High Tech, Pastoral Images for Ventura Freeway Area Collide

Northern California has its Silicon Valley. So why shouldn’t Southern California have a Silicon Alley?

The promotion of such a place was suggested Tuesday by developers from the San Fernando and Conejo valleys who have banded together to encourage high-tech businesses to settle along a 26-mile section of the Ventura Freeway.

Leaders of the recently formed Technology Corridor Assn. said they will soon mount a national campaign to lure “clean” industries to scores of empty office buildings that have been built along the freeway strip in Woodland Hills, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park.

To the out-of-towners, the strip is being marketed in press releases as “Technology Corridor, Calif.”

That’s making some in-towners furious.

Wrathful Response

“Where do they get the authority to change geographical names?” said Jack W. Koenig, an Agoura Hills city councilman.

“It’s not enough that they level our hills and cut our trees for their buildings. They want to rename us. This has got to be the most presumptuous group of people I’ve ever seen.”

Not so, said Calvin H. Johnston, a Calabasas developer who suggested the marketing campaign and thought up the association’s name.

“It’s what’s already taking place in the corridor,” Johnston said. “It’s the type of business we want to see locate here.”

Johnston has just finished building 156,000 square feet of office space next to the freeway near Las Virgenes Road and plans to soon construct another 170,000-square-foot building at the site.

Real estate experts say Johnston’s development is part of 16.6 million square feet of office and industrial space from Woodland Hills to Newbury Park. Another 1.2 million square feet is under construction.

Southland Glut

There are no current occupancy figures for the freeway corridor, but real estate marketing analysts said Tuesday that the area is contributing to an overall glut of office space in Southern California. A 16% vacancy rate was reported last fall for office buildings in the San Fernando and Conejo valley area by Grubb & Ellis, a national real estate brokerage.

Several dozen commercial leasing agents were among a group of 80 persons who attended the Technology Corridor Assn.’s organizational meeting Tuesday in Woodland Hills. Membership dues will range from $3,000 a year for developers building more than 150,000 square feet to $1,000 a year for non-builder “associates.” The group is starting with eight builders and six non-builders.

Although the marketing campaign has not been mapped out, association officials said they hope to create “national interest” in the corridor by promoting its easy access to the freeway, its supply of engineers and other skilled workers who live in the area, and its scenic nature. The group is setting up two toll-free phone numbers to handle inquiries.

Prospective members were told by association vice president Russell Goodman, whose Sammis Co. is building a 645,000-square-foot commercial development in Newbury Park, that the association will stick to marketing and probably steer away from political issues.

That could take some doing, particularly since the Agoura Hills City Council has already written the association to protest the Technology Corridor name.

Master Plan’s Wording

City Manager Michael W. Huse pointed out to the developers that Agoura Hills’ master plan “makes specific reference to the ‘scenic corridor,’ not the high-tech corridor or even Ventura Freeway corridor.”

Johnston said Tuesday that the builders “are not wedded” to the Technology Corridor name. His group might change it to something like “Scenic-Technology Corridor,” he said.

“We want to protect the environment of the area. That’s the one thing we’ve got that no other developers have,” Johnston said of the hilly, semi-rural region. “We’re not trying to superimpose ourselves on local communities. We’re trying to encourage better planning.”

He said some association members have voluntarily provided more parking and landscaping than is required by Los Angeles County. Some have adopted deed restrictions that prohibit tenants from creating noise and air pollution, he said.

Previous Pressure

If the association changes its name for the area because of local protests, it will not be the first time Agoura-area residents have forced a name switch.

A Studio City car dealer scrapped the name “Valley Mitsubishi” for the auto dealership he plans to open in Calabasas next week. The name, painted on signs posted at the site of the car lot at the intersection of Las Virgenes and Agoura roads, prompted homeowner protests.

Instead, the lot will be called “Morrie Sage’s Mitsubishi,” said Joseph Sage, vice president of the dealership, on Tuesday.

“People out here are very sensitive. They have relocated out of L.A. and they consider this to be God’s country,” he said.

Although sheep graze across the street from Sage’s eight-acre site, which he said cost $4.5 million, urbanization of the area is inevitable, he said.

“This was out in the sticks when interest rates were high and nobody could afford to build,” Sage said. “But that’s not the case anymore.”