Developers--and Their Money--Rule

* It was not surprising that the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved the massive Ladera development Oct. 17. The supervisors are puppets of the development industry. Fully 40% to 45% of their election campaign funds come from companies and individuals related to development.

County taxpayers, once build-out is completed, will have to shell out more than $366,000 per year above [money] generated by residents for services for this boondoggle. In addition, how do the residents of Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita benefit from the increased traffic at the [more than] 75 intersections affected by Ladera, or the garbage trucks that will roll through their neighborhoods to get to Antonio Parkway once every minute and a half?

To me, Ladera is a classic example of what is wrong with our government. We have let special interests, via their campaign contributions, undermine the right of citizens to a decent quality of life. We have auctions, not elections. Both California Common Cause and the California Public Interest Research Group are in the process of writing ballot initiatives to reform the campaign financing process. I urge all citizens who care about good government to seriously consider voting for one of these initiatives when they appear on the ballot.

HARLO LENNING

Fullerton

* Well, there they go again. The Board of Supervisors, led by Marian Bergeson, approved one of the biggest developments in the last 20 years for the Santa Margarita Co. Now watch the value of your house continue to dive as these 8,100 tract homes get built in a wilderness area east of Mission Viejo. Watch as 50,000 new vehicles join the freeway each morning, then watch your tax money go to work to build a six-lane extension of Antonio Parkway to help the big developer.

Who cares that the county is almost $2 billion in debt! The Republicans in county government can always find tax money to subsidize big developers for new road building, police, fire, schools and other county services. Bergeson and her pals have never met a developer or a new development they didn’t like.

Would anyone be surprised if she or any other supervisors get nice jobs with the Santa Margarita Co. or the Mission Viejo Co. when they leave county government? This one-party government we have stinks.

PHILLIP WEISSBURG

San Juan Capistrano

* William Fulton’s article (“Orange County’s Developers Face a Scary Future--Less Clout,” Oct. 1) makes some excellent points in regard to cities’ desiring--and deserving--more power over the county’s land development process.

But in his attempt to explain the needed stunting of county power over some processes, he rushes to judgment about the proposal to annex or incorporate unincorporated areas. Here, Fulton invokes the paternalistic and exclusionary mistake of Supervisor Marian Bergeson: Residents of unincorporated county areas haven’t even been asked what we think, what we want.

Since nobody asked, I give you this unincorporated resident’s opinion: No! No! No!

When the city of Orange was considering the East Orange General Plan amendment in the late ‘80s, allowing for millions of square feet of commercial development and thousands and thousands of homes right up to the unincorporated Silverado-Modjeska Specific Plan border, neither the city, the Irvine Co. nor the county [cared] about our concerns. We attended every public meeting and every hearing and submitted lengthy comments, both written and oral. Some good citizens of Orange did hear our pleas, and while their attempt to put this overzealous land grab on the ballot failed, many of us greatly appreciated their help, hard work and support.

What became increasingly clear was that the Irvine Co. had the city in its back pocket--not different at all from the complaint that they similarly “own” the county.

So the next time you politicians and intellectuals feel like you are in the mood to decide our future without us, I suggest you remain silent until you exercise the common decency of asking the affected what they think and involve them in the process. Stop treating us like we are invisible!

SHERRY LEE MEDDICK

Silverado