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Mission Viejo at the crossroads Mission Viejo is at a turning point, slipping toward urbanism, overcrowding and increased traffic congestion. Neighborhoods along Los Alisos Blvd. and Crown Valley are overburdened with high-density housing, and many other neighborhoods are being targeted for high-density welfare housing projects. We have graffiti and gang activity occurring near apartment projects. It’s not a matter of adding more policemen as things deteriorate. We have to stop changing the city’s Master Plan, which emphasized low-density housing – no more high-density development, including affordable welfare housing! Some council members and several candidates favor more high-density housing, including an apartment project at La Paz and Marguerite. These changes impact schools, put our citizens at risk and diminish our quality of life. Beyond this most important issue facing the city, a critical aspect of this election is whether residents or lobbyists will be represented on the council. When council members’ first loyalty is to lobbyists or outside special interest groups, the city is in jeopardy. Out-of-towners don’t care about the consequences of overdevelopment or the costs of showing favoritism in awarding city contracts. Because the council majority has demonstrated weakness, our city can’t hold its own in the region. As a result, we have cut-through traffic from the southeast turning our thoroughfares – Crown Valley, Oso and Alicia Parkway – into freeways. While Crown Valley is now being expanded, much more needs to be done. The council has failed in a timely way to address the basic problems facing the city (aging infrastructure, cost overruns on major projects, threats from the state about affordable welfare housing, impact of illegal immigration on many aspects of our lives, converting single-family homes into multi-family units, failure to manage on-going traffic congestion, etc.), and I see additional huge problems in the region that will have continued negative impacts on our residents. Growth in population and additional traffic are just two of the regional trends affecting our city. No one is conceiving of long-term city objectives, let alone achieving them. We need a city council that will work effectively to preserve the character of Mission Viejo as originally planned and not turn it into another overpopulated urban city. Michael R. Ferrall, Ph.D. |
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