Got any ideas how the city could spruce up Mission Viejo’s core area?
Almost anything and everything is in play when it comes to ideas, city officials say.
Mission Viejo is seeking community input at a Vision Plan community workshop at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Civic Center’s Saddleback Room.
The Vision Plan is a process to envision future potential for the city’s 228-acre core area, along Marguerite Parkway between La Paz Road and Oso Parkway and also stretches along Oso Creek to include the Norman P. Murray Community and Senior Center and the La Paz World Cup Center.
The City Council identified economic development as one of the city’s top priorities in the two-year budget plan last June. The city hired SWA Group in April to help with a Vision Plan for the City’s core area.
Thursday’s meeting is the first in a series of three workshops for the Vision Plan.
Larry Longenecker, Mission Viejo’s planning and economic manager, said community involvement is critical.
“That’s the most important component of this process is to have successful public outreach to hear from a majority of residents about what they’d like to see in the core area,” Longenecker said.
Longenecker said any and all ideas are welcome at the workshop.
“It’s open-ended,” he said. “There’s no right or wrong, too big or too small, response. It could be that some folks want nothing more than a coat of paint, and others may prefer completely new development.”
Those ideas will all be put in for consideration by a market analyst with SWA Group, who will analyze ideas to determine feasibility.
SWA Group will come back with some initial plan concepts at a second workshop, Longenecker said. That workshop is tentatively scheduled for mid-to-late August.
The city and SWA Group are developing questions for a phone survey, which Longenecker said random residents in the community should receive in mid-July.
Contact the writer: npercy@ocregister.com
