NoPlanning Commission Cancels Meeting

The first act of the new Planning Commission is to cancel their first meeting (tonight). Not only was the past Commission (in)famous for missing and cancelling meetings, they achieved a record number of appeals, overturned decisions, postponed actions, and questionable decisions. Now as the new Commission starts, with only one new member (Commissioner DeAlmeida), they begin with a cancellation. Very disappointing.

It’s not that the City of Lake Forest doesn’t have major planning issues in front of us. We could use a Planning Commission that worked their collective fingers to the bones trying to deal with the challenges that confront us. Let me list a few –

PUBLIC LAND USE

There are many amenities the City doesn’t have (e.g., dog park, community garden, indoor sport arena, skating rink, public swimming pool, etc.) and there are several parcels of land (11 acres at Normandale, 5 acres on El Toro near the RR tracks, 4+ acres at Whispering Hills, 2+ acres at Cavanaugh Park, etc.) where these amenities could be placed. Instead of coming up with a comprehensive plan for how to best use the land we have for the amenities we need/want, the City is proceeding in a piece meal attempt to fill in the blanks. The problem with this approach was all too apparent when the Whispering Hills workshop came to the part of the program in which amenities were to be assigned to the area, but without any indication of the placement of these amenities in other areas, the task was impossible. We need the Planning Commission to look at what we have and what we need and come up with some suggestions as how to proceed in a comprehensive manner.

PRIVATE LAND USE

The General Plan is now more than 2 decades old, and the current land usage looks very different from what was imagined when the City was first incorporated. Hence the number of General Plan amendments that are being proposed, usually by developers trying to increase their profits by changing commercial land into residential land. Though good for the developers, is this wise for the City? According to a recent report in the OC Register, Lake Forest has a poor record for improving sales tax revenue for the past decade, falling below the inflation rate and more than 20 cities in OC have a better record (e.g., Aliso Viejo, Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach, Irvine, Dana Point, RSM, Newport Beach, etc.). Can we afford to convert even more commercial land into residential?

Even more distressing, the forecasts for the growth in sales tax revenue for Lake Forest are half of those for surrounding cities and for the County as a whole.

Putting aside the economic considerations, is there enough water and electricity for future development, and if so, what kinds of development will have the least impact on these increasingly scant resources?

The Planning Commission needs to be looking at the General Plan and provide guidelines for future development. This may not require a complete re-doing of the General Plan (which would be expensive), but we should have some comprehensive plan for how we use the existing vacant private land.

LAKE FOREST 2050

It should be clear to anyone that we have just about exhausted all the vacant space in the City. Think about what the City looked like 50 years ago and compare it to now (See the pictures above). 50 years ago there was nothing but vacant space. Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills were mere grazing lands. Apart from a small commercial center around El Toro and the 5, there were no shopping centers in the City. The city had few homes, and none of the HOAs that now characterize the City were built, or even under construction.

If the City is to grow, there is only one way to grow – Up! But should the City grow at all? That’s a meaningful discussion that can begin at the Planning Commission, if indeed the Planning Commission did any “planning.”

TRAFFIC

Hmmm. There’s that word again. We all know that traffic congestion is poor and getting worse, but to date the City continues its piecemeal approach with no comprehensive look at the impact of more people, especially the 50% growth in population around the 241.

SUMMARY

Major planning issues confront the City. The Planning Commission should be proactive and begin tackling these issues. The piecemeal one-off approach which the City has been taking will not work as the vacant land disappears and our major resources (water, electricity) become more scarce. Cancelling meetings is unacceptable.

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 comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 2 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every moth. The next meeting will be Feb 14 from 2 to 4 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.