The Buzz column, May 18

Where will Mission Viejo’s ”cut and shoot” housing development be located? Those placing bets say it will be near Palmia (east Los Alisos next to Mission Foothill Marketplace). Palmia residents voiced their objections at the May 7 council meeting, but the fix was in. Councilwoman Trish Kelley doesn’t want more slum housing in “her” school district, Capo USD. The property near Palmia was the only one of four parcels up for rezoning that’s not in CUSD. Councilmen Frank Ury and Lance MacLean likely reveled in sticking it to Councilwoman Gail Reavis, who lives in Palmia. Although all four parcels were rezoned, Palmia will likely get the next welfare housing project as a neighbor.

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Political gaffe of the week: Councilwoman Reavis suggested during the May 7 council meeting that the parcel outside Casta del Sol’s Gate 1 should be on the list of potential affordable housing sites. Casta residents noticed, with one remarking to the blog, “I haven’t been interested in city politics because it’s such a mess, but count me in for the next election.”

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Casta del Sol has a solid record for getting out the vote. It still has the highest number of voters among gated developments in Mission Viejo (2,844), but Palmia is No. 1 in voter turnout. In fact, the west half of the Palmia community was out of sight with 88.2 percent in the 2006 election. Mission Viejo’s voter turnout in November 2006 was considerably lower than usual at 54.8 percent (59,563 residents are registered but only 32,521 voted).

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The Capo school district has had every kind of problem with its “dump” school, San Juan Hills High School, located next to a landfill in San Juan Capistrano. The district announced the school might open with only 590 freshmen and no other classes. With only 155 prospective sophomores, the number is too small to pencil out. A Capo parent informed The Buzz that district officials made a lot of strategic mistakes. They focused their recruiting effort on private schools and opened boundaries as well. Still, not enough students wanted to attend the dump school, which is located under power lines alongside a road less traveled, except by trash haulers. Along with volts and vermin, the long-delayed opening (originally set for fall 2005) and soaring costs (more than $140 million) make this CUSD’s biggest boondoggle to date.

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Neighbors near the Steadfast/Target parcel at Jeronimo and Los Alisos have watched – mostly in horror – as bulldozers created a surrealistic landscape. A neighbor with a view of the property emailed an update: “First, it looked like a strip-mining operation with complete destruction. Next, it took on a Matterhorn profile. It now reminds me of a scene from ‘Encounters of the Third Kind,’ when Richard Dreyfuss went completely nuts and built a replica of Devil’s Tower out of mud in his living room. I expect the mothership will arrive soon.”