Identity Loss As Valley City

Mission Viejo will either become the City of Mission Viejo on Nov. 3 of this year, or in the unlikely possibility that the proposition fails on the ballot, it will eventually become a part of the larger Saddleback Valley City sometime in 1988.

Mission Viejo residents no longer have a choice of whether to be or not to be a city, but whether to be a Mission Viejo city or a Saddleback Valley city. This is my opinion based on strong, undeniable, current political winds in the valley.

Whether you favor a City of Mission Viejo or a Saddleback Valley City should depend largely on where you live, and on what you consider to be your own best interests. If I lived in El Toro or in Lake Forest, I believe I would naturally favor a larger Saddleback Valley City.

I would consider it to be in my own best interests to merge with the planned community of Mission Viejo, to be able to benefit from its anticipated excess of revenues over costs and to enjoy its beautiful parks and recreation programs such as the Nadadores.

As a proud resident of Mission Viejo, I believe that in every conceivable way, it will be in my own best interests to become a City of Mission Viejo rather than become lost in the larger Saddleback Valley City. Mission Viejo is large enough to have its own city. Our independent, professional feasibility study showed that cityhood for Mission Viejo is “eminently feasible.”

Cityhood would prevent our community from being “swallowed up” by the much larger Saddleback Valley community encompassing El Toro, Lake Forest and parts of Laguna Hills. We would be able to elect our own officials and have much greater input into our own government. In short, we could have true “home rule” only when we become the City of Mission Viejo.

When the City of Mission Viejo is approved by the voters, as expected, on Nov. 3, I hope that the other Saddleback Valley communities will go full speed ahead to form a Saddleback Valley City. Working together on common issues, as friendly neighboring cities in the valley, we shall be a great team.

GEORGE S. DU BATO

Mission Viejo