Planning That Ignores Needs

* Your June 7 editorial, “Directed Development,” reflects the unease and uncertainty many county residents feel concomitant with the upsurge in new development.

However, much of what residents are actually seeing, in terms of grading and building, is old news; development approvals protected by various laws and development agreements passed in the late 1980s.

Some suggest that these laws and agreements give developers a certainty in planning. True enough. But conversely, Specific Plans, which are intended to guarantee community integrity to current residents through the planning process, are routinely violated and ignored. This double standard protects developers, destroys communities and the environment, and threatens quality of life.

If one doubts, look to Trabuco Canyon and the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors approvals. Here, bordering the Cleveland National Forest, a $1.2-million, 91-meeting, five-year-long contentious battle resulted in the Foothill Trabuco Specific Plan.

And here, among the coastal sage scrub, endangered and threatened species, and extremely steep, fail-prone slopes that rise above flood-prone waterways, the county is poised to undo the only thing it ever did right by amending and destroying the most critical tenets of the Specific Plan against the will of a majority of the community and the recreational public.

Unlike previous generations of county decision-makers, frequently described as unquestionably anti-environmental, the current generation has added a new element.

They make no bones about their lack of commitment to community planning and good public policy. The public may pay their salaries, but wealthy, powerful developers still make their decisions.

SHERRY LEE MEDDICK

Silverado