Developer Wants Higher Density

Mission Viejo is built out, and residents object to more homebuilding, traffic and overcrowding. Repeatedly, developers propose high-density housing, and the council steamrolls residents to approve it. The city’s homeowners chose Mission Viejo for its low-density, balanced Master Plan, which the council majority is dismantling.

Prior to the Nov. 2 city election, this blog warned residents against voting for the two council incumbents, Trish Kelley and Dave Leckness, who were up for reelection. The two usually vote with Councilman Frank Ury in the majority, and they make decisions to benefit outsiders instead of representing the residents who elected them.

This blog predicted the resurgence of high-density homebuilding after the election if Kelley and Leckness remained on the council. Housing developers have targeted numerous sites, and Kelley and Ury have a history of approving high-density projects. Leckness throughout his year on the council has aligned with Kelley and Ury and/or followed the recommendations of city staff.

Residents who live near the former Kmart site on east Los Alisos recently learned the developer, UDR Pacific, wants to add more housing to a plan the council approved in 2005. Five years ago, the council majority rezoned the property from commercial to high-density residential. There was no support in the community for the housing project.

Following the council vote in 2005, representatives of the developer were overheard by a resident as they stood in front of city hall. Despite their winning a battle against Mission Viejo citizens, they were complaining that the deal they’d made for 250 townhomes wasn’t profitable. Although they had pushed the project by touting its inclusion of affordable units, they wanted only market-rate townhomes. Because UDR’s approved plan with affordable units wasn’t financially desirable, UDR built nothing. Neighbors have reported UDR has not properly maintained or secured the abandoned site.

The underlying issue began in the early 1990s when city hall deviated from the Master Plan. The area along east Los Alisos was supposed to be residential, nd the Master Plan had no apartments. The Mission Viejo Company’s wisdom was overruled in a city hall swap that changed the residential zoning along Los Alisos to commercial and the commercial zoning along El Toro Road to residential.

Businesses (and those who have gone out of business) along east Los Alisos can attest to the folly of the swap. Kmart was supposed to draw shoppers, but Mission Viejo residents either didn’t know it was there or they didn’t think Kmart was that much of a draw.

UDR’s new proposal is to build 320 apartments and a four-story parking structure. The developer needs only three council votes to bring this monstrosity to life.