HomeMy WebLinkAbouteComment - Donald Nguyen (Item No. 5)From:noreply@granicusideas.com
To:Yasuda, Erica; Woodward, Carrie; E-Comments
Subject:New eComment for Regular Meeting of the City Council/Special Closed Session-5:00 pm/Regular Meeting-6:00 pm
Date:Monday, October 5, 2026 5:20:51 PM
City of Tustin, CANew eComment for Regular Meeting of the CityCouncil/Special Closed Session-5:00 pm/RegularMeeting-6:00 pm
Guest User submitted a new eComment.
Meeting: Regular Meeting of the City Council/Special Closed Session-5:00 pm/Regular Meeting-
6:00 pm
Item: 5. SECOND READING AND ADOPTION OF ORDINANCE NO. 1581 DEVELOPMENT
AGREEMENT 2026-0002 FOR THE MARINERS CHURCH TUSTIN LEGACY PROJECT
Adoption of Ordinance No. 1581 approves Development Agreement 2026-0002 to facilitate the
development and conveyance of the 3.324-acre City-owned site for the Mariners Church Tustin
Legacy project.
eComment: Dear Mayor and Councilmembers, My name is Donald Nguyen. I have lived in the
Tustin Meadows since 1996. That's thirty years of paying taxes here, and watching this city
grow. I have never written a letter like this to the City before. I'm writing now because I am angry,
and I think a lot of my neighbors are too. I'm angry about how the City has handled the sale of
public land at Tustin Legacy to Mariners Church. On September 16, 2025, a Purchase and Sale
Agreement for about 3.3 acres of City-owned land in Disposition Area 8 showed up on the
Council agenda. As far as I can tell, there was no open bid, no public call for proposals, and no
real effort to ask residents what we wanted on that land. If I'm wrong, show me. Show me the bid
process. Show me the price. Show me the appraisal. Until then, it looks like the decision was
made first and the public was told afterward. That isn't fair to the people who live here. That land
was a Marine Corps air station that belongs to all of us now. It shouldn't be handed to one
organization, through one deal, without every resident getting a say. And I have to ask: why a
megachurch? Tustin already has roughly 47 churches. Meanwhile, church membership across
the country has been falling for two decades. Gallup found it dropped from 70% of Americans in
1999 to 47% in 2020, the first time in more than 80 years that fewer than half of Americans
belonged to a house of worship. Giving prime public land to another large church, at a time when
attendance is shrinking, is not planning for Tustin's future. What Tustin really needs is workforce
housing. Our teachers, nurses, firefighters, police officers and young families can't afford to live
in the city they serve. That land could hold homes for working people, or jobs and services that
pay the city back for decades. That's the kind of use that helps all of Tustin in the long run, not
just one congregation. There's something else that hits close to home for me. I'm Buddhist. So
are many of my friends and neighbors in the Meadows and across Tustin. There is not one
Buddhist temple in this city. For every service, every holiday, every funeral and every memorial
for our parents, we drive to Westminster. We've done that for thirty years without complaining.
So when I see the City quietly arranging public land for one more church, it tells me our
community isn't being considered at all. So here is what I'm asking for, and I don't think any of it
is unreasonable: Stop this sale and start over with an open, competitive bid process, the same
way the City handles its other property. Make the price, the appraisal and every term of the deal
public, so residents can see exactly what is being given away and for how much. Any
Councilmember, commissioner or City staff member who belongs to or attends Mariners Church
should recuse themselves. Even if the law doesn't require it, it looks like a conflict, and people
notice. Hold a real public hearing before any vote, and give serious weight to using this land for
workforce housing or other projects that benefit the whole city. If this land is going to serve any
faith communities at all, open it to every faith on equal terms, not just one. I love this city. That's
why this matters to me. Tustin residents deserve a process they can trust, and right now we
don't have one. Sincerely, Donald Nguyen Tustin Meadows resident since 1996
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