Longtime Agoura planning commissioner steps down
By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

Phil Ramuno

After 10 years of service on the Agoura Hills Planning Commission, Phil Ramuno has left the dais.

The planning commission consists of five volunteer members who live in Agoura Hills. The panel acts in an advisory capacity to the City Council on landuse matters and recommends ways to guide the city's physical growth by implementing its General Plan.

Cyrena Nouzille replaces Ramuno. She joins commissioners John O'Meara, Stephen Rishoff, Illece Buckley Weber and Curtis Zacuto.

A television director, Ramuno said he stepped down from his post after accepting a four-week assignment in Romania. He said it would have been unfair to the city for him to miss more than one or two meetings.

Ramuno said that from the moment he moved to the Conejo Valley he was interested in planning issues.

At first, he wanted to have "some impact" on how the county dealt with development, but when he moved to Agoura Hills in 1989, his attendance at planning commission and City Council hearings to testify on behalf of citizen groups caught the eye of then councilmember Louise Rishoff, who appointed Ramuno to the commission in 1998.

"I thought I'm going down there anyway," he said of his decision to accept the appointment. "It certainly is a lot more work to be one of the decision makers. It helped me to express myself in a much more pleasant way- not quite so confrontational, but explaining what I thought the city should have."

Although Ramuno is able to point to many accomplishments as a commissioner, one project stands out. The Hampton Suites, situated west of Reyes Adobe Road on the south side of the 101 Freeway, came before the commission as a "pretty standard looking hotel," he said.

Visually, the project didn't meet the city's standards. The applicant, he said, was angry because the hotel franchise insisted on building its hotels in the same mold in every city.

"They came back three months later and it was a beautiful hotel," Ramuno said. The Agoura Hills hotel was featured cover of Hampton Suites' corporate report and the building is now being used as a model for the firm's other hotels.

"The office building next to Hampton's was the same thing," Ramuno said. "They got angry because we didn't want cement rectangular boxes." Over 25 years, the city refined its guidelines and demanded more architectural detail from developers, he said.

"It takes a lot of work to keep people on task," Ramuno said. "It's up to every single citizen to give (the planning commission and City Council) input. When you allow someone else to make the decisions you have to take them for better or worse."

Ramuno said the biggest challenge he faced as a commissioner was when he was forced to say no to a project.

"I don't want to chase someone out of the city," he said. "Our intent is not to say go away, not what we don't want, but get them to rework it. You have to make a decision on what you think the city's goals are."

Ramuno said the commission approves building projects by looking at blueprints and sketches, but doesn't know for sure what they will look like until they're built. "I'm happy to say there are more good jobs than bad. . . ."

When a bulldozer shows up in a neighborhood, people react as if a snap decision was made by the city, Ramuno said. The city always "puts out a call" for input from all citizens on each project, "but so few take the charge," he said. He said the City Council relies on input from residents to ensure that good decisions are made.