Will City Bail Out Developers?
by Bo Klein

Steadfast and/or Target is apparently talking with the city again about its housing plans at Jeronimo and Los Alisos. What will the city’s stance be?

When the developer first approached the city in 2003 with a proposal for 800 affordable apartments on the 23-acre site, it was banking on taxpayer dollars from the county as well as city redevelopment funds. The developer was interfering in the free market, which has now come back to bite it. The developer got its housing plan approved in 2005 and was hit with a lawsuit in 2006. The lawsuit against Steadfast is still on the council’s closed-session agenda. As if Steadfast didn’t have enough other problems, the housing market began its decline.

Steadfast partnered with Target in 2005 for a mixed-use project, retail and residential, which the council approved. Mission Viejo is a tough city, demographically and structurally, to convert to mixed-use. For openers, outsiders don’t understand this planned community. Mission Viejo has a solid General Plan worth defending. Developed by the Mission Viejo Company, it became a prototype nationwide.

The Target store, adding a new retail tax base, is much more “on Target” with what the Planning Commission determined in 2003 as the most suitable, long-term successful zoning. The parcel at Jeronimo and Los Alisos is not suitable for flighty, real estate speculation with projects combining high-density housing adjacent to a big-box store. As a former city planning commissioner who participated in the 2003 recommendation to deny housing development, it is somewhat gratifying to know our zoning decisions, though somewhat compromised, were basically sound, and the developer’s plans were not.

I’m concerned about what’s happening behind closed doors at City Hall. The city has no reason to bail out developers who were “off Target” from day one. Does the developer/property owner now have another get-rich plan? Bring the daylight back, and inform the public of any proposed scheme the developer may have to bail itself out, possibly at the expense of Mission Viejo.

Reader reaction, May 4 Crash on I-5
CHP determines fault

A blog reader commented on the Aug. 23 OC Register news release, in which the CHP found the truck driver at fault in the May 4 freeway crash near the Oso exit that killed three young children:

“The community’s sadness has been immense over the Coble’s loss. Three lives ended, and this should cause outcry to prevent more wrecks. I don’t know if the road officials are in denial, but the traffic backs up almost every day, and cars are stopped on the freeway trying to get off at Oso. The findings in the article on Aug. 23 didn’t mention the road or traffic problems. In the May 4 crash, the CHP found the truck driver at fault for driving too fast for conditions of the road. This finding will not help fix the underlying problem of cars stopped on the freeway. Anyone who has not already seen an accident there should observe the skid marks all over the road.”

CUSD Update
Editorial staff

One of the worst examples of mismanagement in CUSD isn’t an old building like Newhart with too many students. It’s the brand-new, $140-million-plus, state-of-the-art high school in San Juan Capistrano, due to open Sept. 4.

San Juan Hills High School – referred to as “dump high school” – is built next to a methane-belching dump. The school is barely ready to open, and the road to the school is still under construction. According to some CUSD parents, the district hasn’t completed the required Environmental Impact Report’s safety measures, and the school is opening in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act.

If that sounds like someone is overreacting, here are a few specifics:

1) The high school is beneath high-tension transmission lines, requiring steel plates in some sections of the building. Athletic fields are “classrooms” directly under the lines.

2) Dump high is a few hundred yards from a dump that accepted hazardous waste long before the use of liners to prevent leakage into the soil and groundwater, which geological maps show to run under the school. The dump has a methane collection station, and methane burns from a flare when it isn’t being collected.

3) The only road to the school was never meant for public use. Students will share the road with multi-ton trash trucks.

4) The developer who graded the parcel filled its canyons with up to 130 feet of fill. As an aside, the district (taxpayers) paid the developer to grade his land as well, “to bring in fill dirt.” He graded almost exactly the number of acres he needed for his residential development. What a coincidence.

5) Dump high school is across the street from a green waste facility that burns refuse. Homeowners near the site say they keep their windows closed to avoid breathing the smoke when the waste is burning.

6) Large tanker trucks filled with liquefied natural gas travel through the La Pata/Antonio intersection to reach the Solag Disposal site, where Solag’s trucks are fueled (just past the dump school turnoff). The trucks are a risk in themselves, in an area where CUSD officials ignore the hazards of trash-hauler traffic and heavy traffic on Ortega. Beginning Sept. 4, add to the mix 600 students starting the school year at dump high.

