Agoura Hills must now live with the consequences of Measure H

Agoura Hills must now live with the consequences of Measure H

I moved my family back to Southern California two years ago after spending 15 years in a small Midwest town. Although we chose a house in Westlake, it’s only because we preferred it to the houses the realtor showed us in Agoura.

We didn’t give much thought to the difference in cities.

I served as an elected three-term chairman of the board of trustees of the small village where we lived in the Ozarks.

This village didn’t have any retail establishments and lacked the associated sales tax revenue they would have provided. Our board was envious of the adjacent villages that had retail stores providing sales tax revenue enabling them to provide services that we couldn’t afford.

After an especially harsh winter, we eliminated our snow removal service because the contract amount doubled. We simply couldn’t afford it any longer.

I can only imagine the thoughts going through the minds of the Agoura Hills City Councilmem-bers today after the passage of Measure H.

If I’m not mistaken, these are the folks that these same voters reelected last fall.

Is the message being sent to the council that the voters think they are competent enough to be councilmembers but not competent to make a decision on a possible retail development proposal?

I don’t get it.

I wonder if the 37 percent of the registered voters that took the 10 minutes out of their day to actually go vote realized the message they were sending (regarding Measure H). Did they all realize that yes meant no, was there confusion? This is nothing more than protectionism at its best. This is a very dangerous road to travel.

Forget about Home Depot. The very capable council would certainly have made a wise decision if and when all their questions were answered and the proper studies completed. If the hardware store and lumberyard owner were successful here, how about this scenario:

I read about the success of a large chain of sushi smorgasbords in the Times recently. They have a location in Woodland Hills.

What if they considered opening in Agoura Hills? I can see "Measure I" on the ballot of the next election.

The measure, promoted by the local sushi bars’ message on the green yard signs, will read: "Yes on ‘I’, say ‘No’ to giant all-you-can-eat sushi bars. You’ll get mercury poisoning from too much toro."

Now maybe this is a little facetious. I can’t imagine any successful business wanting to come to Agoura Hills now.

The possibility that the voters may get a measure passed that is anti-business would scare off any prospective retailers.

About the only suggestion I have for the council is to get more of the 63 percent of the people that didn’t vote to vote.

This measure passed by 120 votes. Voter apathy today is all too common. I know many of my Agoura friends didn’t vote. Now when they complain that their roads and intersections built for 20 percent of the present traffic need widening and there isn’t any money to fix them, who’s to blame?

It’s lucky that the voters in Westlake realized the benefit of a Costco and didn’t come up with an anti-Costco measure.

In the checkout line I wonder how much money Westlake makes per minute.

John Buxbaum

Westlake Village