July 24, 2014
July 8, 2014
June 11, 2014
Regional Bicycle Master Plan Seeks Input
The Regional Bicycle Master Plan is asking people to take a survey that will help them to design bike paths that will connect Agoura Hills and other cities in our region. This plan is an excellent idea and we congratulate the city for its part in the planning process. The website for the plan is RegionalBikePlan.Org. You can find a link to the survey on that site, or click HERE.
The Regional Bicycle Master Plan is a collaborative effort of the Las Virgenes-Malibu Council of Governments and other agencies to promote bicycling as a safe and attractive transportation choice. The Plan is supported by a Sustainability Planning Grant from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG). Agoura Hills is a member of both of these planning organizations.
The Regional Bicycle Master Plan also includes the cities of Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Malibu, and Westlake Village. The resulting individual city bike plans will allow the five cities to apply for state grant funds to implement projects and programs that will improve the safety of bicycle riders in the region and increase the number of people choosing to ride for a variety of reasons.
Riding a bike for commuting, running errands, recreation, or physical fitness is fun! Other significant benefits include improved personal health and environmental sustainability. The overall transportation system can function more smoothly if riding a bicycle is made to be a safer and more attractive option, because traffic congestion would decrease. In addition, economic benefits are often realized through families’ reduced reliance on automobile ownership, reduced health care costs for society, and increased community vitality.
We won’t see the comments that you will be sending in, but we’d love to know how you feel about this new regional effort. Please take another minute and add a comment back to us with your thoughts. Thanks for being a part of this planning process.
The Regional Bicycle Master Plan is a collaborative effort of the Las Virgenes-Malibu Council of Governments and other agencies to promote bicycling as a safe and attractive transportation choice. The Plan is supported by a Sustainability Planning Grant from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG). Agoura Hills is a member of both of these planning organizations.
The Regional Bicycle Master Plan also includes the cities of Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Malibu, and Westlake Village. The resulting individual city bike plans will allow the five cities to apply for state grant funds to implement projects and programs that will improve the safety of bicycle riders in the region and increase the number of people choosing to ride for a variety of reasons.
Riding a bike for commuting, running errands, recreation, or physical fitness is fun! Other significant benefits include improved personal health and environmental sustainability. The overall transportation system can function more smoothly if riding a bicycle is made to be a safer and more attractive option, because traffic congestion would decrease. In addition, economic benefits are often realized through families’ reduced reliance on automobile ownership, reduced health care costs for society, and increased community vitality.
We won’t see the comments that you will be sending in, but we’d love to know how you feel about this new regional effort. Please take another minute and add a comment back to us with your thoughts. Thanks for being a part of this planning process.
June 9, 2014
More on Creeks
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| A view of Palo Comado Creek along Agoura Road |
Restoring creeks to their natural creek beds is
only part of what should be done to improve water quality, restore habitat areas, and provide for attractive pedestrian areas throughout the city. We also have to insure that existing creeks within our parks and open spaces are free of pollution and reasonably accessible for people to enjoy.
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| Palo Comado Creek west of Lewis Road |
Lindero Creek enters the city from Ventura County in the northwest section of the city. It flows past Yerba Buena elementary school, through city owned park land and into Lake Lindero. From Lake Lindero, it flows over the dam that created the artificial lake and into a culvert which takes it south east, under the 101 freeway. It daylights just south of Agoura Road and flows south until it joins up with Malibu Creek, south of the city. Except for the lake and the underground culvert, Lindero creek retains a natural creek bed.
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| Outflow of Lindero Creek south of Agoura Road |
A portion of Lindero Creek upstream of the lake is on city owned property slated for a nature park. Plans for the park include trails and outdoor fitness equipment. The part of Lindero Creek that is south of Agoura Road flows through private property and is within the Agoura Village Specific Plan area. The Specific Plan insures that the creek will remain natural and also encourages its use as an amenity to any development on the property.
