Who’s Representing Whom in Developer Agreements?

Re Coto de Caza Development agreement:

On April 6, the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved a development agreement with Coto de Caza Development Co. that provides for the future development of over 4,000 houses and for $25 million in infrastructure bond financing to be retired by home buyers. I am personally opposed to the Coto de Caza development agreement and others like it.

Coto Development Co. has violated the existing specific plan in numerous ways, not the least of which is its closure of the Coto resort-conference center. Until there is compliance with the existing specific plan, approval of a development agreement tied to the plan is a sham.

Apparently the county planning staff is not equipped or willing to monitor developer compliance with specific plans in a manner that ensures the public interest. Since adequate monitoring procedures do not exist, this development agreement and others like it are ill-advised.

These development agreements diabolically aggravate the traffic problems that they are proposed to solve. The agreements provide little more than local roads directly necessary to construct major projects. The various agreements that have been approved add tens of thousands of new housing units and huge areas of commercial-industrial space. Adding the vehicle trips inevitably resulting from this development to the county’s already gridlocked freeways is sheer nonsense. The funding plans and routes for the San Joaquin, Eastern and Foothill toll roads are not in place. Until the funding plans and routes for these three freeways are in place, these developer agreements are sheer nonsense.

We need a comprehensive contract with developers that involves the entire county, that equitably generates fees from both residential and commercial-industrial projects, and that provides in a timely manner the roughly $900 million in fees needed to construct these freeways. With all due respect, we need elected officials that bring us traffic solutions that support county growth. What we are getting is too little, and roughly 10 years too late.

These developer agreements are an affront to the voting public. They are expressly designed as a loophole to the sensible-growth initiative. Because of the legal uncertainties, the bonds necessitated by these agreements will be very difficult, if not impossible, to sell. In the meantime, we watch certain county supervisors collect campaign contributions from developers and create these sweetheart, back-room deals with developers. Coto de Caza residents and our neighbors throughout Orange County deserve better.

RANDY T. SMITH

Coto de Caza