by Dale Tyler

On Mon., Feb. 20, the city council approved a mixed-use project on property near Los Alisos and Jeromino consisting of 144 high-density townhouses and a large Target store. All this property was previously zoned commercial since the city was master planned in the 1970s. The Target store will be a benefit to our city, but the residential units will not, as outlined below.

This housing project is a loser for the city, for the citizens of Mission Viejo as a whole and for the neighbors of the project.

The city loses money on every new residential unit built. We spend about $48 million per year on operations of the city of Mission Viejo. Divide that by roughly 33,000 dwellings, and you get a cost to the city of $1,450 per dwelling per year. If you believe the Aliso Ridge units will sell for $700,000, then the 1-percent tax levy will be $7,000, and the city share at approximately12 percent is $840. So we would lose $610 per unit per year, or $878,400 net loss over 10 years. By contrast, the city would gain about $3 million if the proposed residential area were developed as retail over the same 10 years. In fact, we would be better off financially leaving the planned residential area as bare dirt rather than building houses.

Also, assuming that the in-lieu fees for parks, the library and police reflect the actual extra costs of the project and are not a profit center for the city, then those amounts, attractive as they may seem, cannot be used to claim the city benefits from the residential project.

The citizens lose because of more demand on schools and parks, as well as more residents competing for peak-hour, peak-direction road use. Commercial use would reverse the flow, and most trips would be into the property when residents are going to work and vice versa in the evening.

The commercial neighbors lose because we will see complaints from the new residents about lights and noise generated by the commercial operations in the area.

The only winners are the Public Law Center, of whom the council appears to be terrified, and the developer, Steadfast. Neither of these have any real community roots in Mission Viejo, other than campaign contributions made to city council members by Steadfast.

Once again, our council members have done something that will cause the city problems after they are long out of office. We need to find leaders who won't just think about the short term and look to spend and give away money whenever they can today without considering the long-term health of the city.