Santiago Ranch Development - Los Angeles Times

Steve Johnston’s letter (July 12) defended the Orange County Planning Commission’s approval of the Santiago Ranch development. Like the reader Johnston attacks, I also attended the Planning

Commission’s public hearing and concluded that there wasn’t much planning going on there. In fact, I wondered if I hadn’t mistakenly wandered into a taping of “Let’s Make a Deal,” with

panelists Leavenworth, Osborne and Wooden trying to guess how many more residential units over the county staff’s recommendation the developer would be allowed. However, after reading

Johnston’s suggestion that Santiago Ranch should be approved because the landowner is an “orphan,” I realized that it was no mere TV game show I had witnessed, but an operetta: Gilbert and

Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance.” Having at last identified an appropriate pastime for the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, I propose that they be relocated to the Performing

Arts Center, thereby freeing up the County Hall of Administration for use as a jail or airport. RAY CHANDOS Trabuco Canyon MORE TO READ