Keep the character of this place

I grew up not far from here. When my wife and I picked Rancho Santa Margarita ten years ago, we picked it because it was untouched enough to feel like a neighborhood and still functioned like a city. No gridlock feeling. That was not an accident, it was a master plan, and master plans only hold if somebody defends them.

Growth pressure on a built-out south county city is real and it is not going away. I would rather this council meet it with a clear position and good lawyers than absorb it one project at a time because nobody wanted the argument.

Defending the plan is not the same as saying no to everything. It means knowing what the city is, being able to say it out loud, and applying that consistently instead of case by case.