Lake Forest 2018 - Is There an Iceberg Up Ahead?

If you recall, Leonardo diCaprio was shouting “I’m the King of the World” in one scene, and a few minutes later he was literally freezing to death as the Titanic sank. That temporal incongruity is what I think about as the City enters 2018.

We are about to embark on some profound changes, yet in the rush to do everything that we plan to do, I am worried that we will not perform well at all. This is especially true when you look at the capital improvements budget and schedule. On top of everything else that previous Councils accomplished, this Council proposes to

• Build a $70,000,000 Civic Center, Senior Center, Performing Arts Center, and Police Center.
• Renovate 10 neighborhood parks at a cost of about $10,000,000.
• Renovate Village Pond Park at a cost of about $2,000,000

Our City doesn’t have a spectacular record in capital improvements. Not so long ago we

• Re-modeled a park and forgot to put in the ramp for disabled people.
• Re-designed Saddleback Ranch Rd to make it dangerous and difficult to use, despite fervent opposition from residents.
• Seriously under-estimated the costs and difficulty of renovating Village Pond Park

These were relatively minor construction projects and we didn’t do a good job. Moreover, they were not contemporaneous so we could focus on each one separately. How on Earth will we manage major projects being conducted simultaneously?

If that isn’t scary enough, consider the fact that in addition to these capital improvement programs we have several staff intensive projects going on simultaneously –

• Transition to district elections
• Development of new mobile app
• General Plan revision

Any one of these projects is far beyond the normal scope of action. The City went 25 years without a new general plan. We’ve never developed a mobile app and we never went to districts. So not only are these major projects, they are projects for which we have very little prior experience.

A few weeks ago I argued that the General Plan update should be post-poned. My reasoning was that we had gone 25 years without one, and right now, with everything else we are doing, I didn’t see how we could add the General Plan without something else suffering. I lost the vote.

Then I argued that the remodeling of the neighborhood parks should be slowed down. My reasoning once more was that we had too much on our plate already, and few of these upgrades were absolutely necessary, even though desirable. In addition, in my opinion, staff didn’t do a good job in transcribing the wishes of the residents who attended the parks workshops, so the planning document needed to be revised before going forward. I lost again.

It seems like we are proceeding full throttle, despite the knowledge that we are doing more than ever, working on far more complicated projects, doing them simultaneously, and at higher costs. My colleagues seem happy proclaiming “We’re the King of the World” but I am worried about what happens in the next scene.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His twitter handle is @DrJimGardner. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be Thursday Feb 15 at 7 pm at the Beach and Tennis Club.