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| Lindero Creek south of T.O. Blvd. |
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| Plastic bag in Lindero Creek |
As of today, however, the creek in this area has become a major pollution problem. The creek here is largely hidden from public view. Off and on over the years, transients have used the area for overnight encampments. As a result, the creek bed is strewn with glass and plastic bottles, plastic bags, fast food containers, and debris of all kinds. Worse, the area has been used as an outdoor toilet, putting dangerous bacteria into the water. The Sheriff’s Department will periodically clean out these encampments and, once a year, the city’s Earth Day activists pick up a lot of the litter in the area. But it is not enough.
Transients continue to return to this area and continue to make it a health and safety risk for the community. It is time for a permanent solution to the problem. The city is planning to install a water cleaning system at the outflow of Lindero Creek immediately south of Agoura Road. This will help to clean the water up to this point in the creek. Additional measures are needed to insure that the water downstream of the outflow remains clean. Here are some of the steps we urge the city to take as soon as possible:
1. Join L.A. County and other cities in the area and ban single use plastic bags.
2. Initiate a regular weekly patrol of the creek and remove transient encampments immediately when they are discovered.
3. Place trash receptacles in strategic locations to encourage proper disposal of litter.
May 7, 2014
Community Service Day Rates A+
Volunteers from all over Agoura Hills happily rallied at Chumash Park last Saturday for the City’s inaugural Community Service Day. Decked out in spring green t-shirts, volunteers added new landscaping to Morrison Park. Teens did some campus cleanup and painted unsightly storage containers at Agoura High. Rail fences in Old Agoura Park got a face lift. And a stretch of Medea Creek off Kanan Road, soon to be restored from storm drain to beautiful riparian walking park, had accumulated trash hauled out.
Congratulations to Mayor Bill Koehler for instituting this great new opportunity to engage the community in helping to keep Agoura Hills a wonderful place to live.
May 1, 2014
Construction Forges Ahead on the City's New Recreation Center
"It fits us," says Amy Jones Brink, Agoura Hills' Community Services Director, when describing the new Agoura Hills Recreation Center now under construction on Ladyface Court above the City Hall and Library. The project is not a new development, but a renovation of buildings that once belonged to a school and synagogue. But the renovation is so extensive it could be considered all new.
The style of the new recreation center will blend in with the Craftsman style of the City Hall and Library. Wooden beams, exposed rafter tails, natural material finishes, spectacular views overlooking the city and rooms that open to the outdoors characterize the buildings. The architecture and landscaping are consistent with the city's role as a Gateway to the Santa Monica Mountains. Or as Amy put it, "It's who we are."
Outdoor features include a trail-head for hiking on Ladyface Mountain, native low water use landscaping, an outdoor event area, and an "Interpretive Center" play area that links a children's playground with the Santa Monica Mountains in a surprising and delightful way. Play apparatus includes a giant climb-on snake, a mountain lion and a slide that goes underground. Interspersed with the toys are displays with information about the animals of the mountains, like cast footprints of Bobcats and other animals. A grant to help build the Interpretive Center was provided by County Supervisor, Zev Yaroslavski.
At over 20,000 square feet, it is the most ambitious project that the City has taken on since the construction of the Library. The buildings will include a senior center, a fitness center, recreation class rooms, an event center and, for the first time in the City's history, a teen center. The teen center will be available for kids to drop in as well as for scheduled events. The City is working with Agoura High School to program the teen center for the maximum benefit of the kids. The imaginative design allows all of these venues to function at the same time.
The Center is targeted to be opened in November or December of this year. Phase Two of the project will follow. Phase Two will focus on an Arts Center with class rooms, studios and galleries. An office for the Cultural Arts is already included in Phase One.
The style of the new recreation center will blend in with the Craftsman style of the City Hall and Library. Wooden beams, exposed rafter tails, natural material finishes, spectacular views overlooking the city and rooms that open to the outdoors characterize the buildings. The architecture and landscaping are consistent with the city's role as a Gateway to the Santa Monica Mountains. Or as Amy put it, "It's who we are."
