Agoura Hills Officials Say City Stymies New Business

City officials in upscale and pastoral Agoura Hills say the western Los Angeles County hamlet has been hurt by its desire to limit development.

The city of 21,000 has tried to keep pace with neighboring towns in constructing new roads and public buildings, but its fear of being overrun by so-called big-box stores has kept away businesses that could provide the tax dollars to pay for community improvements, officials said.

“With all the gyrations and hurdles, why would anybody have wanted to come to this city?” asked Mayor Dennis Weber, who was elected in November. “If a Nordstrom or something wanted to come in, my goodness, what would we put them through?”

Agoura Hills, like other cities in the region, has its origin in slow-growth movements. Residents who have fought for years against big retail stores to preserve the suburban and rural feel do not want the city to give in just because money is tight.

The latest dispute involves a proposed Home Depot, which opponents say would take much of the last available commercial space along the Ventura Freeway.

“We’re a city without a town center,” said Al Abrams, spokesman for Citizens for Responsible Growth, a group of residents that recently succeeded with a petition drive to get a growth-limiting measure on the March ballot.

The citizens group supports plans for an entertainment and retail center. “Any one development over 100,000 square feet would eliminate the possibility of ever having one. It would decimate local businesses and create a small-town catastrophe,” Abrams said.

The ballot measure would prohibit the building of retail stores larger than 60,000 square feet. If the measure passes, it would prevent the construction of the proposed Home Depot.

Abrams and his group first asked the City Council to put the measure on the ballot, but the council refused to vote on the matter.

City administrators and businesses said it is time for the town to loosen up, not to add more restrictions.

“Businesses and residents have both been selfish about what they want, and that’s got to change now,” Weber said.

The neighboring towns of Calabasas and Westlake Village have had standoffs with big development. But they have relented and it has paid off, officials said.

The Commons at Calabasas, a retail complex initially contested bitterly by residents who argued that the project would ruin their way of life, is now the focal point for leisure and shopping. Westlake Village all but scared off Price Club with building restrictions before allowing the company to open a Costco that more than doubled the city’s tax base.

To rival the Commons at Calabasas, Weber supports a development corridor along the Ventura Freeway that would include retail and commercial space and an entertainment promenade. Though the idea precedes Weber’s mayoral tenure, some residents said the city now has the leaders to complete the project.

Ken Horton, a twice unsuccessful City Council candidate, said Agoura Hills rejected most business proposals throughout the 1990s when he was a director of the Chamber of Commerce.

“The bureaucrats were real sticklers for red tape,” Horton said. “The businesses in the city did not have much say in what happens in the city. Even if we get businesses all psyched up about coming [here], nothing happens if the council won’t approve them.”

In the past, Chamber President Alex Soteras said, building projects have gotten “held up by the Planning Commission just because somebody didn’t like the shape of the roof.”

City Planner Mike Kamino, however, said an understaffed planning department has gotten a bad rap for moving projects slowly through the system.

Residents’ desire to preserve Agoura Hills’ small-town atmosphere sometimes gets in the way of progress, Weber said.

The city, which has an annual budget of about $8 million, needs to increase sales tax revenue in the coming years to repay the bonds issued to pay for a $10-million City Hall and library complex. It also needs an additional $500,000 a year for its portion of a $20-million freeway interchange at Kanan Road.

City Manager Dave Adams estimated that the sales tax revenue from the Costco that the city passed on in the mid-1990s could have covered all those costs.

Dowell Myers, USC professor of policy, planning and development, said the citizen group’s efforts may unnecessarily cut off future financial resources for the city.

“Ballot box planning is shortsighted and ignorant,” said Myers, who studies how urban growth and sprawl relate to quality of life.

“I’m not saying the citizens are wrong,” but questions of growth need to be open-ended, not just a yes or no on a ballot, he said.