The steep green hillsides are dotted with hundreds of oak trees and are ablaze with spring fields of yellow mustard--a pastoral delight that has greeted Ventura Freeway motorists for decades.
But the future of one 207-acre parcel, adjacent to Calabasas and now populated only by occasional grazing cattle, is uncertain.
The property on the north side of the freeway between Las Virgenes and Lost Hills roads was slated for 136 condominiums and a 281,000-square-foot shopping center that would include a 3,600-seat movie theater complex.
In an unusual move, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously rejected the project last week. Supervisors for decades had allowed intensive development in the area, a trend that largely motivated the incorporation of Agoura Hills in an effort to slow that growth.
The Times disclosed last year that the county bent its own rules to allow heavy development in the mountains.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, citing The Times stories, called the action an important milestone.
"The rejection by the board was very significant because it's the first time since development out in that part of the county began 20 to 25 years ago that a zone change and plan amendment were rejected," said Yaroslavsky, who represents the area. "I wanted to put a dagger through this application."
The landowner plans to reapply for permission to construct just the retail center. But even without the condos, a large shopping center will likely face a barrage of opponents from neighboring communities such as Agoura Hills and Calabasas.
"We don't owe [Robert] Zuckerman a commercial property," said Yaroslavsky, referring to the president of the landowner, Continental Communities Group of Woodland Hills. "He bought it when it was agriculturally zoned, as it still is. And he rolled the dice."
The county's planning staff recommended the parcel of unincorporated land would be appropriate for a smaller retail zone, perhaps 20,000 to 40,000 square feet, that would serve the neighborhood and not be a regional draw, Yaroslavsky said.
"A regional entertainment center with movie theaters? I won't support it," he said.
Hundreds of angry residents have packed hearings on the project, worried that it would lead to more traffic and cause significant environmental and wildlife damage. Supporters, however, want the access to convenient shopping and entertainment.
The Board of Supervisors' vote dealt a serious blow to Continental Communities Group, which now could be hard-pressed to recoup its investment.
It now faces foreclosure on the parcel because its project financing debt was due in January, said William Mark Levinson, a lawyer for a trustee representing bondholders who have helped finance planning for the project.
Jerry Neuman, an attorney for Continental Communities, said he wasn't aware of the foreclosure action, but it wasn't unexpected.
"We will move as quickly as possible with the new project and work with the lenders in that they have been very cooperative so far," Neuman said.
Zuckerman could not be reached for comment.
In 1990, when Zuckerman purchased the hilly parcel from Bob Hope for $10 million, the developer planned to construct La Strada Calabasas Center--a development of homes, offices and a shopping center.
Six years later, Continental secured funding for its proposed project through an unorthodox bond financing plan offered by Pacific Genesis Group, a San Francisco underwriting firm.
By creating what was then known as "roving JPAs," or joint powers authorities, Pacific Genesis sought out Central Valley towns--and some Native American tribes--to in effect "rent" their tax-free borrowing privileges.
Pacific Genesis wooed the tiny Central Valley farming town of Mendota for a new joint powers authority that would issue bonds on a project far from its jurisdiction--in this case, La Strada Calabasas Center.
In return, Mendota received $80,000 for lending its name to two bond deals--for the Calabasas project and a housing development near Fresno.
Pacific Genesis was then able to underwrite $6.1 million in tax-exempt bonds for a newly formed authority--the Malibu Canyon Public Financing Authority--to pay for the La Strada project.
In 1998, those bonds were refinanced in a $10.5-million bond issue under another joint powers authority based in the Central Valley, this time, the Sierra Nevada Public Financing Authority, which includes the city of San Joaquin.
But the clock was ticking on Continental Communities.
It intended to repay the Sierra Nevada bonds with revenues from the Calabasas project. But when the bond obligation was due in January, Continental Communities had not broken ground or even received county approval for its project.
As a result, Dai--Ichi Kangyo Trust Co. of New York, the trustee for Sierra Nevada Public Financing Authority, demanded that the authority begin foreclosure against Continental Communities, said Levinson, an attorney for Dai-Ichi.
