Happy Birthday Calabasas! City Celebrates 30 Years

Press release from the City of Calabasas:

March 5 2021

Thirty years ago today, on March 5, 1991, local voters flocked to the polls and approved incorporation of the City of Calabasas by an overwhelming margin of 91% to 9%.

The investment of many years of hard work by cityhood proponents had finally been rewarded. From among 13 candidates, voters chose five citizens --- Dennis Washburn, Bob Hill, Marvin Lopata, Karyn Foley, and Lesley Devine --- to serve on the first Calabasas City Council. The new City Council was sworn into office, and one month later Calabasas was formally incorporated.

It would not be possible to describe in one short passage the tremendous work it took to achieve independence. City incorporation has become exceedingly difficult in modern California history. Calabasas became the State’s 466th city in 1991, and since that time only 16 other municipalities have followed suit. Here in Los Angeles County, we were the 88th city to incorporate, and not a single additional one has been formed since.

The first serious incorporation drive began in the 1970s as a broader effort to create one sprawling, regional city. The city’s borders were to stretch east to west from the Los Angeles City line to the Ventura County border, and from north to south from Ventura County to what would later become the City of Malibu. Weighing in at roughly 44 square miles, the would-be “City of Rancho Las Virgenes” was contemplated to include what is now Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, and a large swath of unincorporated territory surrounding those cities. Los Angeles County quashed this proposal in 1981.

Shortly thereafter, residents moved successfully to incorporate separately the cities of Westlake Village in 1981 and Agoura Hills in 1982. The City of Hidden Hills had previously incorporated in 1961, while Malibu would eventually incorporate just eight days before Calabasas. A similar attempt to form Calabasas fizzled in 1988 after being rejected by Los Angeles County. Discouraged but not defeated, advocates for Calabasas cityhood redoubled their efforts, and a couple of years later County officials gave final approval for a vote to be taken to incorporate an 11.3 square mile area as the new “City of Calabasas.” Throughout the coming year, we will commemorate landmark events in Calabasas history to celebrate the 30th anniversary of our wonderful City.

Take care.

James R. Bozajian
Mayor
City of Calabasas

This press release was produced by the City of Calabasas. The views expressed here are the author’s own.