Affordable housing solution for Mission Viejo..convert our city owned parks?

No, I have not been drinking too much Kool Aid today.
With threats of litigation due to our shortage of (94) affordable housing units in Mission Viejo I thought it might be the season for out-of-the-box crazy ideas starting with the following.

We possibly have more parks in Mission Viejo than any other Orange County city. What we lack is new development. Mission Viejo has been built out for several years. We recently changed zoning of our last two vacant parcels of commercially zoned land to residential to meet part of our obligation to meet some bureacrat’s wish list for affordable housing.

So my plan, that will make everyone in my city mad, is to convert one or more of our 52 parks to meet this “alleged” obligation. In looking at a map of our city parks I am proposing the following which are city owned thereby avoiding the need to remove any commercial buildings or engage in “eminent domain” takings.

Construct affordable housing units at passive Barbadanes Park, Bart Spendlove Park, Pinecrest Park and/or Sycamore Park,
none of which are among the more utilized parks by our many youth sports programs.
Let’s see where the rubber meets the road and have our city council and planning commission chew on this off-the-wall concept. “Me thinks” our population is growing older and perhaps the need for 52 parks, which require maintenenace, are excessive in light of the pending cloud of litigation.

I anticipate some interesting responses to this post.


About Larry Gilbert