CONEJO VALLEY : Future Foundation Looks at Life in 2020

For the past 18 years, the Conejo Future Foundation, a grass-roots group with private and public funding, has worked to solve the Conejo Valley’s immediate problems with an eye on its future.

Through the years, the foundation has funded studies aimed at preserving the valley’s open space, unifying the region’s school districts, and meeting the housing needs of senior citizens, as well as organizing several conferences for teen-agers.

Now the foundation has embarked on a more long-range venture--studying trends to determine what the region will look like in the year 2020. The two-year, $150,000 project is partly funded by the cities of Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village and Agoura Hills and by Los Angeles County.

“The goal of the project is to come up with a comprehensive long-term regional study projected to the year 2020, that will predict 21st Century trends and aid decision-makers in planning for the future of the Calabasas-to-Newbury-Park corridor,” project manager Lucy Hanley said.

On Monday, the foundation announced the formation of a 14-member transportation task force, the first of six volunteer groups that will take part in the project.

Members include Thousand Oaks traffic engineer Jano Baghdanian, state Sen. Ed Davis’ chief of staff Hunt Braly, Ahmanson Land Company president Donald Brackenbush, and Lt. Geoff Dean of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

In coming weeks, the foundation will announce the formation of other task forces to study the environment, waste management, housing, water resources and regional governance, Hanley said.