Control of Agoura Hills at Stake in Bitter Race

It was symbolic. That much about the dismantling of the Agoura Hills billboard two weeks ago is not disputed.

But exactly what the removal of the hillside sign represents to residents of the quiet bedroom community has become a matter of debate in the closing days of a hotly contested Agoura Hills City Council race.

Mayor John Hood contends that disposal of the sign is proof that his young city has met residents’ mandate to preserve their semi-rural environment by inducing a developer to take down the two-sided billboard.

To those hoping to oust Hood, 46, from office this week, however, it is further evidence that 3-year-old Agoura Hills is losing its coveted ambiance. They point out that the billboard soon will be replaced by a $75-million industrial park.

City approval of the 32-acre industrial project and a separate hillside motel development has prompted a bitter fight for control of the City Council in Tuesday’s election.

The scramble for three Agoura Hills council seats is the noisiest of five elections scheduled in the Las Virgenes area.

Three seats also will be filled on the Westlake Village City Council. Other Las Virgenes-area elections involve the Las Virgenes and Oak Park unified school districts and the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council. But the City Council races have drawn the most interest.

Charges of Improper Politicking

The Agoura Hills race has led to charges of improper politicking near the rented City Hall offices. Controversy has centered around press conferences and campaign literature near City Hall, and over campaign contributions Hood has received from developers who work in the city of 20,000.

Preservation of the Las Virgenes area’s country atmosphere prompted successful cityhood drives for Westlake Village in 1981 and for Agoura Hills a year later.

Hood, an insurance man elected to Agoura Hills’ first council on a preservationist platform, has come under fire for his role in helping guide several major developments to narrow council approval, including the council’s 3-2 endorsement of the Katell Properties Inc. industrial park three months ago.

The project will be built next to the Ventura Freeway at the foot of Agoura’s landmark Ladyface Mountain. Along with the billboard, a small grove of oaks and several hills are being removed to make way for the manufacturing buildings.

Hood said the Katell development is carefully planned and will enhance the community while providing a good tax base for Agoura Hills.

“Under the city’s general plan, that project could have been built to cover 50% of the site, but it’s only going to be on about 20%,” he said during a recent campaign event. “When fully landscaped with over 2,000 trees, it will be an asset forever.”

Views Vary Widely

The other seven candidates’ views of development vary widely--although all promise that they would support appropriate and well-planned projects.

Hayden Finley, 54, a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s captain, said he supports “intelligently managed” developments in general and the Katell project in particular. He has condemned the rift the project has caused between homeowners and business leaders. “Some of my friends from Kansas would be amazed to find you have to have hills” and oak groves to have a rural environment, he told a campaign audience two weeks ago.

Harlan Holmwood, 57, a real estate agent who unsuccessfully sought a council seat three years ago, said he supports “reasonable” and “appropriate” growth, and developers who build “carefully.” He has charged in campaign appearances that development problems in the city stem from a lack of “imaginative and innovative” government leadership.

Seeking Aesthetic Harmony

Jean C. Williams, 57, a financial consultant who likewise is making her second try for a council seat, has cited the need for “harmony” between aesthetics and economics. She pledged to a homeowners group last month that she would work to “maintain our rural beauty combined with business interests to maintain our financial responsibility.”

Incumbent Councilwoman Fran Pavley, 36, a teacher, opposed the Katell project because “you cannot let the developer dictate what goes on the terrain. . . . They are destroying our unique city.” She said that while development along Agoura Hills’ freeway corridor is inevitable, it should be required to conform to the terrain and to homeowners’ objectives.

Jack Koenig, 51, who teaches high school social studies in Woodland Hills, said Agoura Hills must deal more harshly with builders if it hopes to avoid becoming “just another San Fernando Valley city.” Residents’ interests should outweigh developers’, he has suggested. “We have to decide whether this city will become a pleasant residential area or one with more development, traffic and smog.”

‘Concrete Boxes’

Darlene McBane, 47, an appointed city planning commissioner and graphic artist who opposed the Katell project when her panel reviewed it, wants the city to improve its protection of oaks and ridge lines. “Most of us live here for the rural atmosphere. . . . That project is giving us concrete boxes on flattened ground. It could and should have been designed more sensitively,” she told voters last week.

Louise Rishoff, an attorney, said she decided to run for the council after a developer sought to build an “inappropriate” motel next to her town house. “We’ve got to be sure these projects are good neighbors for people who are already here,” she said last month. “You could pave this city over with ‘quality’ growth--but you’d lose what people came here to enjoy.”

Growth control also is an issue in Westlake Village, a city of 11,400 next to Agoura Hills.

There, the City Council race has been downright gentlemanly, in contrast with the contest in Agoura Hills. Supporters of the lone challenger, who is facing three reelection-minded incumbents, have singled out Mayor Irwin Shane, 70, for defeat Tuesday.

Control of Finances

Shane, a retired educator, has characterized the election as a test of Westlake Village residents’ satisfaction with the status quo. He and council members Bonnie Klove, 65, and Franklin Pelletier are campaigning on platforms that tout their control of city finances and development requests. Klove is a community volunteer and Pelletier a financial executive.

The three point to the council’s rejection this year of redevelopment of the 91-acre Westlake Village Golf Course as proof that they have heeded homeowners’ concerns. Residents have strongly opposed plans by billionaire Daniel K. Ludwig to convert the golf course into a business park.

But challenger Anthony Plaia, 51, an insurance executive, has charged that the council has ignored homeowner protests over smaller developments, such as a car wash proposed near a residential neighborhood.

Plaia also has condemned Shane and Klove for voting on a rent-control ordinance affecting the mobile home park where both lived. Klove has since moved from the park, but the ordinance has become the target of a $1-million lawsuit against the city by park operators.