Mulholland Residents Take a Dim View of Street Lights

Street lights might be considered public improvements in most places, but not along Mulholland Highway in Agoura.

Even though it is within minutes of the Los Angeles metropolis, it gets so dark along the roadway on some moonless nights that only stars and an occasional porch light along a distant mountain ridge twinkle.

Gary Haynes, who lives in the area near Mulholland Highway, likes it that way. So he was upset Friday when he discovered that Los Angeles County is requiring a developer to install street lights in a subdivision overlooking a stretch of the highway that is along the National Park Service’s bucolic Peter Strauss Ranch.

‘Say Goodby’

“The owls are going to say goodby,” Haynes said. “We just don’t need that kind of lighting.”

A Park Service official said Friday that the lights could ruin the nocturnal serenity of the 70-acre ranch and obliterate nighttime park visitors’ view of the stars. In response, an official of the county’s Department of Public Works said the agency will take a second look at its street-light requirement.

The Kaltman Development Group’s 27-home subdivision, where the lights are being installed, was approved three years ago by the county. It is on high ground across Mulholland Highway from the Strauss Ranch, which is near Troutdale Drive in Agoura.

“Mulholland Highway is a rural scenic corridor,” said Dennis Schramm, chief of land-use planning for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, of which the Strauss Ranch is part. “This development is basically urbanizing a piece of Mulholland.”

“You really get the feel that you are really away from the city,” said David Brown, a Calabasas conservationist and vice president of the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation. “The darkness descends on you. Putting in street lights is like a glass of cold water in the face.”

Safety Reasons

He acknowledged, however, that the street lights might be needed for safety reasons.

Schramm said the Park Service will likely send a letter to the county expressing its concerns about the street lights’ effect on the night sky.

Roger Burger, a deputy director of the county’s Department of Public Works, said Friday that the county “virtually always” requires street lights for tract housing developments, making occasional exceptions for rural-sized lots.

But Burger said the county would listen to the Park Service’s concerns about the lights.

“We’re reviewing the need for the street lights, and we’re also going to look at the possibility of shielding the lights to keep them from affecting the park area,” Burger said.