Bulldozers Move In on Renaissance Faire

Bulldozers hired by a developer who has proposed to build a housing tract on the long-time site of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Agoura swept through the property Thursday, demolishing about 50 structures built by the event’s sponsors.

The move came as a surprise to fair supporters and preservationists, who are attempting to save both the fair and the tree-shaded site west of Cornell Road from the development.

Kevin Patterson, son of the fair’s founder, said he had not been notified that the buildings would be “turned into rubble.” He called the action “a classic example of a belligerent developer taking the law into his own hands.”

But Stanley Romain, attorney for developer Brian Heller, said fair sponsors had agreed in a rental agreement with owner Art Whizin to remove the structures by June 30. He said Heller or his representatives repeatedly had attempted to contact officials of the Living History Center, the fair’s sponsor, to remind them of their commitment.

“We felt we had given them more than ample time to remove the structures,” Romain said. “So today we demolished them.”

Fair sponsors had rented the property from Whizin for the last 26 summers, transforming the area’s rolling hills into an Elizabethan English village for six consecutive weekends each year.

“Previously, they’d been allowed to leave the structures out there all year,” Romain said.

“Here is my village, as I view it, completely destroyed,” said Billy Scudder, president of the Historic Oaks Foundation. The foundation was formed earlier this year to fight the proposed development, a 160-home gated community planned by Heller and Whizin.

The development has been approved by the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission and is awaiting a hearing by the Board of Supervisors.

Patterson said the fair’s sponsors had agreed to remove the structures only if the supervisors approved the housing tract.

“This by no means signals the end of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire,” he said. “We’re more resolute than ever about saving this particular piece of property. Only the buildings are gone. The land still is pristine property.”

Destroyed were six stages, six drink stands, the fair’s front gate, ticket office, information booth, a costume warehouse and several booths belonging to fair craftsmen and caterers, Patterson said.

Preservationists, the National Park Service and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy have been trying to raise $14 million to buy the land. The National Park Service expects a budget decision from Congress within the next few weeks which will determine whether it will have money to purchase the land, spokeswoman Jean Bray said.