Hidden Hills Votes to Pursue Annexation

Faced with a poll showing that residents largely oppose a plan for lower-cost housing in wealthy Hidden Hills, the town’s City Council voted Wednesday to push ahead with an annexation action related to the plan, without deciding the fate of the housing proposal.

Under the housing plan the council supported in recent months, 46 lower-cost units for senior citizens would be built on part of 25 acres of adjoining county land the city would annex.

A developer would be allowed to build nine luxury homes on 20 acres inside the community’s gates, and construct the lower-cost project and commercial office space on the remaining five acres outside the gates. The luxury homes would be accessible through Hidden Hills’ network of private roads, but the senior citizens’ homed and the commercial area would not.

The poll results, announced Tuesday, showed that about two-thirds of those who responded opposed the housing proposal.

But council members Warren H. McCament, Colleen Hartman and Mayor Chris K. Van Peski questioned whether the poll accurately reflected the town’s opinion, noting that only 410 of about 1,100 registered voters took part.

Council members H. Brian Herdeg and Kathleen D. Bartizal said they believed the poll was accurate. Herdeg said he thought many voters lacked information.

The council voted 4 to 0 Wednesday, with Bartizal abstaining, to continue with the annexation proposal, which is scheduled to be heard next Wednesday by a county commission.

Council members said the vote was not a decision on the future of the housing plan.