Redesign Dos Vientos

This letter is in response to an article entitled “Dos Vientos Developer Defaulting on Payments” published Sept. 4.

As a matter of fairness, if we are to grant Courtly Homes an indefinite delay in its payment schedule then should we not grant delays for mortgage, tax, or rent payments for all local homeowners and businesses similarly affected by the recession who also may be having difficulty meeting their financial obligations?

Perhaps a more important question is the financial viability of Courtly Homes to follow through on its other commitments to the city. As the California economy continues in this “protracted depression,” is Courtly Homes going to ask the city for additional delays or relief from other commitments or promises it has made such as street improvements, sewer and water hookups, street lighting, or other unfinished business whose financial burden will become that of already overburdened taxpayers?

The real truth is that this is a lousy time to build a 2,350-home tract of new homes when housing prices are in a state of free fall and California’s economic recovery nowhere in sight. The original Dos Vientos project has been overcome by events that no one could foresee and is now a relic of a bygone era. Dos Vientos should either be redesigned or scrapped completely.

CRAIG FOSTER

Newbury Park

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