Agoura Hills needs business revenue

The Acorn’s April 21 issue ran a letter by James A. Ruddy commenting on Agoura Hills residents having condemned themselves to being a tax-generating backwater in the Conejo Valley by limiting the size of commercial development in this city.

He goes on to say, "Isn’t it shameful that Agoura Hills always has to go hat-in-hand to the state or federal government to do what they should fund themselves for their own betterment but can’t." I have heard this issue over and over in various complaints about traffic, bridge improvements, etc., for the past few years.

Isn’t it time to wake up and take our own destiny in our own hands and seriously face the need to have tax-generating retail in our city? We don’t have to go without improvements or pay for everything with our own money. Someday it will dawn on Agoura Hills citizens that the car trips going to stores in nearby communities are still spent traveling on our streets to the same extent as if the stores were in our town.

In a past election we allowed one storeowner to rob us of a better tax base by creating an image of horrendous traffic. The traffic exits; it just goes out-of-town to spend the money and we are the forever losers.

It’s not too late to repeal that silly condemnation we placed on our own necks.

Thom Bancroft

Agoura Hills