Letter was full of misinformation

Martin Spiegel’s letter in support of the Heschel West Dayschool displays a surprising level of ignorance on the real issues and an expected amount of misinformation.

Old Agoura is actually quite late in the act of acquiring outside professional assistance.

In 1998, the Heschel board hired Roger VanWert as an "expeditor" for their project. VanWert is a developer consultant now, after having worked for many years as a professional planner for Los Angeles County. Who better to have inside knowledge on how to work the angles in the county’s arcane development approval process?

VanWert’s first finagle was to apply for permits to build a temporary school on a portion of the Heschel property that carried outdated commercial zoning from a time when the property was to have both Driver Avenue and Canwood Street extended through it.

This permitting quirk was designed to allow temporary schools on already developed, and no longer used, commercial property, not the pristine parkland buffer of the Heschel site. And, the kicker is that the permit required no public notice or hearing whatsoever.

Just earlier this year, Heschel attempted to bluff Agoura Hills into giving them an access permit, under threat of lawsuit, by stating that they had a valid temporary permit. They must have known at the time that the property was going to be officially down-zoned to an all-residential category that allows one home per five acres under the new county North Area Plan. So, we learned relatively slowly about the need to hire professionals.

Before Heschel came along, we talked to several other developers who wanted to build on the same parcel, the latest being Warmington Homes of Agoura Hills.

We actually suggested that they build three- to five-acre ranchettes that would mirror our existing rural community. They weren’t interested in the low-density, high-profit concept, and gave up their option on the land because it didn’t have sufficient access for their kind of development.

Early on, we did have quite amicable talks with Heschel, when it was just parents talking to residents. But after they hired their professional hustler and their plans began to mushroom higher and closer, things turned sour.

After we figured out the probable traffic generation and the incredibly awkward access problems, we decided to stop what developed into give-an-inch-lose-a mile meetings and gear up for the struggle that we are in today.

So, President Spiegel, go scold someone who doesn’t know better and try to make them feel guilty. We have lots of documented stories if you are interested in the truth.

Jess Thomas, President,

Old Agoura

Homeowners’ Association