Citizens Prefer to Do Planning

* Re “Leave Urban Planning for Professionals,” June 11, Orange County Voices by professor Gideon Kanner and attorney Michael Berger:

I read with great interest the essay by Kanner and Berger, who each practice in Los Angeles.

In our democratic system, the people grant the power to the government to enact laws. If the people disagree with the laws, the people have the power to change the laws. All over the country, the people are deciding, correctly, that the land-use system is broken, not responsive to the will of the people, and disrespectful of the people’s right to a healthy environment surrounding their homes.

The land-use system does employ many professionals, who I am sure are well-meaning public servants. However, having lived in Orange County most of my life, in North County and South County, I have witnessed the impact of big-money special interests, specifically real estate developers, who impose their will on the people by employing high-priced lobbyists, land-use lawyers and public relations consultants. With all due respect to the professor, the land-use system is broken, and the people have every right in the world to fix it.

Kanner condescendingly refers to the people as “rank amateurs” unworthy to decide what is best for them. Yet, he concedes, “There is no one sacred way to control land uses.”

Expansion of John Wayne Airport is a terrible idea and would be bad for the whole county. Likewise, establishing an international airport in the heart of South County would be a disaster for all of Orange County. Our economy here in Orange County thrives, in no small part, because the healthy and peaceful lifestyle now available attracts the work force necessary to drive the high-tech industry. Fouling our community with noxious land uses could drive away the new economy, rob our community of high-paying jobs, devastate affected homeowners and benefit only the special interests that can afford to manipulate the land-use process.

When I was in law school, I had the great fortune to study real property law under Kanner. He taught us that all citizens have the right to peace and quiet enjoyment in their homes. The people in Orange County have spoken; they want their rights back from the special interests.

MARK W. YOCCA

Irvine

* So we should leave urban planning to the professionals? Would these be the same professionals who’ve brought us 40 years of uninterrupted suburban sprawl, toll roads, the El Toro debacle and runoff-contaminated beaches?

Until there’s profit in representing the true public welfare in land-use planning, professionals will continue to perpetuate the bulldozing and paving of America. And we rank amateurs will be forced to get involved.

Or should the patriots at the Boston Tea Party have left tax planning to the professionals in England?

SHERRY MARRINER

Santa Ana

* It was charming to read Kanner and Berger’s cute acronyms to deride us “quaint” community activists who dare to assert quality-of-life issues in the urban-planning process.

We could certainly reply in kind regarding the reasons we have found it necessary to challenge the wisdom of the “professionals”: GIMP (Gross Incompetence in Municipal Planning), as in projects ranging from the under-patronized Orange County toll roads to the toxic Belmont Learning Center; BUTAs (Bureaucrats Unaccountable to Anyone); and DOPs (Developer-Owned Politicians), who view us homeowners as mere eggs to be broken so their masters can eat omelets.

Where were Kanner and Berger when the land-use process was hijacked by the developer-sponsored ballot-box planning of an El Toro airport in 1994? Where was their outrage which they did not direct at the sponsors of Measure F? Is it possible Kanner and Berger are merely the latest front men for the PIGFY (Pollution Is Good For You) establishment?

RICHARD H. GREENGOLD

Laguna Hills

* Kanner and Berger made only one mistake in preparing their column regarding self-serving political entities and the El Toro conversion: They should have written it in the form of a letter addressed to the Irvine City Council with a special copy marked “Urgent,” for Larry Agran.

ZANE W. DE ARAKAL

Irvine