by Dale Tyler

On Mon., Feb. 20, all five of our city council members failed the citizens of Mission Viejo. Instead of trying to find a solution that would preserve the quality of life in our beautiful city, they elected to take the easy – some would say cowardly – road and bend to the will of an unjust set of guidelines set out by one of the state's most hated bureaucracies, the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD)

An even worse failure was our new city attorney, who at one point said a court would be able to tell the citizens of Mission Viejo that they could not replace defective water heaters, faulty electrical wiring or furnaces spewing carbon monoxide into their homes if HCD did not “certify” our city's housing element. The housing element is a document that describes how the city will satisfy the needs of current and future residents of the city. Given that we are built out, this should be a simple document, but, as with all bureaucracies, it is not.

Also failing the citizens were city staff members in the Community Development department who were tireless advocates for Steadfast's project and worked against the long-term interests of Mission Viejo. Certainly, they could have done much more to present the council and citizens with alternatives to ruining the last large vacant parcel of commercial land with low-income, high-density residential units, which will – if history is any guide – become a slum like some other developments nearby. By permitting inadequate parking, which, while technically complying with city codes, is actually far less than is really needed as shown by similar developments, the city staff doomed the future residents to a life that is not up to the standards of Mission Viejo as a whole. We need to find city staff members who will work for the city's residents, not against them

The council in 2002, with Butterfield, Withrow and Craycraft in control, took the easy road and designated two properties as possible locations for low-income housing. Although they did not change the zoning from commercial, they set the stage for what this current council has now done. One of the properties, the former Kmart site on Los Alisos, had been rezoned in 2005 by this same council to hold very high-density housing, with 250 units on a small parcel of land, including 38 low-income units to be built along with regular units. Now, this council has rezoned the other parcel, near Los Alisos and Jeronimo, to have 144 units with 22 of them being reserved for low-income persons. Unfortunately, even with these two projects, the city is still 94 units short of the requested number of low-income units. Using 15 percent as the normal amount of low-income units built in a project, this means we will have to build 627 more dwellings in Mission Viejo. Where will this land come from?

Why would the council take these steps that were clearly not in the best interests of the city, the residents or the neighbors (link) The problem starts with the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). Essentially, HCD tells communities around the state of California that they must build low-income housing. For new communities with plenty of vacant land, this is no problem because it is simply a matter of explaining the rules to the developers and zoning parcels to accommodate a mix of regular and low-income uses. Of course, it is bad public policy to create entitlements for those who are unwilling to do what the rest of us have done – namely, work hard and save to buy a house that we can afford – but this is ultra-liberal California. However, while HCD's rules make sense for communities with open land, they don't work for built-out cities like Mission Viejo. We are forced to build new low-income units, despite the fact there is no more land zoned residential and despite the fact that the community already has quite a number of projects housing low-income persons.

As another problem, HCD every few years creates a new set of numbers that require the construction of yet more low-income housing. This becomes a zero-sum game at some point, with no more open land, cities must demolish existing buildings to construct new low-income housing or split existing low-income units into more and more dense projects. Since we know that higher densities lead to more neglect, which leads to crime and other undesirable social conditions, it seems that HCD's rules will hurt – not help – low-income persons, as well as the community that surrounds them.

Clearly, HCD's demands make no sense. However, with the help of Celeste Brady and Bill Curley, our “esteemed” city attorneys, members of the council tried to scare themselves and the public with scenarios like no permits to replace defective water heaters, taking of private property – including your house – to build low-income units and other doomsday scenarios. Let's be realistic. No court would order such things and, if it did, the city should, on behalf of the people of Mission Viejo, fight that injustice all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. Bad laws erode the freedoms our forefathers fought and died for. Throughout the history of this country, people have stood up for what was right and not allowed themselves to be bullied by government, whether it be England and unfair taxation or the Jim Crow laws of racist states in the last century. Our council decided it was easier just to “go along” instead of fighting for the people of Mission Viejo. Perhaps we need some leadership here in Mission Viejo, as we certainly have none on our current council.