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.

Non-government Events

Despite the constant message from Mission Viejo’s city hall, government is not the center of life. Following is a sampling of events and activities that are not funded by taxpayers or promoted by the Nanny State.

“Preservation: New Sculptural and Mixed Media Works by Gerard Basil Stripling,” through Mon., Jan. 31, JoAnne Artman Gallery, 326 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, (949) 510-5481, http://www.joanneartmangallery.com

Exhibit of David Limrite's paintings, "Submarine Femme Fatales," Artist reception from 6 to 9 p.m., Jan. 6, JoAnne Artman Gallery, 326 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, (949) 510-5481, http://www.joanneartmangallery.com

Legal Open House on Starting Your Own Business, Tues., Feb. 1, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., American Advantage Law Group hosts a free open house every Tuesday for those wanting to start their own business. RSVP to attend, (949) 863-1888. American Advantage Legal Group 3848 Campus Dr. #206 Newport Beach, CA 92660, http://www.americanadvantagelawgroup.com.

“Peter and the Wolf,” Pacific Symphony at Orange County Performing Arts Center, Feb. 5, performances at 10 and 11:30 a.m., for families with children 5-11 years of age, $19-$36, Segerstrom Concert Hall, 615 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, (714) 755-5799, http://www.pacificsymphony.org

Create a Fairy Garden, Feb. 12, 10 a.m., Cottage Home and Garden, 31720 Los Rios St., San Juan Capistrano, (949) 493-3920, http://www.cottage-homeland-and-garden,com

Hershey Felder’s Great American Songbook, added performances on Feb. 14, 24 and 26, featured songwriters in this sing-along include Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, the Gershwins, Rogers and Hammerstein and more, Laguna Playhouse, Mouton Theater, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, (949) 497-2787, http://www.lagunaplayhouse.com

Hershey Felder: Mosier Chopin, Feb. 17 through Feb. 27, Laguna Playhouse, Mouton Theater, $30, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, (949) 497-2787, http://www.lagunaplayhouse.com

Beethoven’s Piano Concertos, Arnaldo Cohen, Feb. 3 through 5 in Segerstrom Concert Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 615 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, (714) 755-5799, http://www.pacificsymphony.org

Brooklyn Rider string quartet members will direct the ninth Laguna Beach Music Festival, which offers chamber music concerts as well as opportunities to mingle and talk about music. Feb. 7 through 13 at various venues in Laguna Beach, (949) 715-9713, lagunabeachmusicfestival.com

Whale Watching Cruises, daily throughout January and February, The Harbor Grill. Champagne breakfast every Sunday morning. In March, enjoy Mardi Gras flavors from 3/1 through 3/8, 34499 Golden Lantern, Dana Point, (949) 240-1416, http://www.harborgrill.com

Send Them Home

A Tea Party patriot forwarded Frosty Wooldridge’s article, adding a pointed message for elected officials.

Dear Public Servants: Here is how to balance California’s and the U.S. government’s budgets. Cut all funding to illegal immigrants, raid and fine businesses who hire them, deport them, and bring our troops home to protect OUR borders.

What if 20 Million Illegal Aliens Vacated America?
by Frosty Wooldridge

Tina Griego, journalist for the Denver Rocky Mountain News wrote a column titled, "Mexican visitor's lament" -- 10/25/07. She interviewed Mexican journalist Evangelina Hernandez while visiting Denver last week. Hernandez said, "They (illegal aliens) pay rent, buy groceries, buy clothes ... what happens to your country's economy if 20 million people go away?"

That's a good question – it deserves an answer. Over 80 percent of Americans demand secured borders and illegal migration stopped. But what would happen if all 20 million or more vacated America? The answers may surprise you!

In California, if 3.5 million illegal aliens moved back to Mexico, it would leave an extra $10.2 billion to spend on overloaded school systems, bankrupted hospitals and overrun prisons. It would leave highways cleaner, safer and less congested. Everyone could understand one another as English became the dominate language again.

