Dana Point General Plan Defended and Derided

As president of the Monarch Beach Civic Assn. (13 homeowner associations), I am instructed by our member representatives to express support for Dana Point’s new General Plan.

We urge that it be kept in force to assure the smooth continuity of city business, realizing that, in the future, amendments may be made that are consistent with changing times and community attitudes. To now delay its acceptance by putting its complexities up for voter approval would be disastrous--win or lose. It is the city’s responsibility to create the General Plan--not the electorate’s through the burdensome initiative process. That’s simply passing the buck.

This important guideline was not constructed in a vacuum. Quite the contrary. Hundreds of local citizens and study groups put it together over a 13-month period. In our judgment, it responds to Dana Point’s call for balanced growth--in fact, reduced growth, when key undeveloped areas are compared to what was in store for us before cityhood.

In the Headlands, for example, the city plan substantially reduces the density previously designated by those local citizens working under the county’s jurisdiction. Moreover, there is now an upgrading of usable open space, a park and another beach access.

In Monarch Beach, the city plan slashed previously approved densities for the remaining land in that area. Instead of an 1,100-room hotel, plus housing, we now have an OK for a 400-room hotel and 238 homes. That planning decision is clearly responsive to the true public will and is part of the new General Plan.

TOM CRUMP, Monarch Beach