Voter Initiative Moves Forward
Staff editorial

On Tues., May 20, community activist Dale Tyler delivered the Right To
Vote initiative regarding major land use to city hall. If passed by voters in the November election, the initiative would require residents’ approval on any major zone change. Such a measure should put an end to council members pretending to represent residents but approving zone changes to benefit developers who fund their campaigns. To read the full text of the initiative click here.

For years, activists have discussed the need for such an initiative to stop developers from dismantling the master plan with zone changes. Getting a citizen-sponsored initiative passed is no small task. A great deal of time, research, rewriting and legal review went into its preparation. Because the council didn’t sponsor the initiative, residents will soon start gathering signatures to qualify it for the ballot.

The future of two parcels is immediately at stake, and both would be impacted by having the initiative in place. Sunrise Senior Living wants to build an assisted-living project on the Casta del Sol golf course. The owner of the former Kmart property on east Los Alisos allegedly wants to switch plans and build apartments instead of the townhomes the council approved despite community objection. If voters pass the initiative, a change in land use or a significant change in development plans would call for a vote of the people.

One of the most abused city powers in Mission Viejo is the council’s authority to rezone property. In theory, council members represent residents and vote on their behalf. In reality, residents have had to mobilize their neighborhoods to fight against the council’s rezoning of any parcel targeted by a developer. Residents have lost every fight.

Some council members have misrepresented facts and claimed they’ve been forced to rezone property to comply with “state housing mandates.” In 2007, the council rezoned three properties, allegedly to meet requirements for “mandated” affordable housing. In fact, the state doesn’t mandate housing; it only requires the city to have an affordable housing plan. What the state doesn’t allow is for a city to do absolutely nothing. The council majority voted in 2006 to throw away the city’s affordable housing plan, which various Planning Commission members had spent years developing.

Several of the council members seem smart enough they should get it. The state doesn’t require ruining neighborhoods with overcrowding and inappropriate projects. What’s missing is leadership and responsibility among city staff and council members in managing the state’s goals while protecting the city’s master plan. The combined inaction of the council and throwing away the city’s plan enabled the state to come in and decertify the city’s housing element. The current council rezoned five parcels in three years, and not one new affordable unit has been built. Affordable-housing advocates won battles but achieved no real victory because those in need of affordable housing got none.

The Casta del Sol golf course is at the center of the current rezoning storm. If Sunrise succeeds in getting three council votes to rezone the parcel, the golf course will be gone. Without the Right To Vote initiative, destruction of the golf course is all but certain. If the council rezones the parcel, the golf course will not be a smaller 18-hole course – not even a 9-hole course or a miniature golf course. The developer and/or its P.R. agent Roger Faubel managed to convince a few gullible folks that Sunrise only wants to build its project but preserve the golf course. That scenario is contrary to what developers do for a living. The Right To Vote initiative would be the only real protection from Sunrise destroying the entire course.

Mission Viejo’s city attorney will next review the initiative and give it a title and summary. After that, initiative supporters will begin gathering signatures of registered Mission Viejo voters to qualify the initiative for the November ballot.