Letters to the Editor: City attorney’s effort to block gun initiative interrupts political process

As a property owner in Huntington Beach, I applaud the efforts of a fellow resident to address the issue of automatic and semi-automatic gun sales in our city by using procedural due-process to get an initiative on the ballot (“Huntington Beach sues to stop resident’s petition proposing local ban on semiautomatic and automatic weapons”).

What I don’t applaud is the vindictive and overreactive measure taken by City Attorney Michael Gates in suing Dan Horgan. These bullying tactics, obviously copied from the bully-in-chief, are an attempt by Mr. Gates to get his name in front of the public prior to the election.

A simple call to see that there were not nearly enough signatures secured to make it to the ballot would have been sufficient.

Victoria Ahumada

Oceanside

Celebrate the life of Mark Chamberlain

In the past year we’ve lost in succession three longtime community members — digital publisher Stu Staffer (May 20), poet John Abbott Gardiner (October 24), and now photographer and gallery owner Mark Chamberlain (April 23) — who each contributed mightily to Laguna’s legacy in their own significant ways.

Their lives are reminders of how great communities are built on visionary leaders. Gardiner, Staffer and Chamberlain, as well as their predecessors, will be cheering on Laguna’s next torchbearers.

A celebration of Chamberlain’s life is scheduled for 2 p.m. June 3 at the Neighborhood Congregational Church, 340 St Ann’s Drive, Laguna Beach.

Ellen and Roger Kempler

Laguna Beach

Look at Uptown before approving Koll

Uptown Newport, the Shopoff Group’s residential and affordable housing project on Jamboree Road, is under construction. When complete, this enormous development will include over 1,200 residential units ranging in height from 30 to 150 feet. As part of the development agreement with the city, the Shopoff Group promised pedestrian-friendly design and a mixed use, including retail and food services.

The project anticipates over 8,000 vehicle trips a day and this delay will certainly increase traffic on our local streets, which negatively alters the estimated impact of the project. Many of us wrote letters to the city and attended public hearings to express just such concerns, and now they are a reality.

The Shopoff Group is now pushing a second massive residential project in very close proximity to Uptown. In comparison, the newly proposed Koll Residences project would exceed heights in Uptown, with three massive monolithic buildings, 160 feet in height. Though the city’s vision was for mixed use and pedestrian-friendly design, Koll Residences will put 580 residents in the middle of a functioning business park with few services and likely nothing more than a coffee shop for its “mixed use” component.

It is imprudent for the city to allow the Koll Center Residences to move forward based upon an outdated General Plan and without a coordinated vision of the airport area and without first assessing the impact of Uptown Newport project on the community.

Jim Hasty

Newport Beach

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