Calabasas
An affluent city in the hills west of the San Fernando Valley, Calabasas sits among the Santa Monica Mountains and is known for gated communities, the Calabasas Commons, and a small historic Old Town.
- Population 23,241
- Size band small
- Area 13.2 sq mi
- Government Council–Manager (general law)
- Council at-large
- Incorporated 1991
- Meetings YouTube channel ↗
Coverage: 7 meetings · 48 substantive items · 2026-03-11 → 2026-06-10 · agenda source: PrimeGov
Calabasas council has concentrated on three converging priorities over the March–June 2026 period: fiscal planning and new revenue, land-use regulation, and environmental and public-safety resilience. The June 10 meeting is the most consequential of the cycle, bringing the FY 2026-27 budget adoption, a Community Wildfire Protection Plan, an open-space protection ordinance, and an SB 1-funded road maintenance list to a simultaneous close. Objective design standards for multi-family and mixed-use projects (Ordinance No. 2026-424) moved from introduction in April to full adoption in May — the city completing a significant land-use compliance milestone — while a new open-space ordinance in June extends that regulatory focus to preservation.
The most significant fiscal development is Measure K, a transaction and use tax approved by voters at the May 5, 2026 special election. The council certified those results and adopted the implementing ordinance at its May 27 meeting, with California Department of Tax and Fee Administration compliance resolutions attached — creating a new ongoing revenue stream. Routine annual assessments also closed out: Community Facility District tax levies, landscape and lighting maintenance district proceedings for districts 22, 24, 27, and 32, and a FY 2026-27 landscape lighting assessment ballot were all processed in May–June. Infrastructure spending is evident in road and traffic work: a West Calabasas Road roundabout construction contract (April), a citywide traffic signal safety improvement contract (March), and the SB 1 road maintenance project list (June) together represent the capital-works thread of the budget cycle.
Environmental stewardship has been a steady operational presence: on-call watershed support contracts, a multi-agency MOA for the Upper Los Angeles River Watershed coordinated monitoring program, and a Calabasas Lake maintenance contract amendment all appeared in May. Pension service credit actuarial costs came before the council twice in April, signaling active tracking of long-term labor cost exposure. Sheriff crime reports have featured at every meeting from February through June, making public safety briefings a recurring structural element of council business.
What to watch AI-generated
Key items (8)
- [4] Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Budget — Calabasas, 2026-06-10 · FY 2026-27 budget adoption is the central fiscal action of the cycle, anchoring all the spending and assessment work across spring meetings.
- [18] Second Reading and Adoption of Ordinance No. 2026-422 Relating to a Transaction and Use Tax Measure (Measure K) Approved by Voters at the May 5, 2026 Special Municipal Election — Calabasas, 2026-05-27 · Formal adoption of Measure K transaction and use tax following voter approval — the most significant new revenue development in the period.
- [6] Adoption of Ordinance No. 2026-424 - Objective Design Standards (ODS) for Multi-Family and Mixed-Use Projects — Calabasas, 2026-05-27 · Adoption of Objective Design Standards for multi-family and mixed-use projects completes a land-use compliance effort that ran from April introduction through May adoption.
- [5] City of Calabasas Community Wildfire Protection Plan — Calabasas, 2026-06-10 · Community Wildfire Protection Plan adoption signals wildfire resilience as an emerging priority, likely connected to recent regional fire events.
- [7] A Proposed Ordinance To Protect Open Space Under the City of Calabasas General Plan — Calabasas, 2026-06-10 · Open-space protection ordinance extends the land-use regulatory focus from housing density standards to preservation, showing both sides of the city's growth policy.
- [6] Senate Bill 1 (RMRA) Project List Adoption for FY26-27 — Calabasas, 2026-06-10 · SB 1-funded road maintenance project list for FY 2026-27 anchors the infrastructure spending thread running through the cycle.
- [13] Memorandum of Agreement for the Administration and Cost Sharing for Implementing the Coordinated Integrated Monitoring Program and Watershed Management Plan for the Upper Los Angeles River Watershed Management Area — Calabasas, 2026-05-27 · Multi-agency watershed management MOA illustrates the city's sustained environmental compliance obligations under regional water-quality programs.
- [9] CalPERS Actuarial Cost Analysis Report for Granting Two Years of Additional Service Credit — Calabasas, 2026-04-22 · Pension actuarial analysis appearing twice in April flags long-term labor cost pressure as an active fiscal concern.
Scorecard vs 6 cohort peers
Each topic is shown as this city's share of council attention (% of its substantive items) next to the median share of its peer cohort — so size doesn't distort the comparison. Dollars are shown per resident (a causal denominator) and suppressed where too few peers have extracted amounts.
| Topic | Attention share | Peer median | vs peers | $ / resident | Peer median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget & Finance | 33% | 35% | ▼ -1pp | — | $444.64 |
| Governance & Administration | 31% | 23% | ▲ +8pp | — | $9.89 |
| Climate & Environment | 10% | 4% | ▲ +6pp | — | $126.34 |
| Permitting & Land Use | 8% | 9% | ▼ -1pp | — | n/a |
| Public Safety | 7% | 5% | ▲ +2pp | — | $12.07 |
| Streets & Infrastructure | 6% | 13% | ▼ -7pp | — | $218.33 |
| Housing | 3% | 3% | ≈ | — | n/a |
| Economic Development | 0% | 4% | ▼ -4pp | — | $0.48 |
| Homelessness | 0% | 1% | ▼ -1pp | — | n/a |
| Other | 0% | 0% | ≈ | — | n/a |
pp = percentage points of attention share. Peers: Claremont, Sierra Madre, Culver City, Signal Hill, Redondo Beach, Pomona.
📅 Browse all meetings & agendas (6) — filter by date, topic, or keyword
1 empty or cancelled meeting hidden
Peer cohort comparable cities
Cities most comparable to Calabasas by population, size, governance, and sub-region — the basis for fair comparison. Budget attributes are not loaded yet; cohort uses size, governance, and sub-region. With a small sample this is a soft grouping — the framework scales as cities are added.
Learning from peer cities
Matches found from similar agenda wording across cities — useful starting points to investigate, not proof that one city copied another.
Where Calabasas and peers overlap
Matters Calabasas worked on that peer cities also took up.
Ideas from peer cities (not found here yet)
Matters peer cities acted on that we haven't found a comparable item for in Calabasas.