The Brookfield Boys Strike Again

Last night the Brookfield Boys (Voigts, Robinson, and Nick) re-united to once more strike a blow at the quality of life in Lake Forest. Last year they conspired to give Brookfield Homes the go-ahead on a project that was universally disliked by the public, the City staff, and the Planning Commission. But buckets of cash from Brookfield were the deciding factor, and thus Brookfield got permission to build 147 homes in the tiny space vacated by an auto dealer in Foothill Ranch. As a bonus for their generosity, Brookfield Homes was given a special privilege for the children of the people who move into this project, a fact frequently denied by Scott Voigts despite the evidence to the contrary.

But the Brookfield Homes people made some mistakes along the way, and twice now they have come back to the Council to ask for more leniency. Last time it was to build bigger walls. This time it was to build shorter garages. “Why would they go to the Council?”, you’re thinking. Surely these changes should be presented to the Planning Commission? Yet on both occasions Brookfield used their influence to have the issue skip the PC and go directly to the Council, because through their money, Brookfield has more power over the votes in the Council.

Their latest request, to shorten the length of the tandem garages from 40’ to as little as 38’4”, clearly will make the tandem garages uninhabitable for the families who move in there. The plain fact is that when you combine a 95 gallon garbage bin with 2 cars (at last one of which is an SUV), and then leave some space between the cars, and in front of the garbage, you need 39+ feet to squeeze in everything. Even Voigts’ own pathetic attempt to justify shortening the garages came up with a minimum of 39 feet.

What will this mean? It means that as many as 47 tandem garages designed to fit 2 cars will now only be long enough to fit one car. That moves up to 47 cars out into the rest of the project where there is no room for more cars. That means they will have to overflow into the surrounding neighborhood.

Once more, the greed of politicians to get themselves elected means they will sell their souls to rich developers and disregard the impact on the people who live here. The Brookfield project should have never been approved, but it was. The walls should never have been raised, but they were. The garages should never be shortened, but they will be.

Ironically, the decision last night comes just before Voigt’s fund raiser today, so Voigts delivered the votes in time for Brookfield to deliver a big check this afternoon. Just to hedge his bets, in case his fellow Brookfield Boys developed a conscience, Voigts has been masquerading as “Mayor of Lake Forest” in his fund raising literature. His BFF and fellow Brookfield Boy is actually the Mayor, but that doesn’t stop Voigts from using the term to solicit money. And just as filling their pockets with campaign contributions from thankful developers is not considered a bribe or a payoff in the world of politics, apparently impersonating the Mayor is not a crime either.

Voigts has brought a level of sleaziness and corruption to the City never seen before. He appoints his friends and campaign workers to important Commission positions even when they are not qualified. He accepts money from people doing business with the City and then votes to give them contracts. His list of lies and distortions of the truth is so long I had to devote an entire series to them.

Only one of the Brookfield Boys is up for re-election this year – Voigts. Tomorrow we’ll go into more detail about his conduct while in office.