Santiago Ranch Development

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