Letter: Wait a Second…MOU?

Having lived in Laguna Beach for 48 years and seeing/listening/hearing all of the screams and yells of developers/home builders/remodelers/business applicants/chain stores and restaurants/homeowners/tree huggers/view protection advocates/anti-green space/fire protection logicians/fisherman/divers/surfers/boogiers/kelp lovers—we are now being told that all of these scenarios and arguments are going to end for one person/group/investor’s benefit (nothing personal at all)…you must be kidding. All the battles that have been waged, even those of late, relating to Coast Inn, Artist’s Caves in Canyon, homes on bluffs, incursions into green space, parking lot redesign, village entrance fiascos, property reuse efforts, etc., that have taken years of battling, reviewing, compromising, re-election-impeachment-veto battles, and now we are being told that one election’s Council is going to change all of this time and effort on impactful review considerations for what can only be described as the most significant set of projects proposed to occur in our city of all time (comparable to the Coastal Act and the El Toro Airport conversion efforts, while probably bigger than both of these combined) by a proposed MOU to “smooth the way” without advance notice and time reviews. This is simply beyond comprehension. No time to review political donations, sides, under-table deals, electioneering, scratch my back, let’s make a deal, and offers to “donate money to offset/differentiate” everyone else’s problems/time expenditures proposals? Let’s make a deal: I will not demand to build a 20-story structure at the Hotel Laguna site and withdraw my proposed blufftop Disneyland from the Hotel Laguna parking lot to the bottom of Legion Street if you waive other long-standing restrictions on these other planned redesigns that have been in place for all these 50 years and applied to everyone else who were equally imaginative but without the foresight to buy up the entire town and without the threat to create havoc. Let’s all submit together and forget the what and why we have fought over for so long. Oh, please.

Byron Nelson, Laguna Beach