The Planning Commission Part 3 - Politics and Planning

The Planning Commission (PC) is losing one of its key members, Chairman Tim Hughes. That leaves the two Jerrys (Zeichmeister and Verplancke) who have a wealth of experience, and the two “new guys” (Andrew Hamilton and C J Brower) who share youth, enthusiasm, and a pro-business outlook. In the 2-2 status, the Council can tip the balance with their replacement.

Only a few months ago, experienced PC members Dave Carter and Terry Anderson were dismissed and replaced by the new guys. In Anderson’s case, the decision to remove him was blatantly political. Anderson had the bad taste to challenge the status quo and run for the Council, and the even worse taste to do well, coming in a very respectable third. Moreover he raised more than $30,000 which in past circumstances would have been a lot of money, but in the new world of politics in Lake Forest, was only a modest sum. Continued appointment on the PC would give him a platform to launch a challenge against Mayor Voigts in 2014, and clearly that wasn’t in the interests of the Voigts-Robinson-Nick troika, hereafter called “The Brookfield Boys”. So Anderson went down.

The case for Dave Carter was harder to understand. Carter was a 20 year veteran of the PC, and well-regarded by almost everyone. Moreover his work to bring a Boys and Girls Club to the City showed a dedication outside the PC. He too had run, unsuccessfully, for the Council, but that was so long ago even he has to think hard about when that was. Moreover, he had no plans for running in the future. So removing him had no immediate political impact, apart from removing an experienced and mature voice.

It’s apparent that an experienced and mature voice is sorely needed. I’m not as pessimistic as Commissioner Hughes is about the “new guys”. I think that with time they will benefit from their more experienced Commissioners and grow into their roles. But adding another pro-business, pro-development ideologue at this point will reduce the PC to a rubber stamp and harm the City for decades to come.

Unfortunately we have some City Council members who openly accept money from developers and vote them carte blanche to launch whatever hair-brained scheme they have in mind which will earn their company profits that they can share with the Council members. It’s disgraceful and it’s why we’re in the predicament we’re in. With both the Council and the PC in the pockets of the developers and business owners, the City is doomed to suffer a myriad of poorly thought-out projects that ultimately will litter the City with vacant storefronts and unhappy residents.

·  Gambling dens

·  Even more alcohol selling stores than a drunk can drive to

·  Housing developments with few child amenities located next to high traffic areas

·  Housing developments where overflow parking spills into the neighborhood

·  Libraries and post offices that are inaccessible when their parking lots fill up.

There needs to be some reasonable check on the mindless greed of developers, and putting out a sign that says “Lake Forest For Sale. Apply Here” is not a bright prospect for our City.

When both the Council and the Commission are in the hands of the developers and business owners, instead of the people, what can you expect? For one thing, you can expect every savvy business owner or developer to know that regardless of what the PC says, they can always get the second bite at the apple from the Council. Thus, 4 appeals in as many Council meetings is a new record and exceeds all the appeals every made in the history of the PC, not on a yearly basis, but on a total existence basis.

So, Brookfield appeals the PC’s decision which disallowed this project, and the Council said “Yes sir” and gave Brookfield their blessing. A gas station that wanted to start selling alcohol was rightly turned down by the PC since our city has one of the highest DUI arrests in Southern California, but did that stop the Council, one of whose members is a convicted drunk driver? “Yes sir” said the Council once again. “We’d love to have more alcohol in our City. It keeps the Police busy trying to arrest all the drunk drivers.” Indeed, another booze swilling store is contesting the PC’s decision again this week. Why? Because the last guy got through and in a city literally drowning in booze and DUI arrests, what’s one more little store?

The city is not only suffering the infusion of poorly planned homes and businesses that are harmful to our well-being, the cost in taxpayer money for all the double handling of these issues is noteworthy. City council meetings now routinely go past their regularly scheduled stopping time, and planning staff who appeared at the PC meetings must show up again at the Council meetings and go through the same presentations they made only weeks earlier. Those extra hours are time that can’t be spent on other issues, which means other things have to be ignored or budgets have to be increased, neither of which is an attractive solution.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at some of the candidates and the process itself.