KIRSCHBAUM

During the 20 years that Carol Kirschbaum has lived in the city of Westlake Village, she says, she has witnessed a great deal of change that makes her concerned about losing the "city in the country" feel.

That was the impetus for her decision to run for City Council this year, Kirschbaum said.

She seeks to "unify our community around the goals of safeguarding Westlake as a village and to safeguard against overdevelopment, excessive traffic and projects that destroy our quality of life," she said.

To help accomplish that, she wants to create a city planning commission, seeking to involve volunteer architects, engineers, land-use experts and citizens as an advisory body to the City Council. The panel's work would assist the council in its decisions about proposed developments, she said.

"My goal is also to have developers provide the city with three-dimensional renderings and overlays of a projected site so the citizens of the community and the council can visually understand the development in terms of height, setbacks, elevations, mass and footprint," Kirschbaum said.

Other areas of interest to Kirschbaum are "co-venturing" on projects with surrounding cities, promoting a teen and senior center and taking action to deal with noise issues.

Pedestrian safety in areas without sidewalks also has become a concern of city leaders, and, Kirschbaum said, she believes "safety should be considered first when it comes to the issue of sidewalks."

At a recent candidates' forum, Kirschbaum expressed concern about the city collecting the appropriate amount of fees from developers.

"I feel that it's very important for the city to keep up with costs to follow trends in materials and labor so we don't face a shortfall, and that when we go to the developers that we make sure on these developments that we have enough monies in mitigation fees to keep up," she said.

"I feel that unfortunately we haven't been very secure in our budget until recently," she added. "Because of widening the streets, we have fallen short and that is because the past situation hasn't kept up. The city did not collect enough mitigation fees from developers."

In addition to being involved in her property-owners association, Kirschbaum is active in several community and nonprofit organizations.

She is vice president of the Angels Board of Directors for Casa Pacifica and a member of the executive board of Westlake Lake Management Association. She has served on the board of directors for Create a Smile, a charity involving animal-assisted therapy. She is a member of two local chambers of commerce, the Westlake Village Women's Club and other organizations.

Kirschbaum said she intends to "stay within the guidelines that shape our wonderful village and to retain the character and charm of our wonderful community.