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Rancho Ortega Blog discusses matters of public interest in South Orange County, including the communities of San Juan Capistrano, Ladera Ranch and Rancho Mission Viejo.

The writings of Don Juan Ortega on the Rancho Ortega Blog are the personal views of the author. This blog is not authored by nor does it have any affiliation whatsoever with any other person, place or entity using the name "Rancho Ortega" (or any similar name).

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http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/4580

Happy 4th of July!

First and foremost, we hope that everyone out there enjoys a safe and happy 4th of July holiday. God bless America!

We’ve already given you the details on fireworks shows in Ladera Ranch and San Juan Capistrano. There are plenty of other fireworks shows scheduled in South Orange County tonight. Courtesy of the Orange County [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/4538

LAFCO Convenes Stakeholders for Rancho Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita Local Governance Study Areas

We have frequently mentioned LAFCO, Orange County’s Local Agency Formation Commission, in articles relating to South County governance and cityhood. After all, “LAFCO is the most important government agency you have never heard of.” There have been a couple recent developments at LAFCO that illustrate how much the agency is thinking about Rancho Mission Viejo [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/4478

A Topographical View of Planning Area 2

Google Maps has a cool new feature where you can tilt the map and get a topographical view of an area. We decided to have some fun and lay the boundaries for Planning Area 2 over a topographical map of the region. Below is the result — note the boundaries aren’t perfect. We were just [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/4172

Consider Following “The Real RSM” on Facebook

We’ve been following a Rancho Santa Margarita-specific Facebook page that calls itself “The Real RSM” lately. It’s relatively recent, but has been updating frequently and seems to have a similar mission to our own. In a recent status update, they say:

Friends, the local perspective of “RSM Patch” is apparently gone. We are hoping that [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/3672

Marathon City Council Session in Rancho

The RSM Patch endured an eight hour City Council meeting regarding the rezoning of the vacant Nissan dealership site. The owners were seeking a rezoning of the site from “auto zone” to general commercial. They were proposing a retail development called “Rancho Canyon” that might include a Mother’s Market, a fitness club, a relocated Bruxie [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/3629

The Bell Tolls for Rancho Santa Margarita With New Politics Blog

We’ve taken note of an interesting new blog that focuses on local politics in Rancho Santa Margarita. Called RSM Politics, it describes itself as follows:

The City of Rancho Santa Margarita is wonderful to place to live, work, and play. Unfortunately the community is asleep to the cronyism and corruption that is leaking into the [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/3584

Visions of South County Cityhood Dancing in our Heads

Susan Wilson is the Chairwoman of the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission. What is LAFCO? Well, if you’ve been reading our blog, you would know that when it comes to South County local governance and cityhood, LAFCO is the most important government agency you’ve never heard of. Wilson has written a guest opinion piece, [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/3559

Airplane Uses 241 as a Runway and Gets Us Thinking…

Apparently, a small airplane used the 241 toll road on Sunday to make an emergency landing. The RSM Patch has a short story. There were no injuries on the ground or in the plane, which is good. But it did get us thinking. On the one hand, the OC Great Park (perhaps it should be [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/3489

Rancho Santa Margarita is the Second Safest City in California

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has issued a press release, highlighting the fact that eight OCSD contract cities have made the SafeWise “50 Safest Cities in California” list. According to the release, “SafeWise [is] a safety and home security company has completed extensive research while comparing their data to the FBI’s Crime in the US [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/3329

RSM’s Singing Pumpkin House is Back!

Featured on Good Morning America and other national media, the Singing Pumpkin house of Rancho Santa Margarita is back this year! They have a Facebook page, and all the information is on the flyer below.

The address is 8 Talega in RSM. You can find a map on our article from last year.

Here’s [...]