Proposal for Wall Is Making Waves : Project at Lake Mission Viejo Would Spoil the View, Some Residents Claim

Mission Viejo city officials will soon have to decide if a wall should come between residents who live on and around scenic Lake Mission Viejo.

Last month, the City Council placed a moratorium on plans to erect a wall along 1,600 feet of lake front on the north side of Alicia Parkway. Homeowners who live on the waterway say a buffer, from three to five feet high, is needed to shield it from the traffic noise and litter that comes from the thoroughfare.

View ‘Should Be Protected’

“We already have 4,000 cars a day going by on Alicia Parkway,” said William Schwartz, general manager of the Lake Mission Viejo Assn. “When Alicia Parkway is extended to Rancho Santa Margarita, there’ll be 50,000 cars a day going by.”

But W.W. Shannon, who lives in the Cypress Point neighborhood across the parkway, contends that such a structure would be an eyesore that would block a beautiful view of the 124-acre, man-made lake.

“Without any question, the wall would mask a significant viewpoint, a very important viewpoint, in the city,” Shannon said. “This view of the lake from Alicia Parkway is something that should be protected for the public’s use, not just the use of the lake association. I’ve certainly had no trouble in getting signatures of people opposed to the wall. People are opposed to walls in this area.”

The City Council moratorium expires Aug. 24. City officials, in the meantime, are pondering whether to scrap the wall plans entirely or to modify them.

Shannon is pushing for the council to do away totally with the wall proposal. “The wall itself is an unfriendly structure,” Shannon said.

Schwartz, however, believes that the wall should be built. “Most of the people who have complained about it really haven’t seen the plans for it,” Schwartz said. “It’s decorative, and it would protect the environment of the lake.”

Surprise to Residents

As proposed, the wall would begin near the intersection of Alicia and Marguerite parkways and extend along the south end of the lake. The wall would front on Alicia Parkway and mainly be three feet high, although portions would reach four to five feet, according to a spokesman for the city Planning Commission.

Schwartz said the wall has always been a part of proposed development of the 11-year-old artificial lake.

But Shannon said residents were caught by surprise when ground-clearing work started on the wall last month.

“On July 8, I saw some work being done along Alicia Parkway, and I wondered what it was about,” Shannon said. He added that he subsequently found out the workers were preparing the site for a wall construction.

“I called a councilperson and a planning commissioner who are personal friends, and both said they didn’t know anything about the wall,” Shannon added. “The lake association had a work permit for the wall, but it was something that didn’t have to go before the Planning Commission.”

Shannon, who is an architect and facilities planner for the Los Angeles Community College District, said he circulated a petition against the wall. He said he quickly gathered the signatures of about 400 residents.

The City Council, in response to the protests, ordered a halt on the wall for 45 days--a period that ends Aug. 24. The council also directed the Planning Commission to study the matter and make a recommendation.

‘Beautification Project’

Clint Sherrod, community development director for the city, said be believes that the term “wall” is misleading in describing the proposed structure around the south end of the lake. “It was planned as a beautification project for that part of the lake,” Sherrod said. “It was to be of fluted concrete and was designed to be decorative, with open spaces for viewing the lake.”

Sherrod said the city staff is studying the wall proposal and will offer possible alternatives to the Planning Commission at the Aug. 21 meeting at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 26522 La Alameda. One alternative, he said, would be for the city to outlaw the wall altogether. Other possibilities include modifying the wall by building it so that less visibility of the lake is lost from Alicia Parkway.