NATURAL ASSETS; AGOURA HILLS LOOKS AT WAYS TO SAVE OPEN SPACE.Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer Officials plan to hire a consultant and target thousands of acres for preservation as they take steps to save the city's open space - its greatest natural asset. The City Council this week directed staff to begin implementing the Open Space Preservation Action Plan, which includes hiring a consultant to coordinate efforts. ``The reason people move their business to Agoura Hills and choose to live in Agoura Hills, a great part of it is the open space, the feeling you have, the beauty of the area,'' Mayor Dan Kuperberg said. ``Forty percent of Agoura Hills is open space, and if it got taken away tomorrow with bulldozers and development, it would be a different community. And people don't want that to happen. ``It'll be nice to say, 20 years from now, look at Agoura Hills. And sure, there'll be some changes, but there are still beautiful hills and great vistas, good views and still a nice place to live as opposed to a much more urban setting,'' he said. ``We are trying to keep it natural and semirural sem·i·ru·ral adj. Having both rural and urban characteristics: a semirural town; a semirural environment; a semirural way of life. as much as we can within reason, and I think the community will find this is a very positive thing.'' The action plan targets 11 open space preservation locations, three of which are adjacent to the city limits. The eight sites within the city represent more than 2,000 acres, or 40 percent of the city's land mass. RRM RRM Radio Resource Management (GSM/UMTS) RRM Rapid Response Manufacturing RRM Round-Robin Matching RRM Residual Radioactive Material RRM Resource Request Matrix RRM Random Rotation Matrix RRM Resilient Risk Management Design Group prepared the document, which lists a series of steps that will be set in motion within the next 18 months. They include: Setting up a legal process to accept and manage conservation easements EASEMENTS, estates. An easement is defined to be a liberty privilege or advantage, which one man may have in the lands of another, without profit; it may arise by deed or prescription. Vide 1 Serg. & Rawle 298; 5 Barn. & Cr. 221; 3 Barn. & Cr. 339; 3 Bing. R. 118; 3 McCord, R. , donations and acquisitions. Exploring the possibility of creating a regional open space entity. Developing a public education program on open space preservation by talking with neighboring neigh·bor n. 1. One who lives near or next to another. 2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another. 3. A fellow human. 4. Used as a form of familiar address. v. cities and public land agencies. Pursuing conservation easements with willing property owners. Taking advantage of federal, state and nonprofit A corporation or an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive. Nonprofits are also called not-for-profit corporations. Nonprofit corporations are created according to state law. grants for funding open space purchases. The city already has decided to place Measure B on the Nov. 2 ballot, which would require a public vote before allowing any changes to the open space designation in the general plan and holding talks with property owners who are interested in donating open space. ``We are probably the only city council putting (the measure on the ballot) ourselves,'' Kuperberg said. ``There's not some group trying to convince a council to protect open space. ``It's not like someone is pushing us to do it,'' he said. ``We are taking power away from ourselves for the better good of the city. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. of any other city that has done it.'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO (color in Verb 1. color in - add color to; "The child colored the drawings"; "Fall colored the trees"; "colorize black and white film" color, colorise, colorize, colour in, colourise, colourize, colour Conejo edition only) Open space in the Conejo Valley The Conejo Valley is a region spanning both Southeastern Ventura County and Northwest Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States. It was discovered in 1542 by Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, and eventually became part of the Rancho El Conejo land grant by , like this portion along Mountclef Ridge, is valued as a natural asset by many in the area. Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News |
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