LETTER TO THE EDITOR: El Toro Stadium Would Hurt Area Homeowners

Norman Abbod, a Lake Forest resident and chairman of the Ranchwood Homeowners Association, sent Lake Forest Patch the following letter to the editor:

Students at ETHS and their parents have no one to blame for the lack of a stadium except SVUSD (Saddleback Valley Unified School District). ETHS is a good school and can be proud of all of their sports teams, however, homeowners (like me) who live right next door to the High School will suffer the most if this onsite stadium is approved for these reasons.

• Parking is a bad joke as it is with some homes here in Ranchwood housing as many as 15 people and three or four cars parked in the street.

• Students now park in our neighborhoods, eat lunch in their cars and deposit their trash accordingly. How will this situation improve if 4,000 more people attend functions? Functions will be held YEAR ROUND, not just football season. The Woods neighborhood does not have sidewalks, so goodbye to plants, bushes and sprinklers.

• How would you like an 80 foot light beaming 50.0 footcandles into your bedroom or back yard?

• Bleachers along Serrano Street will totally block the view of neighbors along that street.

• Property values will decrease substantially. ETHS Principal Allan Mucerino compared Mission Viejo High School stadium property values to Lake Forest. The nearest home to the stadium at Mission Viejo High School is 100 yards. The stadium at Mission Viejo is below street level and backs up to US 5 Freeway. This comparison is ridiculous. There are no homes near the other seven stadiums in Orange County.

California ranks 49th in EDUCATION EXCELLENCE in our country. 49th! No one at ETHS or any other High School wants to be 49th (except #50). How about putting the funds to better use such that our kids are better educated and can get a job after graduation or qualify for a college education? What has happened to our priorities?

A stadium could have been built over ten years ago at NO COST, on off-site school property and funded by the ETHS Booster Club. The principal at that time refused the offer and sold the land to developers. NO STADIUM.

A stadium could have built offsite after MEASURE B passed a few years ago but the school board wanted to build it ONSITE, which is ILLEGAL and against the Measure, so again, NO STADIUM.