Well, reading the link provided by Pete, the part that seems to jump out at me is this sort of confidence:
Mickelson said he wants to have more "rustic areas ... a rough canyon look, if you will.
"I'm going to make the hard holes harder, but I'm going to make the easy holes easier. I want guys having fun on some of these holes. The second hole is going to be moved up and shorter, little examples. We pretty much have it mapped out how we want to make it.”
Then, reading on at Mr Marney's reactions, gives my the impression that there is some skullduggery going on behind the scenes. Mickelson seems to think he has it locked up with those sort of statements. Marney has proper questions... something has to give. And, the way so much behind the scenes municipal activity goes on, along with some big money interests (PGA, Farmers, etc.), it would be wise for Mr. Marney to watch his behind. That is very unfortunate, but all too common, I'm afraid.
Another thing about this notion of widening and bringing the barranca and canyons into play, with more shots taking on the biteoffs, carries, and bringing FWs closer to the edge, has to be the consideration to both safety of golfers getting too close, and crumbling or stabilizing those edges when the typical muni player gets foolish with their carts, etc. How many 20 handicaps are going to stray downwards into those barranca edges looking for lost balls. Sure, there may be signage saying "verboten" and enviro area-keep outs, but we all know the mentality of the occasional rec golfer, who don't need no stinking rules...
Pete, do you foresee a committee of 'real people-resident-users' being asked to review any of this? Could we nominate you?