Need to protect Headwaters Corner

What does it say about a city that will install a traffic light at a place called Headwaters Corner? "Headwaters" signifies an environmentally sensitive habitat area worthy of protection.

The Calabasas City Council waves the environmental flag in public, yet they consistently condone the exemption of the California Environmental Quality Act. In addition to environmental issues, residents should be concerned by how a signal will increase speeds through this intersection, dramatically heightening the potential for side-impact collisions with cars entering the roadway from the Mountains Restoration Trust parking lot.

Except for a short period of traffic congestion during weekday afternoons, there is no reputable justification for this traffic light.

The intersection at Headwaters Corner is an ecological preserve which has been described by city officials as follows: "Located at Old Topanga Canyon Road and Mulholland Highway, the 500-acre area known as Headwaters Corner . . . contains significant cultural and natural resources of the City of Calabasas. Protecting this gateway to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area provides the citizens of Calabasas with a greater sense of community and appreciation for the natural landscape."

Yet city hall is determined to install a traffic signal at this location. Such blatant hypocrisy must be called into question.

Of additional concern is the permanent narrowing of Mulholland Highway just east of Calabasas High School, creating a single-lane gantlet which, when the next fire comes, fewer residents will get out, and no emergency equipment will get in. Many might recall the fire of 1993, where the cars on Mulholland Highway from Viewpoint School parents trying to pick up their children, were five and sometimes six abreast. Had the fire not been burning toward the sea that day, many would have died in their cars.

Is there no memory or vision at city hall?
Toby Keeler
Calabasas