Calabasas

A bit of history

The Calabasas area has been a crossroads since Spanish-era expeditions led by Gaspar de Portola and Juan Bautista de Anza passed through in the 1770s, but it remained sparsely developed ranchland for two centuries afterward. The founding of the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District in 1958 secured a water supply and opened the area to suburban development starting in the late 1960s. Residents voted to incorporate Calabasas as its own city on April 5, 1991, largely to gain local control over hillside development and preserve its semi-rural character against denser county-approved projects. It remains one of the newest and most affluent cities in Los Angeles County.