CUSD had to indemnify several agencies in order to get the approval to build a school on this site, possibly bypassing state and federal safety measures. This sounds reminiscent of the Belmont Learning Center in Los Angeles, which cost $200 million and was never opened.

Last week, the principal of dump high school sent a message to parents and students, canceling registration at the last minute because of the snafu over the unfinished road.. He said the first day of school next week would be “thrilling.” What about safe?

The road to the school is steep and dangerous in some places, with the need for pilot cars to escort vehicles until it’s finished. The district stated the pilot cars would be eliminated if traffic starts backing up. The OC Register released an article on Aug. 29 that looked more like a puff-piece press release from the school district than a news report. In a district that has demonstrated a pattern of cutting corners, misrepresenting facts and breaking the law, news should be covered by investigative reporting.

The release of information in the OC Register last week focused on road issues, causing one parent to remark, “The story is about the road – something obvious everyone can see – to divert attention from the real problems of this school.”

A Mission Viejo resident had another take on the story about the unfinished road and trash trucks traversing a still-active construction zone: “These people must get their traffic expertise from the same folks that handle Mission Viejo traffic planning. Perhaps they need Roger Faubel to provide them some public relations material to ‘paper over the matter.’”

Mission Viejo is Developer’s Waterloo
Staff editorial

What’s happening at Jeronimo and Los Alisos on the graded parcel next to the nearly finished Target store? Target is supposed to open Oct. 14, and the elevated pile of dirt near the corner is sprouting a few trees but no homes.

Perhaps residents should be whistling “Waterloo” every time they drive by Steadfast’s dirt pile. Years ago, Steadfast privately said it should never have bought the property. Several proposed housing projects were defeated, either through the sharpshooting of such Planning Commissioners as Dr. Michael Kennedy, the late Norm Murray, Bo Klein and Dorothy Wedel or with community activists protesting every housing concept Steadfast presented. The developer’s financial losses over project delays, however, are practically negligible when compared with effects of the current homebuying downturn.

Despite an appearance that developers won, not one home has been built in Mission Viejo, nor are any foundations being poured. Developers haven’t made a dime on their housing gamble, and their losses could be substantial if they don’t scrap their condo plans for Jeronimo and Los Alisos as well as the former Kmart site on east Los Alisos. A Steadfast bigwig made a memorable remark to residents during a 2003 showdown, “You will either accept our affordable housing project or it will be forced on you.” As it turns out, Steadfast forced an unprofitable housing project on itself.

In 2005, the council of MacLean, Kelley, Ury, Ledesma and Reavis voted 5-0 to rezone Steadfast’s 23.42-acre parcel for split use – a Target store next to Unisys and a condo project along Los Alisos Blvd. For the privilege of building a high-density housing mess, Steadfast’s wheeler-dealers got stuck with a $3-million “in-lieu” fee to the city to compensate for the lack of recreational amenities for its condo occupants. The payment is still due despite no residential units being built.

The residential project is apparently behind closed doors at the city again, with no word to the public about the developer’s intent. One could guess Steadfast (or Target – whoever has a financial interest in developing the remaining acreage) is now trying to scrap its condo project the council passed in 2005.

One of the activists who fought the battle against Steadfast commented, “I’d be thrilled if the developer wants to flip it back to commercial use. I’d support changing it back in a heartbeat, and there would be no finer poetic justice.”

A flip back to commercial would emphasize the wisdom of the Mission Viejo Company, which correctly called for business use at this location. Also clear is the shortsightedness of city administrators and council members who irresponsibly advocated housing in an area surrounded by commercial zoning. With Target’s new store as a retail destination, adjacent commercial development of restaurants, shops and other businesses would make sense. Housing now doesn’t make sense to the developer, and it never made sense to residents. With the housing market taking a dive, a condo developer would face years of additional loss on a property that has been problematic since 2003.

Perhaps the only folks who benefited from the rezoning from commercial to residential are council members whose campaign treasuries received donations from both sides. All five current council members’ campaigns benefited from Steadfast donations. The same council members solicited campaign money from their constituents – promising to represent residents and then spitting in their face. The council might have yet another chance to get paid off if the owner/developer wants the parcel flipped back to its original commercial zoning. With a $3-million in-lieu park fee looming, the developer might peel off a few thousand dollars to council members who clearly have no problem selling their votes.

