March 10, 2011

Mr. Jeremy Laster
Vice President
Rancho Mission Viejo
PO Box 9
San Juan Capistrano, CA  92693

RE:  Taste of Ladera Cooperation with Property in Corporate Park, Ladera Ranch

Dear Mr. Laster:

I was disappointed to receive your decision to not participate in the Taste of Ladera.  I sincerely do not believe it would have the impacts you cite, particularly the number of people that participate because we sell tickets for admission and it doesn’t get to that level on any given day.  I believe you have been given some invalid information.  Nevertheless, I accept your decision as your best judgment.

Taste of Ladera can be conducted in the public space allowed on Windmill and we have arranged to offer Rancho Mission Viejo a certificate of insurance in case any participant in the event migrated onto your property.  In addition, we have volunteers to ensure that parking will not occur in front of any nearby tenants that are open for business.  This is not that great of a challenge because many of your tenants are looking forward to the foot traffic that the event would generate and we arrange for offsite parking and shuttle service as a matter of course.

In the middle of these preparations we have now considered that, since it is such a concern to your company, should on the day of the event something does not go just perfectly, we may find the good reputation of this great community event marred.  This would afford the few detractors of this event even more fodder.  So in deference to your concerns, we have decided to cancel the Taste of Ladera this year until we can gain your confidence that it can be conducted without incident.

It is disheartening to cancel the event because all the sponsors, preparations and vendor expectations will have to be turned back.  However, this is better than moving forward and create an adversarial relationship with RMV, while at the same time playing into the hands of the event’s detractors by being able to gossip that we carried on at the objection of the adjacent landowner.  Please understand that this is a painful decision and a lot of people are going to be very disappointed because the event could be carried out under less than the ideal circumstance Windmill provides.  You may not be aware, but we would have fenced the perimeter of the event under any scenario (even with your cooperation) in order to maintain order, and in this case, set the stage at the far end of the street for crowd circulation.  This was all discussed with the Fire Department, Sheriff’s Department, and county officials which resulted in the granting of our encroachment permit No. 2011-00040 for our event.  In addition, our traffic control and shuttle service was approved through the school district for parking at the schools along Sienna Parkway.

So we accept your decision, and for all the reasons above have canceled Taste of Ladera for 2011.  Again, thank you for thoughtfully considering our request.

Sincerely,

Michelle Patterson
Executive Director Taste of Ladera
CEO EventComplete