CITIES UNITE TO GET GRANTS; REGIONAL EFFORT SEEN AS ANSWER FOR FUNDS.

Byline: David Greenberg Daily News Staff Writer

Five west Los Angeles County municipalities are hoping to find financial security in numbers after failing to secure grants individually to solve traffic congestion, open space and parkland problems.

Westlake Village, Agoura Hills, Malibu, Hidden Hills and Calabasas have become partners in the Las Virgenes Malibu Conejo Council of Governments. Members hope that by seeking grants on a regional basis, they will be able to garner tens of millions of state and federal dollars for a list of priority projects.

``We weren't known in the region,'' Westlake Village Mayor Betty De Santis said in explaining the lack of funding. ``We had no position of strength as a region. It's much better for us to do this as a group than as individual cities. It gives you more power and impact. You're using a larger area and a larger population.''

If Caltrans and federal Department of Transportation funding is secured, the projects that top the priority list - those that would alleviate traffic jams - could begin in three to five years.

Besides De Santis, the council consists of Dan Kuperberg and Walt Keller, mayors of Agoura Hills and Malibu, respectively; and Larry Gabriel and Dennis Washburn, mayors pro tem of Hidden Hills and Calabasas.

Their five city managers and Susan Nissman, a representative of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, serve on the council's technical advisory committee.

San Dimas-based consultant Terry Dipple is the council's only paid staff person, operating on a month-to-month contract calling for $4,800 each month.

At the top of the council's priority list - which is expected to formally be approved Tuesday - is the overhaul of the Kanan Road interchange on the Ventura Freeway.

The city of Agoura Hills has for eight years failed to secure the funding needed to lengthen and widen the on- and off-ramps, as well as widen the overpass.

``It's under built and over capacity,'' said Washburn. ``It's just not designed to handle the level of traffic that wants to use it.

``You have very frustrating traffic conditions. It's uncomfortable, unpleasant and unsafe,'' he said.

Although other exits from Valley Circle Drive-Mulholland Road east to the Ventura County line do not create as much congestion, council members believe those interchanges should be widened, as well.

Another proposal to alleviate congestion is the creation of the Smart Shuttle Public Transportation System, which would take students not living on bus routes to schools, workers to business districts during lunch hours, and shoppers and beachgoers over the Santa Monica Mountains into Malibu.

Most of the communities have limited dial-a-ride services.

With the 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch project proposed for the area north of Calabasas, council members also plan to preserve yet-to-be-identified tracts as open space and to create a park district.

Protecting groundwater supplies from contamination also would figure into the land preservation.

``(The communities) are in an area that's impacted by the freeway,'' said Dipple.

The council will create a more concrete list of projects by the end of 1999 with the hope of completing congestion management and growth studies by the end of the fiscal year, or June 30, 2000.

The Southern California Association of Governments awarded the council $12,000 to develop the priority list and is expected to allot $200,000 for the next fiscal year to pay for staff and contracted services.

The studies are expected to cost a combined $55,000 to $60,000.

SCAG funding may not be used on construction or to purchase equipment.

While the details of the projects are not known, council members estimate the Kanan Road improvements alone will cost $16 million to $19 million, with other interchange improvements each to cost more than $10 million.

``We are at the point where we know the priorities,'' De Santis said. ``Now we have to figure out how we are going to work on them.''