Conejo Conflict

Two different developments face similar pushback as a pair of concurrent, unrelated mixed-use projects have proved controversial in their respective communities of Calabasas and Agoura Hills. Yet despite local opposition, both projects – Calabasas Creekside Senior Apartments and Cornerstone –appear on track for construction. In Calabasas, Woodland Hills-based Raznick Realty Group wants to replace an exBy MICHAEL AUSHENKER Staff Reporter Two different developments face similar pushback as a pair of concurrent, unrelated mixed-use projects have proved controversial in their respective communities of Calabasas and Agoura Hills. Yet despite local opposition, both projects – Calabasas Creekside Senior Apartments and Cornerstone –appear on track for construction. In Calabasas, Woodland Hills-based Raznick Realty Group wants to replace an existing 16,423-square-foot office structure at 23480 Park Sorrento with a mixed-use senior apartment complex. Officially known as Raznick Creekside Office Building, the current 1974-built structure has accommodated 28 business tenants. Raznick’s proposed Calabasas Creekside Senior Apartments would replace the two-story property with a 38,000-square-foot, four-story complex with 42 multifamily units and 1,620 square feet devoted to retail. Stockton Architects designed the project, which will stand next door to Avanti apartments at Park Sorrento. On Feb. 14, at a Calabasas City Council meeting some described as contentious, Calabasas Mayor Fred Gaines, Mayor Pro Tem David Shapiro and City Councilmember Alicia Weintraub pushed the project through in a 3-2 vote. About 30 older residents attended on Valentine’s Day, with members of Calabasas Park Homeowners Association, representing 40 percent of Calabasas’ homeowners, opposing the development’s scale. Also present were developer Robert Raznick; his project’s designer, Ken Stockton; and land consultant Brad Rosenheim of Woodland Hills-based Rosenheim and Associates. Raznick could not be reached for comment; Rosenheim declined to provide information. Gaines told the Business Journal that at the heart of the resistance has been the project’s use of the state density bonus law, in which a developer offers a percentage of affordable housing along with the market-rate housing, to gain more height. Calabasas Creekside would have 37 units at market price and five for lower-income residents. “It’s more of an aesthetic argument (regarding the height). There was some controversy to a general amendment and zone change because the property designated for commercial office building,” Gaines said, quickly adding, “Traffic generation would be far less from the zoning that would allow a 38,000-square-foot office building.” Gaines added that these are apartment rentals and not a care facility, so he does not expect a substantial uptick of traffic and parking issues due to caretakers. “The city approvals are complete. Unless there’s (another round of) litigation, which we’re not expecting, (Raznick) can go forward with their project,” he said. However, Calabasas City Councilmembers James Bozajian and Mary Sue Maurer voted against the development. “I felt it was a very good project but the wrong location,” said Bojazian, who noted that the city council approved two other Calabasas developments – Canyon Apartments in Oldtown and Horizons near Lost Hills – “without much fanfare.” What makes this different, Bojazian continued, is that Calabasas Creekside threatens to deepen aesthetic erosion following the neighboring 72-unit Avanti, which recently replaced Calabasas Inn, a wedding rental site folding in 2006 after 40 years. “It has really become cumulatively quite difficult to park and to drive there,” Bojazian said. Gaines insists demand is high for senior living options around Calabasas, as evinced by such recent establishments as the 75-unit, low-income Canyon Creek; assisted-living project Horizons on Calabasas’ Westside; and next month’s Belmont Village at Parkway Calabasas. “It’s going to be an excellent project,” Gaines said of Creekside. Cornerstone controversy A couple exits north along the 101 Freeway, Gaines is involved in another development battle in Agoura Hills. This time, it’s for his day job as partner at Gaines & Stacey LLP, an Encino-based law firm specialized in land use and zoning. Local grassroots groups STACK (Save the Agoura Cornell Knoll), California Native Plant Society and PRISMM (Protectors and Residents in the Santa Monica Mountains) have been vocal in their opposition to Cornerstone, developer Doron Gelfand’s proposed 116,000-square-foot conglomeration of seven buildings for retail, office and residential use at Cornell and Agoura roads constituting Agoura Village’s first major development. Gelfand did not return the Business Journal’s request for comment. For STACK leader Steve Hess, the issue is the project’s initial planning environmental impact report, which he considers outdated and not a proper assessment of greenhouse emissions and hyper-regional environmental concerns such as native plants and unexcavated Native American sites. “The vision then is very different than now,” Hess told the Business Journal. “What was originally discussed and laid out required very little or no grading.” “We are not against growth, we are for moderate growth,” added PRISMM’s Carlos Lluch, whose main concern involves traffic he feels the EIR underestimates at 20,000 daily trips. “Agoura is going to have its village. We want the city to reconsider the project’s size and scope.” With a lawsuit filed in March 2017, STACK and California Native Plant Society are pursuing legal action to stop the development. In April, the issue goes before Los Angeles Superior Court with Gaines and his attorney Lisa Weinberg defending Gelfand. The city retained the law firm Richards Watson & Gershon. Native plants, culture Cornerstone’s opponents believe the project is not California Environmental Quality Act-compliant. Co-plaintiff California Native Plant Society believes Gelfand’s development defies the Agoura Village Specific Plan and the community’s Oak Tree Ordinance. “Cornerstone would remove at least 63 percent of the 142 Agoura Hills dudleya plants, a federally threatened species,” the scientific interest group continued in a statement to the Business Journal signed by Snowdy Dodson, president of the society’s Van Nuys chapter. “Twenty-nine (oaks) are slated for removal, in excess with what is allowed in a worst-case scenario by the Agoura Hills Oak Tree Ordinance.” The groups also evoked the region’s Chumash culture in its lawsuit, packing as ammunition an analysis by Chester King of Topanga Anthropological Consultants. “The EIR did not address the Chumash native site issues at all,” said STACK’s Hess. In a February 2017 letter to Agoura Hills’ City Council, King, an expert on the history of Southern California Native Americans, said Cornerstone would destroy an archaeological site. “No project alternatives are presented that resulted in preservation of the site,” wrote King, who also found no evidence of consultation with Native American tribes regarding Cornerstone, as required law. Hess said that when the city moved to notify the Chumash, they contacted a Pasadena tribe instead, thus “(barring them) from participating in the lawsuit because they weren’t notified by the city.” King concluded that “an adequate Phase III study can resolve (many issues).” However, Gaines & Stacey’s April 2017 filing maintained that Cornerstone “has met all environmental requirements and all requirements for analyzing and mitigating tribal cultural resources.” “These issues have fully been studied by experts. This is a project that is consistent with the zoning, with the corridor established by the city,” said Gaines. Should the groups lose the trial, they can appeal, but Cornerstone’s city approval will not be revoked and any court-ruled delay for further analysis “could add as little as three to six months on the process,” said Gaines, who ultimately believes such lawsuits are routine with development. He recalled the community opposition to the Commons at Calabasas project, prior to Caruso’s involvement. Today, the mall is 100-percent occupied, attracting thousands of shoppers annually. “It’s now universally thought of really as the town center,” Gaines said.