Dana Point General Plan Defended and Derided

The current flap over the Dana Point General Plan is one that could and should have been avoided. This important document does have some very serious flaws that were brought to the attention of City Council members well in advance of their passage of the plan. They chose to approve the General Plan anyway, in spite of and with full knowledge of a growing opposition to this, the latest of their fiascoes.

There is no need to put the city on hold for an extended period of time while the council tries to correct the deficiencies in this document. This threat is a tactic being used by City Council members to scare their constituents and to try to keep the city’s bad children in line. So far this method seems to be working for them with some of our more gullible citizens.

Why can’t the City Council just address the problem areas of the General Plan and be done with it? Are they so out of touch that they cannot see the obvious solutions?

If the opposition to any further destination resort hotels is a serious objection, as it certainly is, why does the council insist on taking any more abuse of this issue? Let’s put it to a vote in the next election and be done with it. The council will be off the hook, and the majority will prevail. That will be the end of it.

If council members know that the redevelopment issue is despised by the voters, as it certainly is, and is perceived as a threat to our property rights, get rid of it. Take it out of the General Plan. Their redevelopment ambitions were almost their downfall and seriously hurt the council’s credibility in the community.

I find it very intriguing that the council is masochistic enough to constantly endure the wrath of the citizens by hanging on to these unpopular and divisive issues. They refuse to address and solve some obvious, simple problems without resorting to childish threats directed toward their own constituents.

FRANK LAMAR, Dana Point