Ballot Measure on Irvine Co.’s Village 38 Project Finds a City Divided

One thing is clear from Mark Petracca’s comments (Commentary, Oct. 27) regarding Planning Area 38. He may know something about politics (because he is a political science professor), but he doesn’t know much about planning. In fact, I think he keeps confusing the two.

Village 38 is an extension of Westpark and, as such, when completed, will become the Village of Westpark. As an Irvine planning commissioner, we addressed every single issue raised by Petracca, as well as other planning matters, and approved a quality master plan for Village 38. Contrary to Petracca’s claims, traffic from Village 38 is more than fully mitigated, will not strain the schools or city resources.

Village 38 was approved after 3 1/2 years of careful and deliberate processing--the same way we have created one of the finest master-planned communities in the nation. To say that Village 38 is bad planning is to say that Westpark and all the other villages in Irvine were poorly planned, and we all know that’s simply not true.

Let’s hope the voters of Irvine see through this political nonsense and keep Irvine synonymous with quality master planning. Voting yes on Measures B and C will ensure that planning--not politics--will determine Irvine’s future.

LOWELL JOHNSON

Irvine