S.D. No-Growth Initiative Closer to a Spot on Ballot

A grass-roots coalition of San Diegans turned in 75,396 signatures Wednesday, virtually assuring a place on the November ballot for an initiative that would prevent urban sprawl in the north city.

Officials of San Diegans for Managed Growth gathered on the steps of City Hall to push a red wheelbarrow filled with petitions into the city clerk’s office. The group gathered about 23,000 more signatures than are needed to qualify the measure for the ballot.

The initiative seeks to halt residential and commercial growth in the city’s designated “urban reserve,” a 20,000-acre tract reaching from the Sorrento Hills development to Rancho Bernardo that the City Council has set aside for development after 1995. It would require a majority vote in a citywide election to remove land from the urban reserve designation.

The group’s chairman, David Kreitzer, said the initiative is necessary because since 1979 the City Council has approved residential developments in Fairbanks Ranch Country Club (785 acres), Sorrento Hills (600 acres) and North City West (4,500 acres). He said the recent approval of a 1,000-acre graduate Christian university and 750-acre industrial park in La Jolla Valley was the last straw.

“The City Council started this (with) all the exceptions they made to the managed growth plan,” Kreitzer said. “. . . They have violated the growth management plan going back to Mayor (Pete) Wilson’s days.”

Councilman Bill Mitchell said he does not endorse the initiative, even though he signed the petition.

“I can’t blame people for being angry for the way the council has acted in the eight years I’ve been here in violating the growth management plan,” Mitchell said. “I support the resolution, but I’m not sure I support them taking away the council’s authority. (The initiative) is so arbitrary that (for) every piece of future urbanization property, we’d have to go to a vote of the people. That’s what makes me hesitate.”

City Councilman Uvaldo Martinez called the initiative “bad legislation and an elite policy.” He added, “For someone to come along because they didn’t get their way and throw a tantrum and abuse the ballot process is ludicrous.”

Martinez, who said he supported the La Jolla Valley project because it did not involve residential expansion addressed in the urban reserve plan, said the ballot initiative would strip the council’s authority to make growth decisions.

He added that, if voters banned all development in north San Diego, open canyons in the inner city would get plowed under, and city residents would lose much-needed jobs--particularly within the minority community.

Martinez has organized Citizens for Planned Growth, which will oppose the ballot initiative.

“I don’t know what managed growth Councilman Martinez is supporting,” said Kreitzer. “If he believes in managed growth, he wouldn’t have voted to take land out of the urban reserve.”

Officials representing San Diegans for Managed Growth said that residents in every San Diego community signed the petitions. They said that supporters included Councilmen Bill Mitchell and Mike Gotch and Mayor Roger Hedgecock.

“Circulators had no problem finding people to sign the initiative,” said Bob Glaser, a spokesman for the group. “The real problem was in stopping county voters and visitors from signing.”

The group paid circulators 25 cents a signature to gather most of the signatures, and used volunteers to collect the rest. The $24,000 paid to the circulators came from 350 individual donations averaging $40 apiece. Hollywood producer Quinn Martin, who lives in Rancho Santa Fe, contributed the largest amount--$4,000.

For the initiative to be placed on the ballot, 52,000 signatures have to be found valid by the county registrar of voters, after which the City Council would officially certify the measure.

In November, San Diegans for Managed Growth intends to promote council members who support their growth management plan. Mitchell, Gloria McColl and Ed Struiksma face reelection.

Kreitzer and his colleagues, who include leaders of the Sierra Club, the League of Women Voters and local planning groups, said they hope that the petitions send a message to the City Council.

“I came from a city (Los Angeles) that has unplanned sprawl,” said Ruth Duemler, who is on the Sierra Club’s local executive board. “I want a city that is planned.”