Don’t Destroy Natural Habitats in Mission Viejo

Re “Ranch Project Will Get Public Review,” Dec. 6:

Thank you for doing an article on Supervisor Tom Wilson’s forum on the Rancho Mission Viejo project. However, the process has already started on the wrong path. As an attendee, I was very surprised and disappointed. I expected an acquisition strategy and not a sprawl strategy.

I went to the forum fully expecting our leaders to “think out of the box” and offer strategies for acquiring this land for a state or regional park. Our public officials are the most connected to Sacramento and Washington D.C. and we pay plenty of taxes here in Orange County. It is about time we start seeing some return and an investment in our future. What we got at the meeting was a massive development process plan--no science and no vision.

The Rancho Mission Viejo Co. area is a known global hot spot of threatened biological diversity. This area could become an excellent future park near a very urban area. We need to “backfill” our urban centers in Orange and Los Angeles counties and make them clean, safe, livable and affordable communities, and not destroy virgin areas that have world significance.

There is a huge opportunity to define the future of Orange County and make it the envy of the state and the nation. We should not be the twin sister of Los Angeles, with her smog, traffic, closed beaches and crime. That model did not work in L.A. Why repeat it?

Rancho Mission Viejo’s past projects have left us with polluted streams and impaired watersheds and huge tax burdens to clean them up.

Rancho Mission Viejo Co. has indicated it wants a lot of the remaining area to stay the same. If that is the case, why not become “willing sellers” and make it a park?

Paul Arms

Huntington Beach

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I appreciate Supervisor Tom Wilson’s efforts to provide more public input into the planning process for the future of Rancho Mission Viejo, one of the most rare biological resource areas on earth--also one of the most threatened.

Substantial public input was given at the recent Planning Commission meeting Dec. 5. Most spoke strongly on the importance of open space conservation, via the establishment of a nature reserve through the Natural Community Conservation Plan process or through acquisition. A recent survey commissioned by San Juan Capistrano independently confirms strong public support for the preservation of this open space.

It is clear that the public desire to preserve Rancho Mission Viejo as a state park or nature preserve needs to take precedence over any proposed development. The status of this land as a rare biological hot spot of global importance underscores the critical threat posed by development. The most valuable legacy of Rancho Mission Viejo will not be in the number of homes and golf courses they build, but in the wild places and open spaces they set aside for posterity.

Gail Prothero

San Juan Capistrano

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I read with pleasure about Irvine Co. Chairman Donald L. Bren’s gift of 11,000 acres of undeveloped land to the Nature Conservancy. These irrevocable conservation easements, which include land in Laguna Canyon and the Santa Ana Mountains, are in stark contrast to the greed-driven development plans that have eaten up Orange County’s beautiful open space.

Currently, Rancho Mission Viejo Co. is promoting its “Rancho Plan,” which will result in 14,000 new homes, along with 5 million square feet of commercial and retail space in an area of great biodiversity. If this plan proceeds, this land will be, sadly, lost forever.

As Bren was quoted in your article, “Open space is freedom.” Perhaps Bren could give Rancho Mission Viejo Co.’s Tony Moiso a phone call to enlighten him about the benefits of freedom for our society.

Sharon Stewart

Mission Viejo