Toll Road Extension

I have been reading recent articles regarding the Foothill South toll road extension and find it amazing that politicians equate development and urban sprawl with a booming economy and success.

One only needs to travel to Santa Barbara and see how a no-growth initiative with vast amount of open space for people and wildlife has caused none of the fiscal and economic maladies that our developers and their political and corporate allies claim occur without massive and explosive growth.

The Foothill South toll road is and will always be a poorly conceived idea. To destroy the very thing that brought people to South County, namely open space and a feeling of breathing room, would be a tragedy. The vast majority of South County residents want to limit growth.

This would increase property values, personal satisfaction and provide a place where people want to live and raise their children. Even if most of the public does not know about our fantastic ecological wonders, or may never venture out for a walk in the hills or meadows, the fact that they are there is an indication that we are not becoming another Los Angeles.

I, like many others, did not move here to find more city, businesses and growth. I came here to find open space and the opportunity to raise my children in a safe environment, relatively free of crime, pollution and the other trappings of “successful” urbanization. I also would like to preserve what little we have left to pass on to my children so that they will not have to be forced to find another less-developed community to raise their children.

God help us all if we allow permanent destruction of the last large open space in Orange County in the name of convenience and growth.

Dr. LEON J. BAGINSKI, Laguna Niguel