Old Agoura housing policies under review

Old Agoura homemakers who read Mr. Waters' call to arms may wish to do a little investigating before storming city hall.

Are the changes to the housing code for Old Agoura designed to conserve its character as a rural equestrian neighborhood? One hopes. Will it do so at the expense of lowering everyone's property values? Very doubtful. Will it make the process of review more efficient? That's the goal.

The new rules are largely a formalization of long-standing practice. The old code limit on hardscape will be tweaked to include concrete driveways and non-permeable surface. The equestrian element is simply being made more explicit.

It may surprise people to know that the limits on house size are based on the maximum, not the minimum size of houses to which the Old Agoura Homeowners Association and the planning commission have given their blessings. There have been plenty of big ones.

The "small group of activists" phrase is nonsense. The OAHA represents more than half the households in Old Agoura. Many of its members have been in an uproar over the larger houses and would like more severe restrictions than exist now.

If there is a small group of activists, it is a few builders whose disregard for community standards has become troublingTheir eagerness to build ever larger houses would, in the long run, kill what first attracted them to the place.

This proposal is straight up the middle. It recognizes large houses are a fact, but draws the line at radically reshaping the neighborhood.

Robert Evren, former vice president, Old Agoura Homeowners Association