Waited long enough

In Agoura Hills and Calabasas, the most important construction projects in a decade are making headlines. Both projects are ambitious and promise to be good for the community, but they've taken way too long to complete.

Agoura Village is a proposed 135-acre mixed-use commercialresidential development in the Agoura-Kanan-Cornell road vicinity. With its combination of housing, pedestrian-friendly retail stores and exciting entertainment opportunities, the village promises to be the new heart and soul of Agoura Hills. It will make Agoura Hills the first city in the region not to rely on the traditional shopping mall as its town center.

Opponents are worried about unwanted traffic and the proximity of Agoura Village to the environmentally sensitive Santa Monica Mountains, but the fears are overblown. The village poses no significant environmental threat, and the addition of a new traffic roundabout and the completion of the Kanan Road/101 Freeway interchange will help accommodate the expected increase in vehicles. The payoffs of having a vibrant new town center will far outweigh any disadvantages.

Mayor Denis Weber's recent remarks sum up the general frustration about this decade-old work in progress: "(The delays) can't go on forever," Weber said. "There has to be an end to this."

We hope so, and we encourage the city council to vote for the final Agoura Village Plan at its June 14 meeting.

In Calabasas, city officials were ready to move forward with the final piece to The Commons shopping center-a new $35 million civic center, library and amphitheater-but only one construction firm bid on the project, and the bid was too high.

In Southern California, it's a contractor's market. With so much new construction underway, the builders are calling the shots and adding to the already high price of development. But Calabasas has contributed to the civic center delays by proposing numerous design changes, an old habit of micromanagement that plagued the city during its 10-year pursuit of The Commons.

Still, the new civic center will be a jewel when completed. Elimination of the amphitheater and underground parking will help bring the project back under budget. Further delays will only keep the price tag growing.

It's time both Calabasas and Agoura Hills make hard decisions and put these two civic projects to bed. The citizens have waited long enough.

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