Website to serve Agoura Hills voters

I want to commend Nicole McAdam for the spirit of her Sept. 11 letter ("Council blew it on Oak Creek") about the Oak Creek development at Kanan and the 101 Freeway. As a fellow Agoura Hills resident, I agree with Nicole.

However, I wish to point out a few misguided points she makes, and hopefully, elicit involvement from all residents of Agoura Hills on future development here.

In Agoura Hills, we’re governed by a panel of five city council members who are elected by voters. On development matters, the city council must look at each project, debate its fit for the city and come to a majority vote before approval is granted. They’re required to follow a process that exposes intricate details about each project. Part of that analysis is to hear public comments, for and against projects.

For the city council to have "pulled a back-door move" is theoretically impossible. Unless, of course, the people aren’t listening.

Here’s the problem. In the case of the Oak Tree development, meetings were openly held for citizens to come forward, hear the developer talk about the largest project ever proposed in this city and speak out.

I for one attended those meetings and, along with members of the Old Agoura Homeowners’ Association, the Cornell Preservation Society and a handful of others (10 to 12 Agoura Hills residents in total), spoke vehemently against the Oak Tree project as proposed, which at that time was 337 apartments, two office buildings and two restaurants.

Worse than the low turnout was when we were chastised by two of our city council members for having the audacity to dispute a project that was "so right a fit for Agoura Hills." In the eyes of city council, we were a minority.

The reality is, critical decisions impacting the future of Agoura Hills get made by this city council each week while seats in the chamber remain empty.

Since that meeting, and as a result of the Proposition H debacle, I’ve gotten involved.

The Agoura Hills Action Network (AHAN) (www.actionet.org) is a free, nonprofit, virtual community created for and by Agoura Hills residents who recognize the need to help people get informed and take action on issues critical to our city.

AHAN was born on the realization that people don’t know how to get involved. Or they’re too busy. Or, as some have told us, they feel intimidated and don’t know enough to take a stand.

Through AHAN’s Web tools, residents are now keeping up with issues, finding their political voice and taking action through e-mail, letter-writing campaigns and attending meetings.

In the past nine months, our membership has soared and our efforts have helped mobilize people to speak out and take action against potentially devastating local developments such as the Ahmanson development and Heschel West.

On Nov. 4 you will be going to the polls to elect two city council members.

Join AHAN and become informed about the candidates.

Gary Baker, Co-founder,

Agoura Hills Action Network