More news on Hilltop Feed

William Maple is (according to the Star) working with Dennis Gillette to protect Hilltop Feed by having it declared a historical landmark.

The Hilltop Feed site is among several that he wants to save... like the newer Timber Schoolhouse (aka Conejo Valley High School). In a city trying to grow, getting approval to save off one thing at a time is difficult. Trying to get many passed at once seems impossible (but hey, it's good PR). Further complicating things is the type of housing (as mentioned in this article discussing the vote last week):

He said an application to build town homes or condos on a portion of the site was pending and likely to come before the Planning Commission by spring.

Unfortunately, this is exactly the same kind of construction that's been going on for some time on Conejo School Road and around the corner on Los Feliz Drive. The city must be pretty comfortable with this kind of thing (and the developers involved) by now. I guess that's why so many former stop signs in that area were converted to traffic lights some years back. That put a big dent in the trip to Westlake (yes, it's still much better than Thousand Oaks Boulevard, but far from ideal) and it made it a lot easier to start putting in higher density housing.

Anyway, the Hilltop Feed site (2727 East Hillcrest Drive according to their last Yellow Pages entry) is less than half a mile east of Conejo School Road and that strip of Hillcrest (between Erbes Road and Westlake Boulevard) is just destined for development. I knew this was coming but stayed in denial for a long time.

It'll be interesting to watch it play out of course, but this old western town (as the really old timers fancy it) is going away. I'll have some more on this subject later... I've been gathering all kinds of little tidbits. I also need to make another trip to the Elks lodge to talk to some people who really know this stuff (we still have members who moved out here in the 50's, I love to hear them talk about the old days).