Outdoor features include a trail-head for hiking on Ladyface Mountain, native low water use landscaping, an outdoor event area, and an "Interpretive Center" play area that links a children's playground with the Santa Monica Mountains in a surprising and delightful way. Play apparatus includes a giant climb-on snake, a mountain lion and a slide that goes underground. Interspersed with the toys are displays with information about the animals of the mountains, like cast footprints of Bobcats and other animals. A grant to help build the Interpretive Center was provided by County Supervisor, Zev Yaroslavski.
At over 20,000 square feet, it is the most ambitious project that the City has taken on since the construction of the Library. The buildings will include a senior center, a fitness center, recreation class rooms, an event center and, for the first time in the City's history, a teen center. The teen center will be available for kids to drop in as well as for scheduled events. The City is working with Agoura High School to program the teen center for the maximum benefit of the kids. The imaginative design allows all of these venues to function at the same time.
The Center is targeted to be opened in November or December of this year. Phase Two of the project will follow. Phase Two will focus on an Arts Center with class rooms, studios and galleries. An office for the Cultural Arts is already included in Phase One.
April 30, 2014
Audubon Society Endorses Wildlife Corridor
From Ronald Barnes, President of the
Conejo Valley Audubon Society:
"The Board of Directors of the Conejo Valley Audubon Society has voted to endorse the plan to construct a wildlife corridor over Highway 101 in the area between Liberty Canyon and Chesebro Roads. We feel that the preservation of the Chesebro Meadow is vital to this project and helps to preserve the annual grassland sub-ecosystem for the generations to follow. This is the last area that can link the Simi Hills to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMNRA) providing biodiversity and extended range not only for the mountain lion but other species.
The Meadow provides habitat for at least one State fully-protected wildlife species. The white-tailed kite is considered to have potential to occur within this area (U.S. 101/Palo Comado Canyon Road Interchange Project Natural Environment Study, Agoura Hills May 2011). Indeed, white-tailed kites frequent this area during the winter and have nested in the adjacent residential vacant land area (personal sighting March 2014). According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s California Natural Diversity Database, other fully protected species that have been documented close to the Meadow are burrowing owls and rufous-crowned sparrows. The natural grassland support other sparrow species, western meadowlarks, mule tailed deer, and coyotes. In addition, there are 12 non-listed species that have potential for occurrence identified within the Interchange Project study area.
We, The Conejo Valley Audubon Society, give our support to all agencies and organizations who share our united goal - the preservation of Chesebro Meadow and potentially the last remaining wildlife corridor in the area. We believe this will also bring the support of Audubon California and the National Audubon Society, as this is more than just a local issue, benefiting all who enjoy SMNRA and the diversity this park needs for perpetuity."
Conejo Valley Audubon Society:
"The Board of Directors of the Conejo Valley Audubon Society has voted to endorse the plan to construct a wildlife corridor over Highway 101 in the area between Liberty Canyon and Chesebro Roads. We feel that the preservation of the Chesebro Meadow is vital to this project and helps to preserve the annual grassland sub-ecosystem for the generations to follow. This is the last area that can link the Simi Hills to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMNRA) providing biodiversity and extended range not only for the mountain lion but other species.
The Meadow provides habitat for at least one State fully-protected wildlife species. The white-tailed kite is considered to have potential to occur within this area (U.S. 101/Palo Comado Canyon Road Interchange Project Natural Environment Study, Agoura Hills May 2011). Indeed, white-tailed kites frequent this area during the winter and have nested in the adjacent residential vacant land area (personal sighting March 2014). According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s California Natural Diversity Database, other fully protected species that have been documented close to the Meadow are burrowing owls and rufous-crowned sparrows. The natural grassland support other sparrow species, western meadowlarks, mule tailed deer, and coyotes. In addition, there are 12 non-listed species that have potential for occurrence identified within the Interchange Project study area.
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