Saratoga Hills News    

 News Items

  • Pet Kennel Property upzoning could nearly double housing units in our neighborhood!!!
  • August 5th Neighborhood BBQ & Magic Show huge success
  • Lost Hills Bridge
  • Agoura Hills Cert Training Starts January 22nd

 City changed zoning on the Pet Kennel Property on Canwood to allow for 60 units

The City of Calabasas General Plan must be updated every 10 years in accordance with State law.  The City appointed a General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) to review the existing Plan and to make recommendations for changes to the Planning Commission and eventually the City Council.  The Housing Element of the Plan has become extremely important to the Saratoga Community.  There is a State requirement titled, the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), which identifies the number of lower income units that must be identified in every general plan.  The State has allocated 521 units for the City of Calabasas according to the following income groups:  137 very low income, 86 low income, 93 moderate income, and 205 above moderate income.  There are cities that have ignored the RHNA requirements, but some would suggest the State could impose legal and financial penalties.  This discussion will not take place until the General Plan goes before the City Council.    City Council voted to zone the Pet Kennel property for 12 units per acre, which will allow for 60 units on the site.  This was down from initially reccommending 20 units per acre (which would have been 120 units) and the existing zoning of 16 units per acre.  While this is better news...it is still not great news as the site is inappropriate for multi-family housing in our single family neighborhood with only one access point.

 

For more information, Saratoga Hills residents should contact Norm Buehring at normbuehring@msn.com and Saratoga Ranch residents should contact Andy Leff at aleff@spile-siegal.com        

CASH Neighborhood BBQ & Magic Show at Grape Arbor Park a huge success 

The first annaul (we hope) free neighborhood BBQ & Magic Show at Grape Arbor Park on Tuesday, August 5th was a huge success.  With more than 150 neighbors showing up to share a beautiful evening, share some good food, watch some magic and see displays by LA County Fire station #125 with two trucks, LA County Sheriffs Search & Rescue Truck and the Lost Hills Station of LASD.

Special thanks go to Frank Padilla who not only brought his BBQ wagon, cooked burgers and dogs for the crowd and then put on a magic show for the kids and others watching.

We also want to thank all of our volunteers who helped make the event possible.  Special guests in attendance included city councilman James Bozajian, who almost never misses a CASH board meeting to report on city issues.  Another special guest was Lost Hills Sheriffs Department Captain Tom Martin who came and enjoyed the evening.

Everyone seemed to have a good time and we hope to see this become an annual event that becomes bigger and more fun each year.

City to replace Lost Hills bridge
By Joann Groff joann@theacorn.com

losthills.bidge.jpg.jpg
NARROW PATH- A truck crosses the bridge over the 101 Freeway at Lost Hills Road in Calabasas. A $20-million proposal calls for a new, wider bridge, but the work probably won't begin until 2011.
The Calabasas City Council has approved a $20million agreement with Caltrans to replace the bridge on Lost Hills Road over the 101 Freeway.

The current bridge has only two lanes and is 4 feet lower than a standard bridge. The new bridge is slated to be five lanes wide, but because it provides the only access to parts of the community, the city cannot demolish the bridge before building the new one.

"In phase one, we will keep the existing bridge and build three lanes of the new bridge next to it," said Alex Farassati, environmental service manager for Calabasas. "When that's completed we will demo the old bridge and add two more lanes."

Farassati said the city needs about $17 million for the work and has hired lobbyists in Washington, D.C., in the hope of securing federal money. The other $3 million will come from the local budget and perhaps from the county or the California Department of Transportation as well.

The 101 Freeway and the area from the 110 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles to the 23 Freeway in Thousand Oaks is being included in the U.S.-101 Freeway Corridor Improvement Study. In April 2003, the study committee recommended as a longrange concept the addition of one mixed-flow lane in the four-lane segment of the freeway between Moorpark Road and Topanga Canyon Boulevard and two high-occupancy vehicle lanes in each direction.

The Southern California Association of Governments is working to refine the recommendations in one draft, proposing a longrange concept that would add a high-occupancy toll lane in each direction and light-rail transit in the median.

But the proposals require the improvement of the Lost Hills bridge. Members of the city's staff are working to finalize the agreement with Caltrans, outlining each jurisdiction's responsibility.

In addition to the bridge, a "partial cloverleaf" design will be added to one of the onramps to the new bridge. Drivers headed north on Lost Hills Road toward the landfill will be able to make a right turn and proceed in a circle to the freeway. Other onramps will have to be realigned because the new bridge will be longer and higher.

"There is a lot of traffic going to the landfill," Farassati said. "From about 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. there are many trucks going back and forth. From Malibu, unincorporated L.A. County, Agoura, Westlake- they all go over that bridge."

The city is negotiating with the county to pick up the design phase as opposed to going to a private company. County officials estimate they'll need about a year and a half to prepare the plans and environmental documents, and by the end of 2010 the project will be ready to go out to bid. If funding is available, construction would begin in early 2011.

 

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