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Mission Viejo Measure D
OCTax Position: OPPOSE
Measure D would require additional hearings, City Council review, and/or a city-wide vote before the City could change its General Plan, zoning ordinances, zoning map, plans and development agreements (collectively called “Planning Policy Documents”) to:
• Increase the allowable number of residential units on residentially zoned land;
• Increase the number of parcels allowable on a subdivision of land;
• Change residential land use to any other use;
• Change non-residential to residential land with a density over 6.5 units per acre;
• Change non-residential land to allow a mix of commercial and residential uses;
• Provide for private development of government-owned land;
• Repeal any of the Planning Policy Documents;
• Change commercial or industrial land to other uses if the area is changed by two acres;
• Change open space land to allow any other land use; or
• Change any recreation land to allow any land use except open space.
Fiscal impact: increased costs to applicants because of more stringent noticing requirements and the expense of conducting citywide elections.
OCTax Analysis: Measure D is the latest of many attacks on private property rights dating back to the adoption of the Fifth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution in 1791. It would invoke what Lord Acton called “the tyranny of the majority” to enable voters to veto any land use amendment that the people’s own elected representatives might find beneficial to the community or to a property owner. Measure D would be mob rule by plebiscite: smugly gratifying to no-growth voters in the anonymity of voting booths, but seriously harmful to property owners who seek land use amendments.
Mission Viejo’s motto is “Make living your mission.” It has been a successful motto, and a successful city, in part because residents and their elected officials have enjoyed reasonable discretion in their uses of property. The mission would be thwarted, and the city less job-friendly and prosperous, if a majority of voters were empowered to deny such discretion to their neighbors. Cities that have adopted ordinances similar to Measure D have found that they can stop development, but they can’t stop population growth within the city. Even existing residents of Mission Viejo have babies.
