The house was packed at the Rossmoor Community Services District meeting on Dec. 13, when the topic was the development of the adjacent shopping center Shops at Rossmoor.
That shopping center had been there since Rossmoor was in its infancy.
It was a busy place then with a movie house, the Boston Department Store, a bowling alley, a couple of restaurants, a five and dime, a hardware store, a supermarket plus a bunch of smaller shops. We all bought our Rossmoor homes then knowing that this was a privately owned piece of property. People that own property like to develop their property.
Rossmoor homes, once 1,800 square feet, have increased in size too.
My opinion is, don’t buy a house near a shopping center or near Rossmoor Park (those people who complain about girl’s softball) and then have the entitled view that what was there before you bought should be changed!
All those people who came to complain to the RCSD about the stores now going into the shopping center were wasting their time. The Rossmoor Community Services District has limited jurisdiction.
That means that as a district they are confined to administer only those items that were voted on by the people of Rossmoor—parks, trees, medians, lighting and street sweeping. The people who agendized that item knew better, but went ahead and did it any way and were upset when the Board told them they could do nothing about the development.
The development of the shopping center is controlled by the people who own the property—not Seal Beach. True, Seal Beach will profit from the shopping center, but what else is new? So who was complaining?
Realtors? The very people who have known about the development and who would profit if enough people thought that the new additions to the shopping center would be detrimental to property values and want to sell their homes.
The gist of some of the complainers was that the wrong people would be coming to the Rossmoor area and that traffic would be unbearable.
When a few people want to energize the Rossmoorians into committees and joining associations they use any scare tactic that they think will work.
The traffic appears bad now because of the construction on Seal beach Boulevard and the 405. It will improve. The two left turn lanes into Rossmoor on St. Cloud Drive will enable the traffic going onto Rossmoor to get off of Seal Beach Boulevard more quickly.
One of the scare tactics used is that of low-income housing.  Even low income housing will become expensive as the economy improves.
More housing will be good for the school district because the district will get more money for more bodies in the system.
The modern way to complain now is through Twitter. Get on your computers and tell Toys R Us and Babies R Us that you don’t intend to patronize their stores.
Going to Seal Beach City Council meetings is a waste of time
Joyce Bloom is a longtime Rossmoor resident and former member of the Rossmoor Community Services District Board of Directors.
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