Foothills Sentry September 2021

Page 5 Foothills Sentry September 2021 Circulation … 41,750 Published on the last Tuesday of each month and distributed to residences, businesses, libraries and civic centers. 714-532-4406 Fax: 714-532-6755 foothillssentry.com 1107 E. Chapman Ave., #207 Orange, CA 92866 © Foothills Sentry 2021 Publisher/Editor Anita Bennyhoff 1969-2013 Editor Tina Richards editor@foothillssentry.com Sports Editor Cliff Robbins sportseditor@att.net Graphic Designer Aimee Armstrong graphics@foothillssentry.com Advertising Sales Andie Mills advertising@foothillssentry.com 714-926-9299 Office Manager Kathy Eidson officemanager@foothillssentry. com Apology expected Dear Editor: I am Mary Beth Felcyn, a resi- dent of Villa Park. I want to ad- dress Councilman Robbie Pitts’ statements at the May city coun- cil meeting and in his "open letter to Villa Park residents" in the July Sentry. Although Councilman Pitts does not name me in his letter, he described me as: “the woman who presented Bob Collacott’s falsified candidacy filing docu- ments to the city when he ran for office.” I did submit Bob Collacott’s 2018 candidacy documents to the city clerk, working with the city’s election consultant to make sure the documents were submitted properly, so clearly Pitts is de- scribing me. And a lot of people know it. Pitts accused me of participat- ing in submitting falsified docu- ments. That’s a pretty serious ac- cusation. All these claims about falsi- fied documents and not follow- ing the proper filing procedures were soundly rejected by the city attorney, the Registrar of Voters, and the Orange County Superior Court in 2018. I suggest the coun- cilman takes the time to read the 11-page court judgment. Every claim was rejected, with support- ing case law cited. I don’t appreciate having my reputation defamed by Council- man Pitts’ false, made-up-out-of- thin-air accusation. It has caused me a lot of pain, anger and time to handle this situation. I want a retraction of his state- ment and an apology at the next council meeting and in the next Sentry . Further, I strongly suggest he apologize to Councilman Col- lacott, Mayor Crystal Miles and former Councilman Bill Nelson. Get it all done in one step. Councilman Pitts may decide I should not get an apology. Then, the city residents can decide what type of councilman he is. Mary Beth Felcyn Villa Park Mary's Kitchen mission Dear Editor: I am a resident in the City of Orange. Thank you for your cov- erage of the July 13 council meet- ing –- on both Mary’s Kitchen and the Orange Paseo. I found your articles to be an accurate representation of the discussion. However, the article on Mary’s Kitchen incorrectly states that the mission statement for Mary’s Kitchen reads: “Those who do not care to improve their standard of living will be provided food and personal care support.” After a second read, I take it that you are citing the mission statement as written in a letter from the city to Mary’s Kitchen. The actual mission statement of Mary’s Kitchen (taken from the publicly available Form 990, Schedule O) reads: “The purpose of Mary’s Kitchen is to provide food, clothing and basic services that support and enhance the quality of life for the hungry and the homeless in our area.” As you can see, the actual mis- sion statement is vastly different from the statement cited in your article. Please do Mary’s Kitchen and your readers the service of clarifying that the statement you printed was actually an allegation from the City of Orange and not the mission statement of Mary’s Kitchen. Jordana Furman Orange Land leadership Dear Editor: The Santiago Greenways and Open Space Alliance (SGOSA) was formed in 2019 to promote and champion the idea of more open space, new trails and the development of parks for the East Orange community, and to im- prove the health and well-being of everyone living in the City of Orange. SGOSA is not, and has never been, pro-development. It is dedicated to the permanent clo- sure of the Sully-Miller gravel pit and the creation of public open space. This issue must be a priori- ty for the city and county in 2021. As the landowner of the Sul- ly-Miller Property is unable to rezone the land based on the November 2020 referendum, concrete recycling and landfill are now the only uses permitted under the Conditional Use Permit issued by the city. It is critical that the city or County of Orange find a means to acquire the Sully-Miller land and a way to reclaim it. That could come about via bond issue, land- owner dedication, state grant, or a combination of these methods. Many other communities in OC have done the same, and convert- ed privately owned vacant lots into parks, trails and ball fields. All we need is the leadership and desire to make this happen. It is important for the city or county to act now, as it reduces the possibility of the State of Cal- ifornia imposing stringent high- density housing