The Buzz

A particularly contentious point of the recall of Councilman Lance MacLean is the tug-of-war between Mission Viejo residents and the council majority over rezoning of the Casta del Sol Golf Course. The owner of the course, American Golf, has been trying to sell the property for years. In 2007, Sunrise Assisted Living made an offer and planned to build a 350-unit housing project on the golf course. After meeting privately with each of the five city council members, Sunrise proceeded to stake the property for housing. The act of staking indicated to anyone paying attention that Sunrise had found three supportive votes for its housing project. However, Sunrise’s financial problems became public knowledge in November 2008, and it stopped pursuing the project.

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While council majority members MacLean, Ury and Kelly (MUK) claimed they had “saved” the golf course with a moratorium on rezoning, they saved nothing. Sunrise tanked on its own, and the project evaporated. The failing economy has virtually stopped housing development, but another housing developer could buy the golf course at any time. Is City Hall attempting to cover Councilman Lance MacLean’s “assets”? City Manager Dennis Wilberg has tried to convince the public that the golf course is not for sale. Anyone who plays the course notices its state of decline – the owner has obviously lost interest in and commitment to maintaining the property. It doesn’t take inside information to realize that no reasonable offer would be refused by American Golf.

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Library patrons are primarily from other cities, and Mission Viejo taxpayers are funding a regional library. It’s not just speculation, as the city publishes data showing that more than half of the library cardholders don’t live in Mission Viejo. Another city facility that is widely used by outsiders is the community center, which was expanded with extravagant features to the tune of $15 million, three times over budget. Some residents who frequent the community center say it is a regional center with a high number of users from out of town.

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Email from a Buzz reader: “Before the expansion of the community center, the city’s staff members claimed that the center didn’t have enough separate spaces to meet demands. I always believed it was a scheduling problem, not a space issue, and the city overreacted by building a king-size facility. Before and after the expansion, the center has been nearly empty throughout afternoons, and this is the case every day of the week. As an aside, I have yet to see anyone sitting on the expensive outdoor furniture. Those in charge don’t want residents to use the facility, and they have quite an attitude toward us.”

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City Hall continues to err in referring to its pillars on Crown Valley Porkway as “pilasters.” Pillars are freestanding, whereas pilasters are attached to buildings. An easy way to remember what to call the CVP structures is that “pillars” rhyme with killers, and that’s what road hazards are – killers. It’s a matter of time before a vehicle slams into the immovable objects the city staff deliberately placed along the roadway – killer palm trees and killer pillars.