Politics & Government

Make Lake Forest More Like Newport Beach? Workshop Grapples with City's Vision

Questions of identity, amenities and traffic came up during the 5-year strategic planning meeting held by city leaders Tuesday night.

Mega brands such as Oakley, the Wet Seal and Sole Technology call Lake Forest their home. But Planning Commissioner Terry Anderson wants to entice more of their employees to do the same.

"Some of these people at this big companies—how many live in our community versus Newport Coast and Laguna Beach and places like that?" Anderson asked during the five-year strategic planning workshop for the city held Tuesday night. "We might be missing an opportunity there to keep those people here. If we could have better-quality shops and better restaurants for that group of people in our community, it will support everyone else."

The notion of trying to attract high-end development to Lake Forest was merely one among many floated at the workshop, a joint meeting of the City Council, Planning Commission and the Parks and Recreation Commission. The workshop has been held every two years since 1999 to provide input on the city's five-year strategic plan.

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Traffic improvements, the role of city commissions, the prospect of adding a dog park and the need to entice new business to town were all topics up for discussion between commissioners and council members. Their comments will be evaluated by the staff and incorporated into a draft five-year strategic plan to be reviewed by the City Council in May. The plan helps staffers and elected officials set budgeting and programming priorities for the coming years.

Throughout the public conversation, questions about Lake Forest's identity recurred.

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"What is Lake Forest?" said James Rosenberg, a Parks and Recreation commissioner. "Commissioner Anderson said kind of a middle-class city, a resident spot. Well, so is Stanton. I don't think anyone in this room ranks Stanton as equal to us."

He said that the city's amenities needed to be marketed better.

"Lake Forest is and can be a destination, either for living or social events," he said. "You come in town and you stay in town, as opposed to going to Laguna Beach."

Rosenberg, Anderson and others pointed out that the planned 4,800 new houses expected to be built  could play a role in sprucing up the town's image. Others noted that the older parts of the city should be maintained and renovated to prevent blight.

"If we allow [neighborhoods] to deteriorate, it's no one's fault but ours if it looks like L.A. or Santa Ana," said Councilwoman Kathryn McCullough.

On the business front, Planning Commissioner Jerry Verplancke stressed that competition would get fiercer to attract new companies to town.

"This is a very business-friendly community, but a lot of times we're overlooking that our little city backs up to Riverside County," he said. "Riverside County has been more adversely affected by the economic downturn than we have. They will be hungry to attract businesses to their side of the county line as well. So we want to be very, very cautious that we don't lose any of our businesses to an aggressive county that would poach people with subsidies."

Many attendees praised the way Lake Forest has improved traffic conditions in town but pointed out that there are problem areas and congestion. Parks and Recreation Commissioner Amanda Morrell said she had noticed an inordinate number of accidents lately in the area of El Toro Road and Trabuco Road. McCullough noted that the Rockfield Boulevard shopping center intersections on both sides of El Toro Road were confusing to motorists and pedestrians.

Cars from out of town cause most of the roadway problems, many agreed.

"There's no question that pass-through traffic is the main driver of our congestion," Mayor Peter Herzog said. "The 78,000 people who live here do not cause most of the congestion on our roads."

McCullough echoed that idea.

"The local yokels are always going to look for the shortcuts," she said. "Stop and shop if you're going to cut through our city!"


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