Flunking the State’s ‘Scenic’ Test : Calabasas Grade May Look Lovely to Urbanites, But Caltrans Travels a Higher Road

The state had some news recently for motorists who get a lift from seeing the rolling countryside around Calabasas and points west: It’s not really scenic. It only looks scenic.

Meeting in Sacramento, a committee of Caltrans refused to designate the Ventura Freeway from Calabasas to Thousand Oaks as a state scenic highway. The unprecedented action--which is final, barring a successful appeal to the transportation department’s director--was a rebuff to civic leaders who wanted to add the freeway segment to 1,096 miles of officially lovely California roads.

The committee relied on the by-the-numbers sensibilities of Caltrans staffers. Two of them rode up and down the 21 miles, eyeing the highway disapprovingly. They graded it 1 to 2.9 out of a possible 5, deducting points for “a high amount of development,” including advertising signs.

Signs played a big part in the debate before the committee. Some people seeking a scenic designation also oppose towering “pole signs,” which were rejected by voters in Agoura Hills last year and are now the subject of an industry lawsuit. The sign industry spotted a link and opposed the scenic designation.

In fact, Caltrans officials say, pole signs tend to keep out the scenic designation, not vice versa, since it does not affect local cities’ right to decide the signs’ fate. Cities on scenic highways are eligible for billboard-removal money, however.

Now it’s true that the freeway view, a mixture of the pastoral and the paved, doesn’t take your breath away. Still, if a scenic designation would have helped preserve or improve it, the state decision is regrettable. The Calabasas Grade isn’t exactly the Angeles Crest Highway, but then the Angeles Crest isn’t exactly the Big Sur. As you drop westward on the freeway into the Conejo Valley, you do have the liberating feeling of being out in the country.

Caltrans will study asking the Legislature to create a lower level of recognition for roads that look scenic only to urbanites. Meanwhile, signs that won’t be cluttering the 101 are the ones with the little poppies that mean “scenic highway.”