Agoura Hills Council Moves to Thwart Projects Near City Limits

Rebuffed in efforts to win a voice in future developments at the edge of its city limits, the Agoura Hills City Council retaliated Wednesday by moving to thwart the construction of such projects.

Council members voted to refuse to hook up their streets with those in new housing tracts and commercial projects outside their boundaries and to not allow drainage from such projects to flow into the city.

The council said it will also prohibit electric, sewage and water lines from crossing the city to serve such new developments.

The action could affect thousands of new homes and millions of square feet of new commercial office space proposed for unincorporated Los Angeles County areas to the south and east of eight-square-mile Agoura Hills.

The first property to be affected will be a 32-home tract under construction just outside the city boundaries off Liberty Canyon Road. Officials indicated they would put barricades up on three streets leading to the tract within 10 days. l

The city’s action came just hours after the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to reject Agoura Hills’ application for a 6,000-acre sphere of influence in a semicircle around the city.

Instead, the county panel granted a 12-acre sphere--enough to cover the Liberty Canyon tract. But city officials said that, if the roads are to be opened, the subdivision would have to have itself annexed into the city.

Mandated by state law, spheres of influence are supposed to reflect the “probable ultimate physical boundaries” of a city.

Agoura Hills leaders said they at first had sought a 12,000-acre sphere in hopes of gaining some control over the density and design of projects in areas that might someday be annexed to their 2-year-old municipality.

They reluctantly scaled down their request to 6,000 acres last month as a compromise with a recommendation by the formation commission’s staff that the sphere be limited to current city boundaries.

Wednesday’s vote by the formation commission came on a motion by county Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who sits on the panel as a county representative.

City representatives unsuccessfully argued at Wednesday’s commission session that there were compelling reasons for undeveloped areas to be included in Agoura Hills’ sphere of influence.

City Council member Vicky Leary told commissioners that a wide sphere of influence would help keep “lines of communication open” between Agoura Hills and the county.

But several landowners disputed that contention, saying they do not expect to have to rely on Agoura Hills for services once their projects are built.

Developer Alan Satterlee said he would rather have parcels he owns be included “in a future City of Calabasas” rather than Agoura Hills.

“We don’t need their roads or services,” Satterlee said.

But Agoura Hills’ Planning Director Paul Williams said late Wednesday that is not the case with a Satterlee parcel in the Liberty Canyon area.

“Mr. Satterlee is going to have some problems. He’s got one way in and out, and it’s through Agoura Hills,” Williams said.