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LETTERS to the EDITOR


Verdant Volunteer


Dear Editor: I was reading the article about Frank Estrada, the man who helps to clean up the Santiago Creek Trail and I wanted to give rec- ognition to another Orange area resident. John Strand, another octogenarian, has been planting trees along the trail for the past several years and also helps to maintain them. We are lucky to have such great volunteers in our community!


Lisa Litman Orange


Open up


Dear Editor: I am hoping the Foothills Sen-


try will have something to write about the Maple Springs trailhead closure in Silverado Canyon. The closure is supposed to be lifted at the end of September, but the forest service is already signaling that it will extend the closure for another year. The forest service response to my inquiry was that the closure might be extended be- cause of “safety concerns.” I have experience hiking in burn areas. There is nothing un- safe about it unless it is raining. Why can’t the forest service copy the practical policy of our county parks? They close the park en- trance when it rains, until the trails are dry. They don’t close


the park for years, like the forest service does.


The forest service also cites the need to let a burn area recover. How do people hiking and bik- ing on trails inhibit regrowth? We don’t want vegetation growing on the trail, right?


Furthermore, the forest service seems to give no consideration as to how important the forest is to the physical, mental and eco- nomic health of the community. A lot of people don’t like going to the gym or working out at home. Hiking or biking in the forest is the only kind of exercise they like. Every day the trailhead is closed is another day they don’t exercise. A bit of exercise could be enough to prevent heart dis- ease, high blood pressure and other common ailments, espe- cially for older residents. The trailhead closure also hurts local businesses, such as the Sil- verado Café and General Store. Things have been very slow for them this year. The trailhead brings in a lot of business for them.


Neal Lange Silverado


Water wise Dear Editor:


I plan to be at the Tustin Wa- ter Expo this Saturday wearing the following sign on my shirt. I wonder if the city will have the cops escort me out of the area.


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You can build and fill a new swimming pool but you can’t keep your land- scaping from dying. Is that fair?


W.T. Foster North Tustin


Foothills Sentry When praise is due


Dear Editor:


In this day and age, it’s a big deal when a government agency delivers on its promises. Unfor- tunately, it so seldom occurs that when an agency lives up to its word, it truly should be a cause for celebration.


Orange Park


Acres is celebrating the Irvine Ranch Water District for deliver- ing on the promises it made to our community.


In 2008, Orange Park Acres negotiated a consolidation of the Orange Park Acres Mutual Wa- ter Company and Irvine Ranch Water District. During our nego- tiations, IRWD promised to lower our water service costs, improve system reliability, fully integrate OPA into IRWD’s service area and create an advisory committee of OPAMWC Board Members to work in partnership with IRWD board members so that we could stay actively engaged in IRWD’s water service decisions for OPA. IRWD kept every promise. Immediately


our water rates


dropped by 20 percent. And those rates dropped again by 10-20 percent, depending on lot size, a full year and a half earlier than expected because IRWD was able to speed up our system’s integra- tion into the larger IRWD net- work. Our system reliability was restored--even our water pressure increased--and our community remains actively engaged with IRWD executive staff and elected board members. You know we in OPA are all neighbors, whether we live on the same street or a mile away. OPA has a unique and strong charac- ter that we intend on protecting. IRWD recognized and respected that character. While some ini- tially thought that being included in the IRWD service area would mean we might have to paint all our homes beige to match those in Irvine, nothing could have been further from the truth. We’ve re- tained our community’s character and independence while gaining a reliable, responsive, and less ex- pensive government partner. Those currently involved in the


Tuesday, October 6, 2015


Local Agency Formation Com- mission decision regarding trans- fer of Orange County Sanitation District’s Service Area 7 sewer service (Fate of local sewer sys- tem postponed, 9/1/15) would be well advised to look to the suc- cess of OPA’s consolidation with IRWD to inform their opinions. IRWD maintained local control for OPA over its water system, it kept its promise about reducing water service costs, and it had the experience to eliminate the uncer- tainty we were sick and tired of living with. OPA remains grateful for IR-


WD’s partnership with our neigh- borhood. Thank you, IRWD, for keeping your promises!


Tom Davidson Orange Park Acres


Indefinite definition


Dear Editor: There is no debate about whether or not the Marywood New Homes project is infill. It is completely surrounded by a well- established community.


That


is the definition of "infill." The Draft Environmental Impact Re- port states clearly, “The proposed project is an infill project.” The city attorney’s office acknowl- edges that the language used in the City of Orange infill design guidelines does NOT exclude this project.


But the Design Review Com- mittee Staff Report, dated July 15, states, “The project is not in- fill residential development.” The reason given upon inquiry is the infill guidelines apply to small


scale subdivisions of four lots or less.” And this is true. But there is no exclusionary language in the guidelines and expressly included is “new single-family residenc- es”. Plural. The infill guidelines clearly state that the design objective is to “Achieve infill development and streets that are sensitively designed to respect


existing


residential patterns and develop- ment, and reinforce the charac- ter and functional relationships of existing neighborhoods,” and that “Gated communities are dis- couraged within established pre- dominantly non-gated neighbor- hoods.” These statements are not only directed


at four houses. Four houses do not comprise streets— plural. And “gated communities” indicates something larger than four houses. The city’s infill guidelines are intended to protect neighborhoods like Marywood Hills from the insertion of a gated new tract that simply does not fit. By the selective application of guidelines, and by excluding our community from conformity standards, we all know would be met if 40 new homes were planned for Old Towne, the city and staff are selling us out to the will of the builder. According to the city attorney’s office, this “ex- clusion” allows the developer to create his own “specific plan” as if he were building in an undevel- oped area, and as if the citizens in the surrounding community of Marywood Hills do not exist.


Terrie Warner Orange


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982 N. Batavia # B13, Orange, CA 92867 gary@johnsonmotorcars.com


Dear Editor


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