In Colorado, 500,000 illegal migrants, plus their 300,000 kids and grand-kids, would move back "home," mostly to Mexico. That would save Coloradans an estimated $2 billion (other experts say $7 billion) annually in taxes that pay for schooling, medical, social-services and incarceration costs. It means 12,000 gang members would vanish out of Denver alone.

Colorado would save more than $20 million in prison costs and the terror that those 7,300 alien criminals set upon local citizens. Denver Officer Don Young and hundreds of Colorado victims would not have suffered death, accidents, rapes and other crimes by illegals.

Denver Public Schools would not suffer a 67 percent dropout/flunkout rate via thousands of illegal alien students speaking 41 different languages. At least 200,000 vehicles would vanish from our gridlocked cities in Colorado. Denver's unemployment rate would diminish as our working poor would gain jobs at a living wage.

In Florida, 1.5 million illegals would return the Sunshine State back to America, the rule of law and English. In Chicago, 2.1 million illegals would free up hospitals, schools, prisons and highways for a safer, cleaner and more crime-free experience.?

If 20 million illegal aliens returned "home," the U.S. economy would return to the rule of law. Employers would hire legal American citizens at a living wage. Everyone would pay their fair share of taxes because they wouldn't be working off the books. That would result in an additional $401 billion in IRS income taxes collected annually, and an equal amount for local state and city coffers.

No more push “1” for Spanish or “2” for English. No more confusion in American schools that now must contend with over 100 languages that degrade the educational system for American kids. Our overcrowded schools would lose more than two million illegal alien kids at a cost of billions in ESL and free breakfasts and lunches.

We would lose 500,000 illegal criminal alien inmates at a cost of more than $1.6 billion annually. That includes 15,000 MS-13 gang members who distribute $130 billion in drugs annually who would vacate our country. In cities like L.A., 20,000 members of the "18th Street Gang" would vanish from our nation. No more Mexican forgery gangs for ID theft from Americans!  No more foreign rapists and child molesters!

Losing more than 20 million people would clear up our crowded highways and gridlock. Cleaner air and less drinking and driving American deaths by illegal aliens! 

Over $80 billion annually wouldn't return to their home countries by cash transfers.   Illegal migrants earned half that money untaxed, which further drains America's economy – which currently suffers an enormous debt.

At least 400,000 anchor babies would not be born in our country, costing us $109 billion per year per cycle. At least 86 hospitals in California, Georgia and Florida would still be operating instead of being bankrupted out of existence because illegals pay nothing via the EMTOLA Act. Americans wouldn't suffer thousands of TB and hepatitis cases rampant in our country—brought in by illegals unscreened at our borders. Our cities would see 20 million less people driving, polluting and gridlocking our cities. It would also put the "progressives" on the horns of a dilemma; illegal aliens and their families cause 11 percent of our greenhouse gases.

Over one million of Mexico’s poorest citizens now live inside and along our border from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego, California, in what the New York Times called “colonias” or new neighborhoods. Trouble is, those living areas resemble Bombay and Calcutta with grinding poverty, filth, diseases, drugs, crimes, no sanitation and worse.  They live without sewage, clean water, streets, electricity, roads or any kind of sanitation. The New York Times reported them to be America’s new “Third World” inside our own country. Within 20 years, at their current growth rate, they expect 20 million residents of those colonias. (I’ve seen them personally in Texas and Arizona; it’s sickening beyond anything you can imagine.)  By enforcing our laws, we could repatriate them back to Mexico.

We invite 20 million aliens to go home, fix their own countries and/or make a better life in Mexico. We invite a million people into our country legally – more than all other countries combined annually. We cannot and must not allow anarchy at our borders, more anarchy within our borders and growing lawlessness at every level in our nation. 

It’s time to stand up for our country, our culture, our civilization and our way of life.

ACT for America – Save the Date

The Mission Viejo Chapter of ACT for America will hold its general meeting on Mon., Feb. 7, at the community center. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the meeting starts promptly at 7:30. First-time attendees are invited to arrive by 7:10 for orientation. The general meeting ends at 9:30 p.m.

