Calabasas Park Centre Plan Is Still Generating Debate

The Calabasas Park Centre project is back, and despite years of negotiations among community members and developers, it’s still the subject of debate.

This time the community seems to support the project, but with two proposed designs the issue now is what it will look like: an old-fashioned town center or an upscale mall with a civic plaza.

Thursday at a Calabasas Planning Commission workshop on the project’s master plan, a San Francisco development consultant outlined his idea, based on suggestions offered at community meetings.

Terence Bottomley of Freedman, Tung & Bottomley Urban Design proposed the idea of a community town center that would integrate retail and civic buildings and have a grassy quadrangle lined with shops.

Another developer, who may ultimately build the project, produced a concept plan similar to other successful malls, including the Promenade at Westlake.

Rick Caruso of Caruso Affiliated Holdings presented a plan that would separate civic, business and retail, and locate the retail shops on the eastern portion of the development on Calabasas Road between Park Granada and Parkway Calabasas.

In 1995, after a series of contentious hearings on the project, a community task force was formed to advise on changes to the master plan.

As a result, the project was scaled down from nearly 1.5 million square feet to about 600,000 square feet, and will very likely include a permanent city hall and library, a business-class hotel and a small multiplex theater.

In the end, commissioners focused on the similarities rather than the differences in the plans.

“I think together you can do it, if you can listen to each other,” Commissioner William Pauli said.

The Planning Commission, along with the City Council, will look at the proposals again during a joint meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 26135 Mureau Road.