Rick Wentz

Rick Wentz, Heschel West board member in charge of land entitlements, points to the a 72-acre property in unincorporated Los Angeles County, adjacent to Agoura Hills. via The Jewish Journal

Rick Wentz, Heschel West board member in charge of land entitlements, points to the a 72-acre property in unincorporated Los Angeles County, adjacent to Agoura Hills.
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"Arduous is the word," said Heschel West board member Rick Wentz, who is in charge of land entitlements, in describing the drawn-out battle.

Wentz has been involved with the project since before the land was purchased in 1997 for $1.6 million by a group of Heschel West families.Since then, he said, the school has spent more than $2 million on consultants, studies and entitlements.In addition, he and other school representatives have also looked at hundreds of alternative properties over the last eight years, none of them acceptable.

Heschel West was founded in 1994 with 14 kindergarten students.Today, the school serves 199 students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade on its crowded temporary campus off Liberty Canyon Road.Its middle school, currently merged with Kadima Hebrew Academy, is housed on Kadima's West Hills campus.

According to Wentz, the school has fully complied with all environmental and zoning requirements, including the legal restrictions of the North Area Plan, which regulates development within much of the unincorporated area of the Santa Monica Mountains.

"All the issues raised by our opposition have all been looked at and addressed and approved by neutral officials charged with the protection of public health and safety," Wentz said.
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However, Wentz said the school is ameliorating the situation in several ways.

First, the school's landscaping, made up of different zones of plants with different burning capacities, will be designed to slow down a fire.

Second, while advance notice is generally given to evacuate in case of fire, the school will contain a "shelter in place," a large concrete area with oxygen and other supplies, where students and staff can wait out the fire if necessary."It's much safer to go to shelter in place than try to evacuate in cars," Wentz said.
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SOS chairMary Wiesbrock is particularly concerned about preserving the wildlife corridor and protecting children from possible underground toxic waste from the nearby Calabasas landfill, even though the site has been exhaustively tested and declared safe, according to Wentz.

"We really would prefer that Heschel find an alternative site," Wiesbrock said, adding that her organization has suggested possible locations.

Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles - Rick Wentz, Heschel West board member in charge of land entitlements, points to the a 72-acre property in unincorporated Los Angeles County, adjacent to Agoura Hills.

Richard Wentz - Land, Permits

Rick Wentz - Land Entitlements

Rick Wentz, the executive vice president of the school board, said the school has worked with the Old Agoura Homeowners Association to address their concerns.

He said the school, which began nine years ago in Agoura with 14 children, had always intended to expand to include a middle school.

The Jewish community has grown by 10 times in the past 12 years, he said, and its 150-student school is trying to allow students to attend schools in their own community.Too many students are forced to commute long distances to attend religious schools.

In order to meet the needs of the students and address the concerns of the homeowners association, the school has agreed to start at a later time than Agoura High School.

It has also agreed to develop a quarter of the property and to build no closer than 350 feet from the nearest property line.

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Wentz countered criticisms of the environmental impact report, saying the school hired experts to assess solutions to issues such as traffic.

In addition, he argued, the fact that the school was near a freeway exit ensured parents wouldn't have to drive their children through small streets.

"The opposition has the right to challenge the facts and hire their own consultant," Wentz said."But I have not seen any facts that contradict anything in the EIR."

"We're hoping that, now that the facts are laid out before them, they'll soften their position," said Rick Wentz, executive vice president of Heschel Day School West in Agoura."If there are any lingering concerns, we can get together and address them."

The new campus for Heschel West, which would accommodate 750 students, would be built on 73 acres bordering eastern Agoura Hills.The site, off Chesebro Road north of Highway 101, borders a wildlife corridor in the Santa Monica Mountains National Conservancy.

The project has sparked objections from the Old Agoura Homeowners Association, whose members argue it would generate too much traffic and noise, and could hurt animals and plants in the area where it's planned.
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Heschel plans to build a larger campus because it has outgrown its present site, Wentz said.Since it opened in 1994, Heschel has grown from 14 students in kindergarten through fifth grade to an enrollment of 210 and a waiting list.

Heschel also wants to add a middle school, reflecting a nationwide trend to build schools that go from kindergarten through eighth grade.

Rick Wentz, a Heschel board member who is leading the effort to build a new campus, said school officials have worked to accommodate concerns from neighbors but that negotiations have gone nowhere.

"The situation we have right now, there's no change we can make to accommodate what they want, which is nothing on vacant property," Wentz said.

School officials have said they want to build a bigger campus to replace its current school.Since it opened in 1994, Heschel has grown from 14 students in kindergarten through fifth grade to an enrollment of 210 students and a waiting list.

The new campus would be built on 73 acres northeast of Palo Commado Canyon Road and Canwood Street.Plans call for an elementary school and a middle school, a sanctuary, an athletic field, a paved playground area, a pool and gymnasium, and 223 parking stalls.