Mailbag - Dec. 9, 2001

Code enforcement officers overstepping their bounds

Regarding the Sept. 4 article on Dave Morley and the code enforcement

officers, I think Morley should be completely exempt given the way your

article was written -- that house has been that way for 50 years

(“Resident trying to save his bedroom”).

I think the fact that he’s being harassed is a violation of him as a

citizen of this city. In addition, I think the code enforcement officers

are completely out of hand. I don’t know if this was initiated by the

city.

I consider it a waste of the taxpayers’ dollars and an invasion of the

residents’ rights as residents of Costa Mesa. I don’t think the city has

any right coming onto our property and dictating what should and should

not be fixed unless it’s serious safety or health violations.

In addition, I think that enforcement officers should be abolished

unless there are cases where there are violations -- safety and health

violations. I think they’re out of hand. They’re out of hand to the point

where I was landscaping my yard last year; the landscaping required a

mass of dirt to accumulate in my driveway, which I had no intention of

leaving there for any length of time. Before I could even make

arrangements to have the pile of dirt removed, I was cited. That’s just

one example of this being completely out of hand as in Morley’s case.

PAUL FERNANDEZ

Costa Mesa

Koll developers proved too deceptive

Paul James Baldwin wrote a column in the Daily Pilot about how he is

tired of people complaining about John Wayne and El Toro airports and

tired of no-growthers blocking progress (“Koll expansion can be more

citizen friendly,” Nov. 15). I am sorry he is so tired, but so are a lot

of others. A lot of effort went into developing the Greenlight

initiative, and I bet those folks are awfully tired, too.

Now the Koll developers felt the need to cash in by building more

office space and parking garages at that intersection, which would have

increased the traffic. They were asking to build out to the maximum and

destroy the ambience of the former Irvine Co.’s open-space business

development philosophy.

It is Baldwin’s opinion that housing was built in the wrong place and

not built with the total picture of what is right for the community. I

disagree. People looking for housing were not aware of any problems of

living near the confluence of Jamboree Road, MacArthur Boulevard and

Bristol Street. They needed a place to live, and just maybe they were

looking for a home near their offices. John Wayne Airport was never

intended to be a long-haul airport, but look at it now. And look at the

beautiful homes under it that were built when the airport was still so

small and noninvasive.

Baldwin states that Koll magnanimously would have contributed $3

million toward the traffic improvement. That is only a drop in the bucket

of the amount that would have been needed, and the $60,000 toward a new

fire station wasn’t any better. Now, $28,000 a year in the coffers of the

city doesn’t add up to much of anything and wouldn’t even pay the salary

of one additional employee.

Frankly, I was on the fence for a while, but thank goodness I have now

“seen the light.” Dirty politics is dirty politics and they especially

don’t belong here at the local level. I was absolutely appalled at the

Corona del Mar residents’ Nov. 6 meeting at the Oasis. I was already

disgusted by the deceptive name used by the Koll consultants who wanted

to help make the expansion a reality but couldn’t believe my eyes when I

saw their political placards so very, very similar in design and color.

The difference in the signs was so minimal and so deceptive, it was

impossible to know how to vote, unless you took the time to study the

campaign rhetoric.

The Greenlight Implementation Committee had signs in green and white

that said “Support Greenlight Vote Yes on G.” How dirty can you be? A yes

vote on G definitely is a vote for the Koll project. The Greenlight

placards were also green and white, and they urged residents to vote “No”

on G. My vote was a “No” in support of Greenlight -- the real one.

JANE LYONS

Corona del Mar