A plan to expand occupancy at Chabad of Oak Park, which operates a synagogue inside a single-family home on Conifer Street, encountered road blocks as county officials sided with neighbors who fear the expansion will cause parking and noise problems in their community. In December, Ventura County planning commissioners rejected a claim that the county violated a federal religious landuse law when it earlier denied the Chabad’s request to expand. Chabad plans to appeal the ruling.

After a 30-year battle to rid the Santa Susana Field Laboratory of its chemical and radiological contamination, negotiations progressed in September as California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control and the federal Department of Energy agreed to clean up their portions of the former rocket engine and nuclear test site in the hills northeast of Oak Park.

The agreement didn’t include the endorsement of Boeing, which controls about 2,100 of the field lab’s 2,850 total acres.

Like their counterparts in Calabasas, Oak Park residents who live near the Kilburn water tank fought against the installation of new cell towers on the water storage structure near their homes.

In May, a new 1-acre dog park opened at Oak Canyon Park.

—Sylvie Belmond