If the city had stayed out of the real-estate business, and if council members weren't grabbing developer cash at every opportunity, this parcel could have become an extension of the adjacent High Park office complex. Instead, some neighbors object to the nuisance of Target (lights, noise and traffic), and others strongly object to more housing of any kind.

The Buzz column, Aug. 31

More than a third of 177,000 signatures were thrown out – including plenty of valid ones – in the 2005 attempt to recall all seven CUSD trustees. Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley took heat from constituents for showing favoritism toward the trustees (to the point of breaking the law), but his bosses – the county board of supervisors – brushed everything aside following a whitewash investigation. As an interesting connection, Director of Voter Services Kay Cotton had recently gone to work for Kelley. She was previously a senior staff member in Supv. Tom Wilson’s office. As recently revealed in grand jury testimony, Cotton and Kelley illegally gave CUSD officials access to confidential recall signatures in January 2006. Wilson initially opposed an investigation of the registrar’s office (why would he oppose an investigation unless he already knew what happened and who did it?). Even after the fit hit the shan with the CUSD recall and a similar snafu with a Newport Beach initiative, Kelley was promoted from acting registrar to permanent registrar by the board of supervisors.

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Mission Viejo welcomed Congressman Gary Miller on Aug. 30 with a full house in Atria del Sol’s community room. Miller’s topic was “What’s really going on in Washington, D.C.” Audience members asked a range of questions, with greatest concern centered on illegal immigration and national security.

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John Moorlach, Orange County’s second district supervisor, will speak in Mission Viejo at Atria del Sol, 23792 Marguerite Pkwy., at 7 p.m. on Oct. 18. Moorlach, a C.P.A. who worked his way up in accounting firms, became the Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector in 1995 after correctly stating Bob Citron and his crystal ball were both cracked. Moorlach made headlines last week after he asked his hand-picked successor in the treasurer’s office, Chriss Street, to step down following allegations of falsifying bid documents to cover up improper contract awards.

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Blog reader response: “The numbers the Southern California Association of Governments gave Irvine (creating 21,097 new affordable housing units in seven years) shows how crazy these people who want artificially created low-cost housing. First, the government picks my pocket to provide corporate welfare for developers who build housing that a community doesn’t want. Then, someone who hasn’t earned or saved for a home is suddenly entitled to become a homeowner. Then, a judge decides the homeowner can sell the home at market value to a yuppie. Why not save time by giving cash directly to everyone with a low income?”

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Those attempting to recall two Capo school district trustees think it will be easier the second time around. Be sure to note the elected officials wanting to attach their names to this recall. For the record, no elected official in Mission Viejo actually worked to reform the district. Councilwoman Trish Kelley was all google-eyed over former administrators James Fleming and David Doomey (DO-me) throughout the entire first recall. Only Councilman John Paul Ledesma stood up to former superintendent Fleming, challenging his false statements that Measure A bond money couldn’t be used at Newhart.

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Comment from a resident: “Have you ever tried to rent a meeting room in a city building? I tried calling and mostly got recorded messages, but I did find out all transactions go through one person who works part-time in the library. Be sure to call a long time in advance, because it could take awhile. I never talked with the right person. I still didn’t know if the room I needed was available, as no other employee could access the schedule. My impression is that these people are courteous but not helpful. The rooms were expressly built for our use, and we are paying for them with tax dollars whether someone is using them or being prevented from using them.”

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The Community Services Commission will consider how to incorporate more artwork in the city. One doesn’t have to look far for artists, as Mission Viejo has an art guild with many members who are talented artists. When the city hall was a new building, the city paid thousands of dollars for matting and framing pictures that looked like inexpensive prints one would find in a magazine. At least one artist approached the city to suggest that local artists should exhibit their work in prominent places in city hall. A city employee said no, because the city’s insurance wouldn’t cover the theft of such artwork. The artists said they would release the city from any liability in the event of theft or damage, but the city still said no. Perhaps it’s time to ask again. The artists were agreeable to loaning their work on a rotating basis, whereby art would be in place for several months at a time