Council as Image-Maker
Staff editorial

In 2002, city council majority members that included Sherri Butterfield and Susan Withrow had a vision. They intended to create a “town center” near their masterpiece, city hall. La Paz had been widened from the freeway to Marguerite Parkway to create a grand entrance.

Butterfield and Withrow’s vision was viewed as a hallucination by some and a nightmare by others. The roadwork at La Paz and Marguerite was such a mess, and it took so long to complete that some small businesses closed forever. When the former councilwomen were bounced out of office in 2002, residents may have believed the siege of rezoning, destroying the city’s Master Plan and running roughshod over residents was over. In fact, it only slowed momentarily, with the current council rezoning six parcels for more housing development and adding a new twist of cell towers in parks.

On May 21, 2007, the council quietly approved as part of the consent calendar a $52,125 payment to an image company, brandStrata, to brand and re-image Mission Viejo. According to brandStrata, the city’s proposed new image would center on three words: gracious, esteemed and harmonious. The council on Dec. 2 will consider buying the first steps of brandStrata’s plan, which includes a downtown and neighborhood redevelopment. The item appears as follows on the Dec. 2 agenda:

23.  Initial Report on the Branding and Re-Imaging of Mission Viejo
Recommended Action:  (1) Adopt the image as proposed by brandStrata LLC, as a first step in the re-imaging (branding) of Mission Viejo and; (2) receive and file the Brand Audit and Position Summary and; (3) direct staff to implement the “First Step’ recommendations as identified in the report.

The idea of the city council discussing the city’s image is causing some residents to laugh out loud. The composite image of the five current council members doesn’t conjure up anything positive -- certainly not gracious, esteemed or harmonious. Residents who have commented to the blog are asking which city staff member is pushing to upend Mission Viejo’s image as a Master Planned community.

A resident who spoke during public comments at a recent council meeting suggested that new council members should be elected in 2008 to get rid of those who are obviously out of step with residents. With the council’s plans in the works for more high-density housing and overdevelopment, the need for a voter initiative to halt rezoning by the council is also increasing rapidly.