Street Closure Delayed at Agoura Hills’ Request

Diane Venable said she was ready to throw a party the minute she saw the sign announcing that Medfield Street would be closed next Tuesday.

Venable and her neighbors have sought for a year to close the street because of truck traffic it brings into their Agoura Hills neighborhood.

Several hours after it was posted by Los Angeles County officials Wednesday, the sign was removed at the request of Agoura Hills City Manager David N. Carmany. The city needs to keep Medfield open temporarily to ease traffic congestion in the area, he said.

“It’s a real slug in the ol’ face,” said Venable, who heads a group of about 50 residents calling themselves the Committee to Close Medfield.

Waiting for the Signal

Agoura Hills earlier this year told county officials that Medfield should be kept open only until the city is granted a state permit for the traffic signal at Canwood Street and Kanan Road, said Jean Granucci, a spokeswoman for the county Department of Public Works.

The sign announcing Medfield’s closing was posted Wednesday because the county learned that the state permit had been granted, Granucci said.

But after the sign was posted, Agoura Hills asked the county to wait until the signal is installed before closing Medfield, Carmany said. The county agreed to the request, Granucci said.

City officials asked the county to wait for the traffic-signal installation because closing Medfield will add about 3,200 daily vehicle trips through the Canwood-Kanan intersection, already the worst in the city for traffic accidents, Carmany said.

Medfield was built by a developer five years ago, before Agoura Hills was incorporated as a city. County officials never approved the road, so when Agoura Hills was incorporated in 1983, the road did not pass into city possession. The county has kept the road open as a courtesy to the city.

“Closing that street is a common goal” of the city, county and Venable’s group, Carmany said.

But the sign incident leaves Venable with doubts about the city’s commitment to close the road.

“The trust is gone out of this,” Venable said.

The city does not expect the signal to be installed before Thanksgiving, and that’s not soon enough for Venable.

“It has been urgent for a number of years,” Venable said.