Measure D: Residents vs. Outsiders

Battle lines have been drawn for Measure D, the initiative that Mission Viejo residents qualified for the ballot more than a year ago. If approved in the June 8 Primary Election, Mission Viejo voters will have the final word on major zone changes in the city.

Supporting Measure D are the residents. Opposing Measure D are outsiders. They include Councilman Frank Ury’s financiers from the city of Orange, the South Orange County Chamber of Commerce (located in Rancho Santa Margarita) and the Board of Realtors in Laguna Hills.

All three anti-D entities have a financial stake in rezoning decisions. Some Realtors want more housing in a city that’s already built out and congested with traffic, and residents should take note of which Realtors have taken this position. Ury’s financiers include developers and property owners who would gain from flipping commercial zones to high-density housing. Ury’s developer friends also align with the Chamber folks in their desire to support the Ranch’s wish to complete the 241 toll road. They’re the same group (developers, financiers, Ranch consultants and Chamber associates) who opposed the recall of Lance MacLean. MacLean is an outspoken advocate of high-density housing and the banner carrier for the developers’ proposed toll-road route, which was rejected by the Coastal Commission and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

Mission Viejo resident Dale Tyler is advocating an alternative to the developers’ failed route, and that’s enough to make him a target of the outsiders. He favors using the proposed Cow Camp connector to the I-5. This alternative would serve Ladera Ranch and the development of Rancho Mission Viejo, and it would relieve traffic on Oso, Crown Valley and Ortega.

The Transportation Corridor Agency is having trouble letting go of the route that’s been rejected. Having developers and their money on one side and Tyler on the other also explains why outsiders wanted to keep him off the city council.

The outsiders are again taking aim at Mission Viejo residents, and Tyler can count on being attacked as the author of Measure D. Just in case residents didn’t get enough nasty mailers from Ury’s friends during the recall, more are likely coming.

Ury has managed to fool a few residents into leaving rezoning decisions up to the council. A Casta del Sol resident demonstrated her confusion by signing Ury’s ballot statement against Measure D. She signed it prior to a Superior Court judge’s ruling that Ury made false or misleading claims. Ury also wrote his opinions, which are false or misleading, but lies aren’t illegal as long as they’re stated as opinions. Among Ury’s lies that were removed by the judge, he said housing could NEVER be built on the Casta golf course because it’s in the flood plain. Sunrise Development planned to build housing on a portion of the golf course that isn’t in the flood plain, demonstrating Ury’s lie.

Most Casta residents understand that the golf course is for sale and in jeopardy of being rezoned for housing. Unless residents take the power to rezone away from the council with Measure D, all it takes is three council votes to build housing on the golf course.

Ury’s associates (who are apparently not his friends) say he’s responsible for the web site that maligns supporters of Measure D. Ury likes to keep his hands clean, and he’s managed to get other people to put their names on it.

Who is doing Ury’s dirty work against Measure D? Incredibly, two ex-council women, Sherri Butterfield and Susan Withrow, are leading the parade. The two women, who were found guilty on multiple counts of violating the Brown Act, voted to rezone a commercial parcel to high-density housing over the objections of 7,000 voters who signed a petition. Even after being removed from office by a landslide in 2002, Butterfield and Withrow still don’t get it.