Featured speaker will be Orlean Koehle, who has served as the state president of Eagle Forum of California since 2002. Koehle is a former speech, drama and journalism teacher. Her most recent book, “By Stealth and Deception: USA Transformation and its Parallel to the European Union,” explores the decline of European civilization and how the process is being repeated in America. Her presentation will include her experience with corrupted textbooks.

Chapter leader Bruce Mayall adds, “Islamists are infiltrating America's institutions in their attempt to overthrow our Constitution and replace it with Sharia (Islamic law). One of their key strategies is taqiyya, the Islamic practice of concealing and lying about their true history, doctrines and intentions. Taqiyya has been effectively used in jihad, to confuse and divide enemies, for 1400 years. Because of their centuries of experience, Islamists are the world's most sophisticated deceivers and propagandists.

“A primary propaganda target is our students. Like all propagandists, they know that first impressions are lasting impressions. Over the past two decades, Islamist "consultants" have purged America's history textbooks of any information that would reveal the true nature and intentions of this violent, supremacist and totalitarian ideology. This whitewashed version of Islam is in every major textbook and is being taught to our impressionable youth, starting in 7th grade. In many schools, students learn the Five Pillars of Islam (minus the foundation, holy war), take on a Muslim name, wear Islamic clothing and ‘become a Muslim for a day.’”

The meeting location is the Norman P. Murray Community Center, 24932 Veterans Way (Sycamore B room), in Mission Viejo. A $5 donation will be appreciated to help cover costs of the meeting.

The Buzz

Prayer for 2011, emailed by Galyn: “Dear God: For 2011, all I ask for is a big fat bank account and a slim body. Please do not mix up the two like you did last year.”

***

The Chinese New Year, beginning Feb. 3, 2011, marks the Year of the Rabbit. “The year of the Rabbit is traditionally associated with home and family, artistic pursuits, diplomacy, and keeping the peace. Therefore, 2011 should be a relatively calmer one than 2010 both on the world scene and a personal level.” http://www.chiff.com/a/chinese-horoscopes.htm Enjoy a celebration of the Vietnamese New Year, the 30th annual Tet Festival, Feb. 4 – 6, http://tetfestival.org Organizers say the festival is the world’s largest Tet Festival outside Vietnam. Events in Westminster and Garden Grove include traditional foods, music, live entertainment and games.

***

Mission Viejo has the definitive Hee-Haw mayor, Dave Leckness. A blogger in Fullerton is now trying to dub his mayor the Hee-Haw mayor. This challenge for the title should not go unanswered.

***

A reader’s follow up from last week’s report on the month-long process of removing Christmas lights from trees on La Paz: “I was stopped a few days ago on La Paz when four large trucks with ladders were still removing strings of lights dangling from trees. Does anyone have a way to figure out how many contractors were involved and how many hundreds of hours someone charged to maintenance for the decorations?”

***

A Buzz reader’s comment on the Oso Parkway widening project, “The city has cut down all the trees in the median. These were mature trees that looked nice and did not appear to have any problem. I would like to know why the trees were taken down and what is planned to replace them. Instead of just widening the road, the city made a mess of Crown Valley Parkway, and I am wondering if there are plans to build some weird structures on the Oso medians.”

***

Mission Viejo has been declared a “Tree City.” What is a Tree City and what does it cost to become one?

***

Bob Serrao emailed, “Here are 10 reasons you should own this book, ‘We the People, The Declaration & Constitution in Today’s English.’ It’s America’s foundation for the Republic, written by Americans for Americans, written in today’s English (not 1776), it’s the Charter Documents Paraphrased, it declares your rights & protections, it’s easy to understand, new & timely, pocket-sized and powerful, unique (nothing like it exists), it sold 1,200 copies nationwide last month, it was on the front page of the OC Register on Dec. 22, it will be reviewed on radio in February, it’s only $5 (including tax, shipping and handling), it’s available in Amazon Kindle version, and it’s available in computer pdf version for $3. OK, that’s 15 reasons.” www.intodaysenglish.com