Please Support the Right to Vote

Vote “Yes” on Measure D, June 8, 2010, Election

The Mission Viejo Right to Vote gives us, the citizens of Mission Viejo, the final approval on “major” land-use changes here in our beautiful city.

Since before Mission Viejo became a city more than 20 years ago, it was designated a “Master Planned” community. This meant than when the city was laid out by the Mission Viejo Company, every parcel was designated for a specific use, such as homes, apartments, parks, commercial or light industrial use. This was done to provide a balanced community that would sustain itself by means of sales tax and property tax revenues to the city to make sure that, given prudent spending patterns, Mission Viejo would remain prosperous and beautiful for a long time to come.

Unfortunately, over the years, various Planning Commissions and City Councils disrupted that “Master Plan” by rezoning commercial property that would have provided sales taxes to the city. They replaced the commercial zoning with high-density residential zoning at least four times. In one case about 15 years ago in southern Mission Viejo, more than 700 high-density apartments were built in place of the commercial office buildings nearby residents were promised. The resulting traffic, crime and problems in the schools that were predicted by those same residents have caused many problems for the community. Several other projects have been approved and rezoned during the past five years, and will be built as soon as the economy improves, adding more traffic, crime and further overloading our schools.

The Mission Viejo Right to Vote is a very simple law that will require that citizens approve, at an election paid for by the developer of the project, any changes to land-use rules. So, if a property is zoned for open space/recreation, such as the Casta Del Sol Golf Course, then the citizens of Mission Viejo would have to approve any change, such as building housing or stores on the property.

In order to ensure that the high development standards currently in effect in Mission Viejo are maintained, a project would have to go through all the existing approval steps, including the Planning Commission and City Council, before the voters would have to approve the project, avoiding the problems caused by “ballot box zoning.”

The Mission Viejo Right to Vote does not give the state any new powers to control zoning in Mission Viejo. It does not promote any particular kind of development, but simply gives the citizens of Mission Viejo a final say on changes to our beautiful city. It will not keep people from using their property as they see fit, as long as they abide the current zoning. Businesses can expand as usual and, because more commercial sites will probably stay commercial, new jobs will be created.

For more information, call 949-360-1717 or see http://www.missionviejorighttovote.com