Agoura Hills Road Protesters Take to Street

About 100 people marched Saturday in support of the closure of Medfield Street in Agoura Hills, and reluctant city officials said they would not oppose Los Angeles County’s decision to shut the road down on Wednesday.

The residents have been trying for six years to close the road, put in by a developer without county approval. The Committee to Close Medfield has complained that truck traffic on the road poses a constant danger and nuisance.

On Friday, the day before the protest, a sign was posted announcing the county’s intention to shut the road. But committee leader Diane Venable said previous disappointments prevent her from celebrating yet.

The county has delayed closing the road at the request of Agoura Hills city officials, who have sought to keep it open temporarily to stop traffic from worsening at an already jammed intersection nearby.

County officials agreed in January to wait until a state permit was granted for a traffic signal at the troublesome intersection, Kanan Road and Canwood Street. This month, after they learned the permit had been granted, county authorities proceeded with plans for the closure but abruptly halted them again at the city’s request.

City officials said at the time that they wanted the county to wait until the signal was installed, but in a letter last week to the county, City Manager David N. Carmany thanked the county for its patience and added that Agoura Hills “will not ask you to delay making that decision” on whether to close the road.

So late Friday, county officials posted the latest sign announcing that Medfield, a road less than a mile long, would close this week.

The city will turn its efforts toward installing the traffic signal by Thanksgiving, financing an extension of Canwood Street to Chesebro Road and building new off-ramps from the Ventura Freeway to Kanan Road, Carmany said Saturday.

The Canwood Street extension would provide a new route to replace Medfield Street. The city has already budgeted $600,000 for engineering studies of the extension, but Mayor Jack W. Koenig estimates the cost at $2 million.

Koenig said the county and the federal government should help pay to extend Canwood Street.

A new post office has increased traffic in the area, and nearby commercial and industrial development was approved by the county--before the city was incorporated in 1982--without construction of necessary roads, Koenig said.

Liability for Accidents

When the city was incorporated, it did not take ownership of the unapproved road, leaving discretion to the county, which has been unwilling to accept legal liability for any accidents that might happen on it.

Not all of those at Saturday’s demonstration, held at the controversial stretch of Medfield Street, agreed with Venable’s vocal group.

Closing Medfield will seriously endanger drivers at Canwood Street and Kanan Road, already the city’s worst intersection for traffic accidents, said David Chagall, head of a 15-member group called United Neighbors of Agoura Hills.

“To close off Medfield is not only irresponsible, I think it verges on criminal,” Chagall said. He called Venable’s committee “a very small, selfish group trying to hogtie the entire community.”