Re: Colleen Cason’s July 20 column, “Center’s lakes are watered down”:

I enjoyed Colleen Cason’s humorous column regarding the new Thousand Oaks retail center named The Lakes at Thousand Oaks.

I noticed a few angry letters in response that seemed to miss the point. Ms. Cason was not complaining so much about the center itself but pointing out the developer’s penchant for water in his projects and the inaccurate image that the name evokes.

I agree with her that people want nice shopping centers, not strip malls, but describing projects with fanciful terms to make them sound like Disneyland North is a common  ploy. She hit the nail on the head when she stated that developers usually name their projects for what they annihilated to build them.

A perfect example is Moorpark’s “North Park Village and Nature Preserve,” a 1,680-home development proposed for northeast Moorpark.

The pristine 3,586-acre parcel is already zoned as agricultural/open space and includes a major wildlife corridor. The developer wants to amend the city’s general plan and rezone the property to build this massive project. After the homes are built and the roads paved, that land can never be open space again. The remaining portion of the land that is mostly unbuildable anyway will be the “nature preserve” that he is “giving” to Moorpark residents as a part of this project. What a bonus!

At least the residents of Moorpark will have a chance to vote on the fate of this project next February. I believe that they will send a message to developers that we won’t be fooled by the flowing verbiage. 
 
— Suzanne Wilson, Moorpark