Moratorium Blamed on Foot-Dragging : Agoura Hills Councilman Raps Peers

Slow-growth advocates who have taken control of Agoura Hills’ City Council were blamed Thursday for snarls in the city’s planning process that prompted the council to pass a moratorium on construction.

The accusation was leveled by Councilman Ernest Dynda, the council’s lone advocate of development in the city west of the San Fernando Valley. It marked the first time that Dynda has spoken out since a growth-control coalition was seated on the council in last November’s election.

Dynda’s accusation was immediately denied by council members who supported the moratorium, which passed on a 4-1 vote Tuesday night over Dynda’s objections. The measure took effect Wednesday.

Moratorium Buys Time

Officials said the moratorium is needed to give the council and the city Planning Commission time to enact a first-ever zoning ordinance offering permanent land-use protection for the city.

But Dynda said Agoura Hills would already have its zoning laws in place if “everybody had been doing what they ought to be” for the last three years.

He said shortcomings in the city’s planning process are the fault of Mayor Vicky Leary and Councilwoman Fran Pavley, two slow-growth advocates who have served on the council since the town’s 1982 incorporation.

“Fran and Vicky have had the most input. If there’s anything wrong with the planning department, they have the most blame,” Dynda said.

He said the council could have avoided the moratorium by “tightening up” deadlines for work by the city’s staff and planning commission. He said he will press for quick work on the zoning ordinance so that the moratorium can be ended before six months.

Hurt City’s Economy

Dynda said his own analysis of city finances indicates that a lengthy moratorium, by eliminating building fees, would worsen the city’s economic problems.

He said falling gasoline prices could cut as much as $54,000 from the city’s gas tax revenues for the 1985-86 fiscal year. Escalating expenses such as insurance fees and legal fees for the council’s “fetish” of fighting with Los Angeles County over the city’s “sphere of influence”--boundaries indicating its likely future growth--could “impact the city by $200,000,” he said.

But Dynda’s prediction was dismissed by City Manager Michael W. Huse.

Huse said Agoura Hills’ $7.2-million budget is secure, and that any gas tax losses will be “more than offset” by about $70,000 in road funds the city will get from the state this year.

Leary and Pavley disputed Dynda’s foot-dragging charge. They said Dynda and two former council members were more to blame than them for the city’s slow completion of its master plan.

Leary said planning was hobbled by the former council majority’s decision to exempt about 30 construction projects from an 11-month moratorium imposed in 1983-84.