Group Seeks Study of Freeway Corridor

Fed up with the frustrating putter of rush-hour traffic along the Ventura Freeway, a group of politicians and transit officials agreed Wednesday to seek a $1-million study aimed at relieving one of the region’s most persistent transportation headaches.

The meeting, held just off the bustling freeway at the new Agoura Hills / Calabasas Community Center, marks the first time that representatives from all the cities along the clogged corridor sat down to address the problem, Agoura Hills Councilman Jeff Reinhardt said. About 55 people attended.

“This was a very big first step,” said Reinhardt, who organized the brainstorming session. “No one is looking to pull things off the table at this time. It was an exercise in possibilities.”

As of yet, the group has not decided what possibilities to study or how to pay for potential projects, such as a double-decked freeway or carpool lanes. Participants have simply agreed to travel together in what promises to be a long bureaucratic march.

Five of the cities involved in the effort--Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Malibu and Westlake Village--are already members of a regional Council of Governments, formed in 1998 to give them a bigger voice in transportation planning.

That council will now formulate a proposal to take to the Southern California Assn. of Governments, requesting a study of options to relieve congestion along the freeway.

“The whole idea was to get a plan started,” said Hal Suetsugu of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who advises the MTA board on transportation issues. The MTA needs to see a concrete plan before it considers whether to fund it, he added.

The effort mirrors another study being conducted by Los Angeles officials at the behest of Councilwoman Laura Chick, whose commute between her Tarzana home and City Hall deposits her smack in the middle of the bumper-to-bumper crawl each day.

The roadway is one of the busiest in the state, with more than 550,000 motorists passing through the San Diego-Ventura freeway interchange daily.

Los Angeles expects its transit planners to report back in early February.

Chick is also interested in working with the new group to find a regional solution, said Steven Meister, a Chick aide who attended Wednesday’s meeting.

“It’s going to take a few more meetings for everything to gel together,” Meister said. “The group may have some potential, but it’s brand new.”