Editor,
The Orange County Superior Court’s order tossing the Laguna Terrace controversy to the California Coastal Commission should not escape close scrutiny (“Laguna Terrace Subdivision Thwarted,” July 15).
Free people have a fundamental right to own and enjoy private property without interference. Indeed, this basic individual right supports all other political and civil rights. The alternative is government ownership and control, which diminishes individual choice and fosters dependency and oppression. Unfortunately, it is this important civil right that is all too often subverted, and worse, stamped with the judiciary’s approval; a sadder example that this is so can hardly be imagined.
Due to the Superior Court’s uninstructed ruling, the fate of the mobile home park’s owner, and those in Laguna Terrace to whom he chose to pass his discrete property interest, is fraught with uncertainty. Members of the California Coastal Commission are not accountable to the electorate, but the same cannot be said for Superior Court judges. The Superior Court needs to honor individual liberty, not thwart it.
Joan Mounteer, Laguna Beach
