Judicial Rulings on Slow Growth
Superior Court Judge William F. McDonald’s actions overruling the public’s approval of San Juan Capistrano’s growth management Measure X after Judge John C. Woolley’s rejection of a similar San Clemente growth management measure are clear indications of an elitist judiciary. The remedy is clear, as we saw when the voters turned out California Supreme Court justices who would were out of touch with the public.
City planners and local public officials must be held accountable for messes they have created due to ambiguous and flaccid general plans that promote excessive development. Traffic congestion, air pollution, inadequate mass transportation, water shortages, ground-water contamination, toxic spills, hazardous sewage discharges, landfill hazards and shortages are the direct result of shortsighted planning and development decisions perpetuated by community development processes that are manipulated and influenced by developers.
The public should not be denied when it attempts, through lawful means, to take back control of community planning, development, and its destiny.
These two judges have defied the public in favor of monied interests. When the judiciary fails to serve the public, it should be replaced.
NEIL A. MOYER
Ventura
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