Frustrated by the sound wall debate

After the letters exchanged between C.J. Segerstrom & Sons and the

Wimbledon Village board of directors, I was afraid our chances of

opening a dialogue to address the noise and traffic problems Home

Ranch and Ikea are going to cause had a slim chance of succeeding.

Whether the Segerstrom management believes it or not, [Segerstrom

consultants] Government Solutions agreed to provide some sort of

sound attenuation and traffic control measures “after the project is

approved by the city.” This agreement was confirmed by Sandra Genis,

former mayor and councilwoman, in her letter to the editor in the

Daily Pilot (“Wimbledon was guaranteed a wall,” Sept. 14).

However, we were not prepared for the tremendous letdown and

insult we received from Government Solutions and C.J. Segerstrom &

Sons at our board of directors meeting on Sept. 12. A week before the

meeting, our property manager received a call from Government

Solutions asking to be placed on the agenda to discuss a sound wall.

Of course, we were very happy, thinking that some progress had been

made. Instead they sent two representatives from Standard Pacific

Homes to present their revised plans for the housing development that

is a part of the Home Ranch project. When asked about the sound wall,

they had no idea what we were talking about or about the articles in

the Daily Pilot (“Residents cry foul in Home Ranch dealings,” Sept.

5). They told us they came to our meeting in an effort to “reach out

to the community” and be “good neighbors.” After one board member

walked out in disgust, they went ahead with their presentation.

Either this was some kind of cruel joke the Segerstrom management or

Government Solutions played on us to get the last laugh, or the

communication between these entities is so poor they have no idea

what is going on in their own company.

The Segerstrom representatives that have been responding to our

letters and newspaper articles were not at the meetings where

Government Solutions agreed to address our problems. Considering the

obvious lack of communication, how would they possibly know what was

said or agreed to?

STEVE VELASCO

President, Wimbledon Village

Board of Directors

Costa Mesa