Among a sea of community support, Council approves first phase plan for LOS OSOS project

Our household is very excited for this project to move forward! This will bring some much-needed vibrancy to Mission Viejo, and help boost all of our property values by making it a more desirable place to live. After 20+ years living here, we've been considering moving away, but the possibility of this project happening is giving us pause. Thank you to all who have worked on this project and championed it. We appreciate your efforts!

Can't wait for this project to be underway! That whole shopping area has needed a facelift for a loooong time! Can't wait to have a new place to hang out that is close to home! Normally we have to drive to Irvine, San Juan, or San Clemente for cool restaurants and hang out spots.

We have lived here 23 years now and I have never liked that there is no “downtown” area.
Hopefully this project will give us a bit of that downtown feeling.

We have moved into Mission Viejo twice in the last 30 years. Always have loved the community. However , think it is very clear that the shopping area we are discussing is 20 years past a major facelift . Agree with the comments that we go to San Juan , Irvine , Laugna etc . Will be nice to have a closer venue.

This headline for this press release is an insult to the vast majority of our community. The City neglects to acknowledge and respect the valid concerns and questions raised by members of the public as well as the property owners.

The City controls the narrative, censoring content, and at the final meeting, belatedly discloses the project costs after already manipulating many of the members of the public into accepting the pretty pictures and unrealistic scheme for the vision plan. The assistant city manager apologized to the audience because the numbers on the power point slide were unreadable. Why were they unreadable?

With a 5-0 vote, the council approved the Go Forward Plan without any evidence that the project will be successful. They did not want to explore why the 17 "selected" developers passed on this "opportunity". The developers did not see a way to achieve financial success.

The debt service appears to be greater that the return on investment. Budget cuts will be required to execute this improbable vision.

This whole multi-year process was geared to manipulate the public into an emotional response. And the council ignored ALL the red flags.

Additionally, the city attorney bitterly announced pending litigation. The property owners are filing a lawsuit to protect their private property rights. The City is openly violating the CC&R's and apparently has not been paying its association dues.

Oh yeah, that's a fabulous idea! Along with your monthly newsletter was received from Cox Communcations of a possible power outage this Sunday. Then another the end of October. We're running short of power for our citizens, but let's drain the coffers for more amenities so we can keep up with Joneses. We need that juice to power more fun stuff that we can use to show Irvine we can do it better. And we have a lot of money in our city from taxpayers. If we run out of funds we'll drive up the property taxes. Or a special assessment on the tax bill. What about the added traffic? That doesn't matter, right? We have terrific amenities we don't need. The inmates are running the asylum. And we the citizens will get used to it, right? The O'Neill family are spinning in their collective graves!

$68 million for a facelift? Why will people suddenly be flocking to these locations? Is the parking lot in front of Stein Mart where people will choose to relax with drinks? Whose pockets is the project lining? As someone who studied Architecture and Urban Planning, this crazy expensive project seems like it will never achieve the intended result, all at excessive expense.

I believe the central area of the City of Mission Viejo and the City writ large will be better for the ‘Los Osos’ project. However the success of this project begins with a successful unified resolution from all the commercial properties in the ‘Core Area’ (Core Area Vision Plan, page 10 ‘District Boundary’, Urban Land Institute, “Mission Viejo Village Center” Final Report, April 24th-25th 2007, page 7), i.e., those that take access from La Paz Road and/or Marguerite Parkway.
I believe it is the City's responsibility to lead in this which over the course of 20 years it has attempted to do only to be frustrated at every turn.
Further, success in the ‘Core Area’ requires not only a level of cooperation between the City and the commercial property owners within the ‘District Boundary’ but also an understanding of the implications of this project and support from the residential property owners adjacent to the boundaries of this project and the ripple effect further into the community.
To date it seems the City has been reactionary, i.e., ‘the monster, or the introduction of a ‘mixed-use zone’. The City has fed on the fear of the unknown from the adjacent residential community and has in the end created the exact problem they are now attempting to correct.
Utilizing the existing Planning Code, illustrate clearly a worst case (subjective to be certain but can be easily pivoted to show other worst case scenarios) for EACH property. Describe a building envelope in a cross section and a conceptual site plan. If it requires a pivot for a clearer analysis then pivot and stop hiding behind what is a mysterious text to most in the planning code.
I fault the aggressive tone the City has set with the commercial property owners however I also fault the commercial property owners with being unwilling to respond at any level with a community that has endlessly expressed a desire for something more than what is currently offered.
With the acquisition of the ‘Stein-Mart’ property the City evidently felt it was under an obligation to immediately proceed to a profit making or at least a break even arrangement with improvements to put it back in to the revenue producing stream.
I believe the City has done a commendable job in taking this opportunity to produce a conceptual deign package that takes this site way beyond the ‘building envelope’ suggested above. At this point the city needs to step back and patiently work with the commercial property owners to sign on.
As a ‘stand alone’ project in this southeast quadrant of the intersection of Marguerite Parkway and La Paz Road it will strike a dissonant chord with the train wreck that currently exists and add to the pile-up.
And finally, if there was any need to provide additional evidence of the inability of the City to understand the needs of this area, how did the structure that currently exists on the southeast corner come into being? This is an absolute failure by the City, the property owner, the developer, and the architect to responsibly integrate a structure into a local environment. This is the primary window into the Oso Creek corridor. It sits across the street from an iconic civic center.