AGOURA HILLS BROADENING PALETTE WITH PUBLIC ART.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

Nine years after enacting a law promoting art in public places, the city has begun to lay out the guidelines to raise the money and begin commissioning art.

Passed by the City Council in 1989, the law requires all new commercial developments over 30,000 square feet or any residential subdivision of 40 lots or more to submit a plan incorporating works of art into the new buildings.

With a sour economy and a lull in construction, implementing the ordinance was a moot point for years, said Mike Kamino, senior planner with the city.

``During the early 1990s, there were no real projects that would have fallen under this requirement for public art anyway,'' he said.

But with more than 1 million square feet of commercial development and at least one 55-home residential project on the table this year, the City Council is scrambling to take advantage of the building boom and bring some art into the city.

Agoura Hills Mayor Denis Weber said he was not even aware such an ordinance existed before gaining a seat on the council.

``There's certainly very little in our city that's artsy,'' he said. ``What I'd like to see is a policy that will encourage art in our city and will have developers bring something more to our city to enhance its look. We don't just want more strip malls.''

The council will consider a series of guidelines tonight establishing a public arts review committee to work with artists and laying out general review criteria for public artwork. The council also will outline how the art will be paid for, which could put the responsibility of footing the bill on developers.

The League of California Cities reported that more than 80 cities in the state have ordinances promoting artwork on and around public buildings. Some city leaders have grown wary of public art ordinances, which on occasion spark controversy about the council's place in reviewing public art.

In Moorpark, the City Council waffled over how to spend more than $11,000 in public arts funds and rejected three proposals submitted by artist Michael Watling.

In Thousand Oaks, debate over the hotly contested, $150,000 ``Copper Curtain'' split community leaders for years, and council members and Arts Commission members continue to discuss how to best alter the piece to better represent a stage curtain to commuters passing the Civic Arts Plaza on the Ventura Freeway.

Under one option to be considered by Agoura Hills council members, developers would be expected to spend about 1 percent of the total building value on public art, defined as easily visible by passing motorists and pedestrians.

Another option could have developers pay a fee equal to about 1.25 percent of a building's value for the city to spend on public art for city-owned areas including parks, community centers and sidewalks.

The city's three major proposed commercial developments - Riverwalk, Creekside Center and a third shopping center expected to be anchored by a Target store and a Home Depot - could generate tens of thousands of dollars in art funds. And the Mar Bella Villas, a 55-unit, single-family residential development proposed for the northern end of Reyes Adobe north of the Lake Lindero neighborhood, could generate thousands more.

``Art lends a whole different atmosphere,'' Weber said. ``It warms things up - it's not cold and sterile. If you look at a lot of the newer shopping malls in the region like The Promenade (at Westlake), you always see people sitting around the water and the statuary.''

For artist and Old Agoura resident Fred Stone, bringing public art to the city has been long overdue.

``Art adds a tremendous amount to buildings and to a city,'' said Stone, whose painting of a thoroughbred horse with a ballerina helped raise thousands of dollars for the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza before it opened in 1995.

``In the past, the cost of good artwork could be prohibitive for many cities, but now technology has made it less expensive and opened many doors,'' he said.