Mission Viejo residents can get a glimpse into their potential future from an LA Times article about a mixed-use development in Fullerton. It is similar to the City of Mission Viejo’s vision for the shopping centers at LaPaz and Marguerite, and perhaps outlying centers as well. Mixing high-density residential and retail works in LA, but it’s a bad fit in the suburbs.
Residents, shopkeepers and surrounding neighbors are unhappy at Fullerton’s SoCal Walk, according to an LA Times story, Fullerton Residents See Downside of Downtown.
The City of Mission Viejo calls mixed-use a “revitalization” of La Paz and Marguerite. Sounds innocent enough, but it really means developers leveling existing businesses serving everyday family needs. Replacing them will be three stories of apartments stacked on top of trendy stores, bars and eateries catering to a younger urban population that will feel just as out of place here as their Fullerton soul mates do there.
The scheme is formally called “social engineering,” or high-density urban clusters in low-density family communities. It was introduced in Mission Viejo by Councilman Frank Ury’s former planning commission appointee and is now embraced by the city council and staff. It’s likely only the housing crash has held off the bulldozers, and only a change on the city council will stop the eventual demise.
Fullerton and Mission had gone urban on other fronts as well, with similar unhappy results. Recent newspaper stories pointed to policing and related problems at Fullerton’s nearby redevelopment that preserved old buildings but turned its downtown into the French Quarter of Orange County.
At one point the Fullerton City Council considered requiring restaurants with bars to clean up their patrons’ vomit, urine and trash from the sidewalks just like the nightclubs are required to do. Mission Viejo has encountered enforcement and littering problems mostly with pre-teens and teens at the Kaliedoscope urban entertainment center, but at least one of its restaurants had asked for a 2 am license to lure young adults.
Is the glimpse in the Times article what we want for Misson Viejo?
Allan Pilger
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for alerting residents to the reality of rezoning fiascos. Mixed-use projects (such as apartments on top of stores) have no place in this city. Apartment dwellers aren’t a protected class.
Ury’s appointed planning commissioner once talked about creating a downtown atmosphere with nightlife at La Paz and Marguerite. The reality that M.V. is a family-oriented bedroom community didn’t faze her.
Mission Viejo doesn’t need more people or traffic, and Newhart Middle School doesn’t need more students.
The repulsive mixed-use proposal, like the cell-tower lease sell-off, was voted down 5-0 after vociferous support by several council members who read political tea leaves. Both projects, along with high-density housing on the Casta Del Sol Golf Course, are merely in holding patterns until after the election.
If the Ury-Atkinson slate is elected in November, look for all three to resurface before the council.