The majority of people are not going to make an informed decision, they’re going to make an emotional decision,” Bianchi said.
“Nobody stays in west Calabasas,” Hubbard said. “Where are they going? It’s people going to Malibu, staying in Calabasas.”