City Council was premature in opposing L.A. County’s plan




City Council was premature in opposing L.A. County’s plan


I want to discuss with your readers the action of the City Council recently in recommending the city take a position against the density change in two projects that border Agoura Hills.


The North Area Plan has been in the planning stage for several years and in that time the cities in our area have had a great deal of input as have some of the affected groups. Most of the lengthy discussions have been regarding developers but certainly not enough weight was given the rest of the uses within the Santa Monica Mountains.


As people can see when reading the document, the equestrian uses as well as certain property rights are simply left out of the equation or minimized for the sake of a few disenchanted souls.


During our discussions the entire staff report centered on one development and not on the entire plan or on other developments that touch our borders.


When asked why would we as a city wish to discuss this without the surrounding cities also weighing in, it was pointed out that one of the councilmembers asked that this be agendized.


Since all five cities were part of the process and the cities of Westlake Village and Hidden Hills did not have plans to vote on this and the city of Calabasas had chosen to take no action (at the time) we were alone and for no good reason.


The deliberations by the county Regional Planning Commission had lasted months and they simply approved a density change in the Warner Financial project (to a total of 106) and an approval of 108 homes in the Moran development.


The total number of all homes in the plan went from 5,400 to 4,100! Of the 330 acres for Mr. Moran, approximately 250 will be donated to the city’s open space and of the 175 acres for Warner Financial a new school site was offered (free, I might add) to Las Virgenes Unified School District and accepted by them and the state.


As for the issue of toxins, no one, including the developer, wants anything built that would endanger any children at a school or families in a residential area, but until there is a finding, we continue to muddy the waters with rhetoric rather than facts.


I have been part of the discussions for the Moran site since its inception (when it was 132 homes) and have toured the Warner Financial site (along with other folks from our city) and it seems we are not giving these two developers a level playing field but rather tinkering with legitimate use of their property as well as not having the faith in the Regional Planning Commission to do their job. We have also done this to our own planning commission, so it should not come as a surprise.


Mr. Moran also asked the city, at the inception of his discussions with us and the county, to annex his property so we could have more input, get the fees associated with a large development like this and expand our borders.


I have long been an advocate of this and expanding our sphere of influence, but there has not been any support for this process from within the city.


While I think the county has erred in the past concerning overall development and while there is a need for some sort of cohesive plan, this surely is not it. I would very much urge the Board of Supervisors to allow for additional comments on this most important document.


I feel I was justified in voting the way I did as the plan did not answer enough of my concerns and I think it was premature and unnecessary to take action at this time.


Denis Weber


City Councilman, Agorua Hills



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