Topanga Sees the Light, Says ‘No Thanks’

It’s not normally news when a town installs a new traffic light.

Then again, Topanga’s not your normal town.

For the past few months, this rustic, close-knit enclave has been split over its first-ever street light, a signal on Topanga Canyon Boulevard designed to protect the kids who attend a nearby elementary school.

At stake is the very nature of Topanga, opponents say. The traffic light is the beginning of the end of the counterculture community’s small-town feel. It’s the first step toward making Topanga Canyon--shudder--Laurel Canyon II.

But some Topanga parents don’t want their kid-filled vehicles smashed by drivers speeding down the boulevard, an increasingly popular alternate route to the Westside for commuters from the west San Fernando Valley and Ventura County.

One town meeting on the matter attracted 70 people. County officials entered the fray. Even the California Assembly speaker pro tem, who represents the area, was drawn into the debate.

The signal, now under construction, has also inspired guerrilla tactics: Some Topanga drivers now purposefully cut their speed in half when approaching the school zone, creating minivan-sized traffic gaps for those who must turn across oncoming traffic to drop off children. It drives other commuters crazy.

Caltrans officials say it’s a first. With many cities and towns begging for street lights to slow speed-crazed drivers, Topanga is the only community in recent memory to actually try to block a stoplight.

But residents say the brouhaha should come as no surprise for a community that has long cherished its splendid isolation: the horse trails, the houses tucked in crannies, the lack of a single hip vodka bar with limos out front.

They’re willing to fight to maintain it--even if the menace is only a single traffic light.

“It’s a Topanga thing,” explained Cynthia Riddle, 48, mother of a Topanga Elementary fourth-grader and self-described ex-hippie. “We’re an island of sorts. Most of us would prefer to keep it that way.”

But that green-first philosophy has other parents seeing red.

“Most of the people who are opposed to this are ‘60s throwback hippies,” said Shannon Colburn, 37, who has a third-grader at Topanga. “Is it going to take a child getting killed for everybody to wake up? This is the ‘90s. For there to be no signal is ridiculous.”

The seeds of the controversy were sown in 1995, when Topanga Elementary School’s former principal wrote a letter urging Caltrans to study the intersection of Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Topanga School Road, which leads from the boulevard to the school a short distance away.

Caltrans discovered that parents trying to turn in and out of the school were facing long waits. Though few major accidents had happened, there had been several near misses.

The numbers went into a formula and out popped the result: A traffic light was needed. The process crept along for two years as Caltrans searched for funding and bid out the job.

Then, last fall, rumors spread about the impending construction of a traffic signal. Suddenly, Topangans realized their virgin stretch of road was about to be violated by a traffic light.

The rebellion had begun.

First was a meeting arranged by Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl, speaker pro tem. Representatives from county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s office showed up. Then came the town meeting where nearly all of the 70 people in attendance voiced displeasure at the light. Then came still another meeting.

The reaction stunned Caltrans officials, who were ready to break ground on the project. Normally, they come in, hang the light and leave. No mess. No fuss. And certainly no public input.

“It was a very unusual situation,” said Tom Choe, senior traffic engineer for the project. “Everybody wants a signal. People are fighting for signals. They actually opposed it.”

To satisfy the protesters, Caltrans agreed to do another study in September. As it turned out, the number of cars using the boulevard during peak morning hours had zoomed in two years from 1,233 vehicles per hour to 1,778 per hour, a 44% increase.

Once again, it was clear the area needed a traffic signal. But some Topangans still weren’t convinced.

As an alternative to the light, some parents began to carpool. Others started arriving at the school earlier. Riddle started the pact where parents coming from the north would slow down and allow parents driving from the south to turn left into the school.

Caltrans wouldn’t cancel plans for the signal, but did agree to modifications. Although the light should be in place by mid-February, it will be stop-and-go only during school hours. The rest of the time it will simply flash. And it may be hooded completely during the summer months.

“Caltrans was in the dark about the way we do things in Topanga,” said Dale Robinette, president of the Topanga Town Council. “There’s a lot of community input. Compromises are struck. We in Topanga resist urbanization.”

Indeed, on a recent school day, hardly a parent could be found who favored the new light.

“I think it’s horrible, horrible, horrible,” said Dorothianne Henne, a parent at the school. “It’s all these namby-pamby yuppies living in the Palisades who want Topanga to be the Highlands. Topanga is a rugged place. You’ve got to be rugged.”

Jodi Johnson, a Pierce College instructor, dropped off her daughter, then had to turn around and brave traffic again to go back for the violin left behind on lesson day. She, too, is opposed to the light.

“I don’t want to see Topanga get a stop light,” she said. “It’ll cause as many problems as it will fix.”