Where we’re at, and where we’re going

This is a solidly middle class city – the median household income is about $135,000

Affordable housing: The average home price in Lake Forest is over $1 million. At current interest rates, that $135,000 isn’t enough to cover a $500,000 mortgage We have 4500 businesses in the city and over 40,000 jobs  - paying on average about $55,000.  So a big priority needs to be how to provide more affordable housing in the in-fill areas. I believe Lake Forest can be more of a connected community – with an assortment of people living here and working here and not just being a bedroom community. 

Store fronts occupied or repurposed: Sales taxes make up about $18 million of our $52 million a year in General Fund revenues. Thriving businesses mean sales tax added to property taxes collected. It’s good news that Costco is moving into the empty theatre area at Foothill Ranch.  Empty store fronts means no sales tax and brings down the area. We need to do what we can to encourage more businesses, especially local businesses – having people want to eat and shop here and not drive to Costa Mesa for a dinner.

Zoning rules:  Can we still fill all these store fronts? In this age of home deliveries, we should be looking at adjustments to the old zoning rules. Where can we add more housing that might have been a purely business area before?  How can we mix this in?  Can people walk to places instead of always being in a car? Once again, it’s a chance to encourage people to eat and shop here. If they don’t already have to get into a car, then they are more likely to keep their business local.

Parks: And we need to continue to maintain our 31 parks and look at upgrading the older ones. These are the gems of our city. As we become more urban, they become more important. More people at the park makes a friendlier and safer park!

How do we get better from here

To encourage all of this, we need to make sure that there is room in the budget. Our revenue over the last fiscal year was about $85 million.  Lake Forest is a contract city with only about 70 employees. Law enforcement is about 1/3 of the budget. Other contractual services (parks, streets, animal control) are another 1/3 of the budget. 

We need to clearly define what we want from our vendors – making sure that we prioritize the city dollars.  We need to make sure that’s what our contracts clearly require, watch how the vendors perform and be ready to change if needed.

Prioritization of our dollars is the nitty-gritty of this.

That allows for the fun stuff – park improvements, snow festivals, and the other things that take the City from good to Great!