Calabasas : Ballot Will Decide Fate of Park Centre

A Calabasas homeowners group has succeeded in forcing a referendum on a controversial commercial and retail development approved last year by the City Council.

The group, which opposes the center, collected more than the 1,152 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot, City Clerk Robin Parker said Thursday.

“The residents of Calabasas are displeased about what’s going on and they want to put it to a vote,” said Steve Sklar, a spokesman for the group.

The group says the council, in approving the project, failed to take into account opponents’ feelings. Council members say they believe they had widespread public support.

Parker said the council must either repeal the ordinance approving the development agreement or set an election. They can delay the vote, she said, until the next municipal balloting in March, 1997.

The council’s next meeting is Wednesday. The referendum issue is not on the agenda.

Developer John Kilroy originally won entitlement from the county for the 1.5-million-square-foot Calabasas Park Centre at Calabasas Road and Parkway Calabasas. He decided later to increase the retail portion by 200,000 square feet, a move that required city approval. Last December, the council approved the change on the condition that Kilroy cut the project’s overall size and draw up a master plan for all but the 200,000-square-foot retail portion.

A successful referendum would legally overturn the development agreement, said Steve Quintanilla, an attorney for the city. But according to the developer, it would not overturn conditional use permits for the retail component.

Quintanilla declined to comment on that. “One comment could generate lawsuits,” he said.

Sklar’s group splintered off from the Save Our City Committee, which was formed to block the project. Some influential members of the original group, including Michael Brockman and James Leewong, have opted not to join the referendum movement.

City officials say Sklar and the others are a fringe group, but Sklar says the successful referendum drive shows that his group has popular support.