07/24/06 

An Open Letter To The Residents of
Mission Lakes Country Club
Enjoy The View 

What was once a view of San Jacinto and the Coachella Valley looking south from Mission Lakes Boulevard is now a view of a construction fence. And if you could look past the fence, you would see a view of a roughly graded, churned up 72 acres of land. What you won't see on the other side of that fence is construction. At least not any time soon.

In the ongoing saga of developers and development run amok and a city council looking the other way while all this takes place, the "developers" of the Vista Del Monte housing tract have obtained their grading permits from the City of Desert Hot Springs. With those permits in hand, they have erected a view-blocking construction fence, churned up the land and now have put their "entitled" parcel up for sale. They have no plans to build.

Meanwhile, we all get to look at this. That is San Jacinto in the background. It was a really nice view on the day this picture was taken. Clouds and sun casting patchwork patterns on the mountainside and surrounding hills, giving life to the term painted hills. But we digress. That's all in the past.

Until such time as that project sells and the buyer decides to begin construction, all of us will be looking at the scene below.

Enjoy your view residents of Mission Lakes Country Club and everyone else driving along this once scenic drive. For the interest of a few on the city council taking campaign contributions from developers to look the other way, the rest of us have to look at this. Yes, we would be looking at it if there was actual construction work going to begin. But soon that ugly fence would be replaced with a landscaped area. 

The point is this: If we are going to lose our views, then they must be lost to progress. Here we have an ugly construction fence and no progress. That's going backwards.