Preserving Open Space Tops Ballot

A measure to preserve open space dominates the Nov. 2 ballot in Agoura Hills, while City Council candidates in Westlake Village have focused on how to provide better emergency medical services.

The Agoura Hills ballot measure, if approved, would require two-thirds of voters to approve any attempts to change the designation of land presently classified as open space.

About 40% of the city is designated open space and much of the remaining flatland has been developed, Mayor Pro Tem Louise Rishoff said.

Proponents call Measure B a way to preserve open space by stripping power over the issue from the City Council. At present, land designation decisions can be made by three council votes.

Yet the present council unanimously endorsed the measure. Rishoff said council members knew that the measure was something residents had long wanted in the city of 21,800.

“Open space is important to all of us in the City Council, and we know it’s a priority with residents, who have told us so year after year, election after election,” said Rishoff, a council member since 1987 and a private attorney who works in Woodland Hills.

“It would be a real legacy for everyone. Just a ring of open space greatly enhances property values. . . . It gives people a sense of peace and calm to look at ridgelines instead of a skyline of tall buildings.”

One of the main reasons that Agoura Hills incorporated in 1982 was because Los Angeles County was allowing rampant growth in the area, Rishoff said.

Voters will also select two council members, who are elected at-large.

First-time candidate Kenneth Horton opposes the measure and is challenging Rishoff and Mayor Dan Kuperberg.

Horton failed to gather enough signatures for his name to appear on the ballot, so he is waging a write-in campaign. Horton said he is conducting a “cyberspace campaign” and saving money by attracting votes by electronic mail.

Horton said he supports the idea of protecting open space, but said he doesn’t believe that the proposal is the best way to do so.

All candidates said they want to preserve the city’s small-town feel.

“It’s more important that Agoura Hills keeps its semirural identity and protects its mom-and-pop shops. We need sales tax revenues but don’t need to sell out to get them,” said Kuperberg, a Los Angeles County deputy public defender.

Kuperberg said he has been effective garnering support from state and federal legislators for city improvements. He said he helped get a $1-million grant for the Calabasas / Agoura Hills community center, which is scheduled to open Dec. 11.

In Westlake Village, as in the election two years ago, candidates agree that the city needs a new hospital with an emergency room nearby.

Mayor Betty De Santis, Mayor Pro Tem James B. Henderson and challenger Chris Mann are running at-large for two seats.

In 1996, Westlake Medical Center closed. For about a year, the city has had an urgent care center, which can treat some serious injuries, such as fractures and burns, but not life-threatening conditions.

For emergency care, residents must drive to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks or Columbia West Hills Medical Center. The average ambulance trip from Westlake Village to Los Robles takes about 14 minutes, according to a study by the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

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The distance is too far, said Mann, a child-behavior specialist in Casa Pacifica, a residential and shelter facility for at-risk youth in Camarillo. “When you’re talking about life-threatening problems, heart attacks, time is really important.”

Mann, who ran unsuccessfully for a council seat in 1997, said the council needs someone new with fresh ideas. He said the city could buy the Westlake Medical Center property--a strategy that the incumbents dismiss as too expensive--or create a hospital district in which several neighboring cities would raise money to run a hospital.

At 23, Mann doesn’t think that his youth will hinder him: “There are more important things than experience. Character, dedication and having the right priorities are very important things.”

Henderson said his four years on the council provide experience. And at 84, he said he can handle the job.

“I exercise three mornings a week, and I’m in damn good shape,” he said.

Henderson said he wrote to 12 hospitals around the country, asking if they would be interested in running one in Westlake Village, but all declined.

“I’m afraid no hospital company will build a hospital unless they are assured of making money or at least not losing money,” said Henderson, a retired aerospace components business executive. “It’s a city problem, but we can’t find a solution by expecting the city to build a hospital.”

Henderson said he wants the city to perform a survey throughout the 101 corridor that will gauge its population and people’s health care needs. He hopes that the survey will encourage a health company to invest in a new hospital in the region.

De Santis, who has also been on the council four years, said it would cost the city about $10 million--double its annual operating budget--to buy the hospital property. That would be too much for a city with only 8,500 residents, she said.

“It’s not fair to make them bear the burden of a regional hospital,” said De Santis, 65, a retired nurse educator.

According to De Santis, in August, a regional council of governments, of which Westlake Village is a member, began discussing how several cities could pitch in to buy land and lease it to a company for a regional hospital.