demands on this site following the mandate in SB 330. This is happening all over the state. It is time the public demands something be done to close this sand and gravel operation after 100 years, and restore the prop- erty to ensure a healthier and hap- pier community in East Orange. It can be done if the people demand it of our elected officials. What is certain, is that imme- diate action needs to be taken, as this land cannot continue to oper- ate a sand and gravel operation in the heart of East Orange. Mark Moore Orange Density propensity Dear Editor: “Developers and investors are salivating.” Such an interesting presumption on the part of whom- ever penned the opinion piece on this. I wonder if the author has any idea who produces most of the housing in California? It is true that developers and investors make profits off the housing they produce. So do the people who make cars, build roads, sell you groceries, fashion, media con- tent, or anything else. I surmise the writer of the article may also be a capitalist, and therefore ac- quainted with the value of a profit motive in getting things done. All that aside, there is a short- age of housing in California, and it is impacting lower wage earners the most. However, middle class families are coming to realize that their young adult children, with- out being tech moguls, are un- able to buy homes in the Golden State and are departing for Boise, Phoenix, Austin and Denver. The proposals to allow “gen- tly denser” developments in es- tablished neighborhoods are but a tiny drop in the bucket toward providing the units we need. They don’t pave the way for large- scale reinventions of single fam- ily neighborhoods; they do make it possible to generate a small stream of new homes for people who might otherwise be severely “housing burdened” or faced with leaving the state. Finally, the addition of one or even two ADUs to an existing single-family property is a proj- ect typically undertaken by “mom and pop” operations. The addi- tional units may, in fact, provide rental income for the property owners, which will help them to comfortably remain in the neigh- borhoods they have enjoyed for decades. Please, please consider where the following people will live: your kids’ teachers, your local firefighters and nurses, or even the folks who wait on, and clean up, after you at restaurants. If our lack of housing continues to drive them out of state, who will care for you? Daniel Gehman Orange Board Member, People For Hous- ing Orange County Dear Editor: It is with a heavy heart, af- ter 17 years of fighting to pre- serve an arena site for the OPA community, and 10 years of the OPA-ETC (Orange Park Are- nas, Equestrians, Trails Corpo- ration) board members build- ing, managing and maintaining the Mara Brandman Arena, I sadly announce that the arena will be closing permanently as of Sept. 30. Milan Capital, which has graciously allowed the com- munity to use the arena free of charge since 2012, made many unsuccessful attempts over the years to work with the OP As- sociation in an effort to donate the arena site to our commu- nity, but has now sold the 7.6- acre site to a developer. I want to thank all the current and past OPA-ETC board mem- bers, who all were unpaid vol- unteers and worked diligently over the years to maintain the arena site for use by OPA resi- dents, neighbors and equestri- ans. Those board members in- clude: David Mains, Michelle Williams, Alice Sorenson, Lois Widly, Chris Cormack, Kathy Spain-Bonnaud, Patrice Christ- man, Sherry Panttaja and Sam Fossum-Murray. Thank you to all who do- nated funds and much of their time over the years -- especial- ly Mike Shiley and family and Bruce Williams. Lastly, I’d like to thank John Martin and family and Milan Capital’s Chris Nicholson and Klaus Dieckell. Had it not been for all of the above-mentioned, there would not have been an operating arena in OPA the last 10 years. R. Lynn Canton Chairman, OPA-ETC Orange Park Acres Horse arena closing A homeowner on Van Bibber Street in Old Towne is deep into the down- side of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), as the residence next door to her is transformed into student housing. The state mandated that ADUs be approved with little oversight, but cities are allowed some leeway. Orange adopted an ordinance designed to combat dorm-style housing that was being built under the ADU guise. The ordinance apparently has no teeth. The house on Van Bibber was bought by a local real es- tate broker and leased to five Chapman University students. The broker is now putting in an ADU to house four more. The unit is staked four feet from the property line, and its front porch,10 feet from her bed- room window. The last tenants partied and took up all the street park- ing. “I bought this house in 1997,” she says, "It was my investment. Now I don’t even want to live here. But who’s going to buy my house?" Photo by Tony Richards