Open Space Opportunity at Rancho Mission Viejo

Re “”Growth No Longer a Given,”” Aug. 5 editorial:

The Rancho Mission Viejo Co. has barged ahead in its development scheme, as most developers do, without taking into account public interest.

Presumably this development is to be under the Natural Community Conservation Planning (NCCP) process, but under this process the county, the concerned environmental organizations and the public are to be involved in a development from the beginning. Instead, we are told that 14,000 homes will be built.

Next, I suppose, we will be told where they are to be built. Land use is supposed to be a public process from the beginning. Several years ago the company was involved in the initial steps of the NCCP process, but it backed out. Why? To do it without public input?

This 25,000 acres is the last large amount of open space left in sSSouth Orange County. Parts of the once huge Rancho Mission Viejo Co. property have, of course, been sold off over the years with little county planning or public participation and at what should have been a considerable profit.

In the past the O’Neills have made some fine contributions to open space--O’Neill Regional Park, for instance.

I hope they will prevail and ensure a lasting legacy for both the family and for the historic cattle ranch heritage of Orange County by setting aside as permanent open space at least all of the land in the “ “southeast quadrant,”” that isi.e., all the land east of a line between Caspers Park and the Rancho Mission Viejo Land Conservancy.

Paul Carlton

San Clemente

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I have read with great interest about the potential land use for Rancho Mission Viejo.

As a South County resident for more thanover 35 years, I fully recognize that growth is inevitable, but planned, managed growth isn’t always followed.

I appreciate the O’Neill and Moiso families’ efforts to make sure there will be good, planned and managed growth that will balance the need for housing with our need for open space and preservation.

It is unfair to ask for nothing to be done with the Rancho Mission Viejo’s 25,000 acres but completely fair to ask that they achieve a balanced plan.

Rancho Mission Viejo and the O’Neill and Moiso families have given the wonderful gift of land to all of us--9,000 acres over the past decades. They plan to provide 14,000 more acres of open -space with their latest announcement. That’s more thant fair as well as generous when you consider property values in south Orange County. I, for one, look forward to hearing more in the years to come.

Charles Thorndike

Laguna Niguel