The Buzz

As reported in the Capistrano Dispatch last week, San Juan Capistrano is following Laguna Hills’ lead in asking the state to determine how many people can legally live in a single-family home. SJC is asking for legislation that would allow local governments to set their own limits. SJC Mayor Joe Soto cited parking issues, impact on schools and potential crime increases among the problems of overcrowding when a city cannot impose occupancy limits.

***

To no avail in Mission Viejo, residents have asked the city council for years to address problems of overcrowding and multiple families occupying single-family units. MV council members claim they have no say, but they turn around and vote 5-0 in favor of increasing occupancy. For example, single-family homes are routinely approved to become assisted-living facilities, usually over strong objections from neighbors. The Aegean Hills neighborhood has more than 100 such facilities. The council’s idea of being responsive to residents’ problems is to come up with such “solutions” as a word of the month and to approve such snappy slogans as “Make Living Your Mission.”

***

The city staff was so busy celebrating Mission Viejo’s 20th anniversary, some of them had to stop making lanyards at their desks. A blog reader lamented about all the meaningless hoopla, “Why can’t our city employees be like those in other cities where they just play games on their computers all day?”

***

The discussion of 500 easels from the city staff’s 20th anniversary bash hasn’t been adequately descriptive. The May 2 Saddleback Valley News quotes Keith Rattay as saying easels “were placed” on the hillside for lack of storage. That’s hardly the case. An activist’s photos show the wooden easels were splintered and broken – tossed off a truck or otherwise thrown on the ground. When Rattay said the easels will be given to schools and churches, he apparently meant as firewood.

***

Signs printed for the city staff’s weeklong 20th anniversary party are more than puzzling. One of them reads, “Walk you way around downtown.” A resident who saw the signs reacted, “Just where exactly is downtown? The closest downtown to Mission Viejo is in San Juan Capistrano. I think I’ll just take Main Street – the I-5 – to San Juan so I can walk my way around downtown. Are these people crazy?” Well, yes.

***

Blog staffers came up with the Top Ten things Mission Viejo doesn’t need: 1) a downtown, 2) a professional football team to replace its failed professional baseball team, 3) more cars, more housing and more residents, 4) more city staffers, 5) more Great Wall of China structures on Crown Valley made of brownish-yellow bricks, 6) a Rose Parade float, 7) four-story-high balloons in the image of council members to accompany the Rose Parade float, 8) more stoplights, 9) more nursing homes, 10) an international airport.