Without careful planning, traffic in Agoura Hills will grind to a halt

A lot of attention has rightfully been given to the Kanan Road/101 Freeway interchange and its need to be reconfigured. Whether the current plans on the table will ease the congestion and traffic flow issues plaguing that site remains to be seen.

I do believe that most of those who drive south on Kanan toward the interchange might agree that the new light installed to allow traffic into and out of the Oak Creek complex has made the situation worse, and it’s not hard to imagine that it will become even more so.

But that is not the reason for this letter. Just one interchange to the west (or is it north?) is Reyes Adobe, a narrow bottleneck of a bridge/overpass that feeds into the 101 in both directions and with traffic sometimes crossing in front of oncoming traffic to enter the freeway.

The addition of the Sleep Shoppe on the southeast corner of the interchange, where seasonal usage had taken place, will only add to the congestion that is already building since the road accesses Agoura Hills City Hall, the library, two hotels, offices, apartment/condominium complexes, a middle school and elementary school, parks, and a sizable number of residential neighborhoods, including Lake Lindero, Chateau Springs and Morrison Ranch.

Now, let’s add to the mix a new office complex, fancifully named Agoura Hills Corporate Pointe (pulleeze!), and what do we have? We have a 72,000–square-foot project with two office buildings. Vicky Leary voiced concern that vacancy rates may presently be high without adding more space. Marty Sadoff asks how the project would benefit the community.

I don’t profess to know the vacancy rates, and I don’t know how specifically the project would benefit the community. Guess it would be good to know the answers.

Even so, what I do know is that the Reyes Adobe/101 Freeway interchange had better be on the drawing board real soon. Because, when work begins in earnest on the Kanan Road/101 interchange, I can see a parking lot on Reyes Adobe and Agoura roads.

Dan Gersten

Agoura Hills