Tuesday, September 1, 2015


LETTERS to the EDITOR


Rebate and switch


Dear Editor: I received a flyer with my Tu-


stin water bill telling me about rebates on sprinkler controllers and sensors. It states up to $380 rebates. This is wrong; the rebates are a maximum of $300. In con- versation with Julie at TWD, they did not prepare the flyer, so they don’t care that it has erroneous information on it.


T. Foster North Tustin


Hill street blues


Dear Editor: There is a small hill sitting on


a big hill near Meats and San- tiago Boulevard in Orange, and it’s about to be torn down. The destruction of the small hill is im- portant because of what it leaves naked. The hill stands above a city


water tank, just like two tanks on the opposite side of the proposed Marywood development. Those two tanks are already endangered by slope slippage from past mis- takes, and part of the new project includes reinforcing that piece of slope with retaining walls. But for some reason, the stabil-


ity of the slope planned above the third tank is being ignored, no re- taining walls. Seems like water is a big deal these days. Why is this third water tank not important? I think it hasn’t had a problem


yet because the small hill has pro- tected it. I think the small hill is an original, stable piece of the natural land in this area. And tearing it down without installing retaining walls just makes it like- ly that the new slopes will cause


the next set of problems. The dirt will be pushed over


to create more flat building pads and level streets. There are about a dozen houses along the top (north) edge of the property line, some above the hill that’s about to be moved, some below it. If pools and patios and foundations start to crack because of all the demolition and re-grading, then MYproperty value will ALSO be damaged, and everyone else’s in these hills, too. At a meeting of the Orange


City Design Review Committee on Aug. 19, one of my neighbors stood at a podium and said that he would like the city to have its own engineer, or a third-party soils engineer, take a hard look at the “slope moving” part of the project to protect the people who already live there. His request was ignored. When people rush, they make mistakes. In this case, mistakes may cause property damage and lawsuits. I hope the City of Or- ange will slow down and take a harder look at what this project does to our community. No one in Marywood Hills is


trying to block this. But we live here, and have a right to be in- volved in making this project fit without damaging our homes, our neighborhood “character,” our lifestyle. We have a right to pro- tect ourselves from a developer whose primary concern is taking a profit and leaving as fast as pos- sible. We have legitimate concerns


about overburdening area road- ways with the traffic of 400 new “car trips” per day, and about potential slope degradation and damage to our homes. We have a right to have our


Foothills Sentry


concerns heard, and documents we present considered for more than three minutes before our concerns are “dismissed” and ap- provals are granted to the builder. We have a right to object to the city granting non-conforming housing density, municipal code variances, and overbuilding, which, once it exists, can’t be re- versed.


Don Vinson Orange


Dear Editor: We’re all brought up to believe


“the law is the law.” But what if a legal document is titled “guide- lines”? Doesn’t that mean the au- thors anticipated circumstances that might not fit precisely? And wouldn’t they have expected that, when that happens, “com- mon sense” should prevail? We would all hope so. Especially if families’ homes and lifestyles are at risk. I live in Marywood Hills, a


quiet corner of Orange tucked between Anaheim and Villa Park. My community has never before needed to defend itself from en- croachment. But today, a developer called


the New Home Company is on the brink of getting a “free pass” from the city to build whatever it wants, right in the heart of our community of over 1,000 homes. My neighbors and I feel dev-


astated and disrespected, because our neighborhood of semi-rural ranch homes is about to be subju- gated to the insertion of 40 “Mc- Mansions,” packed on lots so nar- row they require a code variance to make them fit, and “privacy gated” to keep us from intruding on neighbors who don’t exist yet. We aren’t afraid of our neighbors. Why is the developer making our new neighbors think they should fear us? In 2004, the City of Orange


created and adopted a document called “Infill Residential Design Guidelines.” It would require the


new tract to fit in with our exist- ing homes. But a city staff report states, without explanation, that “Infill guidelines do not apply.” The first city committee to


review the project accepted the “guidelines do not apply” state- ment without earnest inquiry or consideration of the objec- tions of residents. So, it’s carte blanche to the builder, unless we can reinstate common sense to the city’s application of the guidelines. Over the past 50 years, this area


was built up as sprawling ranch- style homes on big lots with curb widths about 20-40 percent great- er than the New Home Company proposes. We enjoy a surprising amount of wildlife here, rabbits and coyotes, and a wide variety of birds and other creatures. My neighbors walk everywhere with dogs and strollers and kids, greet each other with smiles and warm “hellos.” I have never felt more at home anywhere than here. I recently visited an Irvine de- velopment by the New Home Company, similar to what is planned for my neighborhood. It did NOT feel like home. It felt hostile and claustro-


phobic, masses of tall walls with impossibly tiny walkways between them, no place for any wild creatures or even blue skies. My neighbors and I don’t want that lifestyle, that type of home. That’s why we live HERE, and not in Irvine. The city “Infill Residential De-


sign Guidelines” state, “Compat- ibility of new development with existing neighborhoods and land- forms is important to the com- munity for multiple reasons. A positive, cohesive image or iden- tity contributes to property val- ues and a sense of neighborhood pride and community among residents.” I agree with the city guidelines. We have these values in Marywood Hills, and they are precious. So why is the city threatening to take them away?


Terrie Warner Orange


Beg to differ


Dear Editor: Andie King’s report on the July


Villa Park City Council meet- ing was more an editorial than a report. Her article declares the meeting was “divisive,” “kind- ness drowned out by sniping and derogatory comments.” What comments were divisive? De- rogatory?


Councilman Bill Nelson did


ask for clarification several times on Doug Bender’s points regard- ing the VPCSF. Is asking for clarification “divisive”? In the end, Councilman Bob Collacott suggested that the council was not ready to make a decision. Af- ter a 2 to 2 vote, no action was taken. [Greg Mills abstained.] King next covered the on-


going saga of parking by permit only on Featherhill Drive and Dodson Way. Of course, the residents and Kathy Moffat were tense, frustrated. They have gone through four votes on this issue in 11 months. Has any other issue before the city council received so many votes? I didn’t hear any derogatory comments during the discussion, just residents urging the council to maintain parking by permit only on Featherhill and Dodson. I gave a presentation consisting


of photos of 15 other Villa Park streets that have some version of parking by permit only. I did mention that Mayor Diane Fas- cenelli’s home is 144 feet from Fernando Drive, which is posted “Parking by Permit Only.” However, I also agreed with


Mayor Fascenelli’s vote for that restriction since it protected the street from being used for non- residential parking. It paints a negative impression


of the city of Villa Park, without details. Please, let’s stop all the discussion of “ugliness out of control.” It’s not productive. In- stead, let’s work together to get a solution to the unsafe traffic on Serrano Avenue.


Mary Beth Felcyn Villa Park


Page 7


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