Residents who survived past wildfires are expressing outrage over proposals to develop a high-density residential project along their primary evacuation route in case of future fire emergencies.
The plan involves constructing more than 1,600 apartment units on Kanan Road in Agoura Hills, a narrow passageway through a canyon at the borders of the Santa Monica Mountains.
During the devastating Woolsey Fire of 2018, which ravaged nearly 97,000 acres and claimed three lives, thousands of homes were lost in the blaze.
Local residents recalled traffic jams that lasted 80 minutes to travel just one mile on one of the few available escape routes, which is now being considered for the new housing development.
“During the evacuation, people were stuck in gridlock,” shared Rae Greulich, 74, a member of PRISM (Protectors and Residents in the Santa Monica Mountains).
“There were miles of vehicles behind them in the same predicament. The city acknowledges there were 2,000 cars leaving the Santa Monica Mountains, leading to a five-mile-long traffic jam.”
Greulich joined roughly 50 residents who gathered along that stretch of road to protest what they call a fatal plan on Saturday.
“Don’t close us in,” another protester shouted. “Your plan is fatal.”
The housing is being pushed under a new state plan to fast-track high-density development, including homeless and low-income units, driven by Gavin Newsom.
Under that plan, Sacramento is stripping away barriers that once slowed development and took a more deliberate approach to where projects are built.
The state has expanded rules requiring public land to be prioritized for affordable housing and, in some cases, allows developments under 20 acres to move forward without full environmental review, including traffic impacts. More than 200 units are already rising next to where the protest was held Saturday.
Another 230 are planned for the very stretch where they gathered. In total, roughly 1,600 units are slated for the corridor.
“This is our lifeline,” said Greulich. “We came together in 2018 out of concern for maintaining the viability of our evacuation route. The protest today is for the same reason.”
Jacinta Chancellor, 57, said: “The roads were packed. Evacuating was an undertaking. We couldn’t go this way because the fire was coming. We were sent toward Malibu, and that was burning too.”
Now, she says, the same road could be pushed past its limits. “You’re going to have thousands more cars,” she said.
“And it’s already so congested just to get across this intersection.” She said the current plan only adds pressure to that same choke point.
“In 2021, the city selected 20 housing sites, and about 75 percent were south of the 101 freeway,” she said.
“Many of those feed into this section of Kanan Road. The first four approved sites all feed into this stretch.” Her concern is not about housing itself.
“We understand California needs affordable housing. We are not anti-housing,” she said. “We are concerned about where it is placed and the safety of people evacuating.”
“If people already sat in gridlock for the first mile, with miles of cars behind them, adding more density into that same evacuation route increases the danger.”
Kanan Road is not just local traffic. It is one of five designated evacuation routes in the Malibu mass evacuation plan, alongside Pacific Coast Highway. It is also along the route for the Palisades Fire crisis.
On a normal day, the road carries about 25,000 commuters. In a fire, residents say, it becomes something else entirely. Kevin Cross, 58, lived through it.
“We were one of the last out, and we couldn’t get out,” he said. “We were driving through fire.” A drive that normally takes seven minutes stretched for what he said seemed a lifetime.
“It was bumper to bumper,” he said. “And the police were trying to thread us out, but it was one lane. Fire trucks weren’t moving past us.”
Cross said the scale alone raises alarms. “We’re talking about 1,600 units along here,” he said. “Everybody’s using this road. If everybody’s coming out, fire crews can’t get in.”
He also pointed to what he says was a lack of outreach. “We weren’t included,” Cross said. “That’s the biggest thing.”
The Post reached out to Supervisor Lindsey Horvath’s office for comment, her office oversees the unincorporated parts of the county, as well as Newsom and the city of Agoura Hills.
