Friends, Foes of Measure A Urge Newport Residents to Go to Polls

Both supporters and opponents of Measure A, which would allow the Irvine Co.’s proposed $300-million expansion of Newport Center, spent the final hours of the campaign on the phone Monday, reminding Newport Beach residents to vote in today’s special election.

Voter turnout is expected to be low. Measure A, a complicated development issue, is the only item on the ballot, and the election comes just before the Thanksgiving holiday, when many people will be away from home.

“The main concern we have in a special election is the number of people who vote,” said Thomas H. Nielsen, vice chairman of the Irvine Co. “We want to be sure voters are aware of their polling places and assist them every way we can.”

‘Good Bit of Feeling’

According to Alvin E. Olson, Orange County registrar of voters, the turnout for a single-issue special election is typically no more than 15% to 20% of registered voters.

“On the other hand,” Olson added, “this one has had quite a bit of publicity and there is a good bit of feeling on it, so it could be more.”

Measure A would allow construction of three new office towers, houses, apartments, shops, restaurants and cultural facilities. The expansion plan also calls for $47 million in road improvements in and around the Newport Center area.

Irvine Co. officials say the expansion would put the “finishing touches” on the upscale financial and commercial center that was started 20 years ago, and they argue that the company is willing to pay for road improvements the city and state could never afford.

However, critics of the plan, led by a grass-roots group known as Gridlock, argue that the plan’s centerpiece--the three office towers--would add 40,000 car trips a day to the already congested roads around Newport Center and would further transform picturesque Newport Beach into a crowded urban center.

Company Spending $500,000

In addition to sending out one final mailer Monday in support of the controversial expansion, the Irvine Co. set up a phone bank in its offices Monday night. From there, company employees and members of the pro-A group Citizens for a Better Newport phoned people they had earlier identified as supporting Measure A.

By the time all the votes are tallied tonight, the Irvine Co. will have spent $500,000 trying to persuade Newport Beach’s 45,529 registered voters to approve its plan--the most money ever spent on a single measure in Newport Beach history. The company has been forced to scale down its plans to expand Newport Center three times in the last 10 years.

The Irvine Co. has relied on a slick videotape promoting Newport Center, campaign brochures and sophisticated public surveys in its pro-Measure A campaign. A major accounting firm calculated that if the measure passes and the center expansion goes forward as planned, it will have generated $822 million in gross revenue by the time the entire expansion is completed in 15 years.

Another potential key factor in today’s election is the mailing of about 6,000 absentee ballot applications to targeted Newport Beach voters by the pro-A citizens group.

As of Monday, 1,899 absentee ballots had been returned to the registrar’s office, according to Rosalyn Lever, the registrar’s chief of election operations. Most of those ballots are believed to be from supporters of Measure A.

In contrast, the citizens groups opposing Measure A will have spent about $15,000 trying to defeat it. Their money has been spent on newspaper ads, campaign mailers and the printing of about 300 lawn signs. Those signs were the target of what Gridlock members called last-minute dirty campaign tricks last weekend, when dozens of signs were found in the trash at Newport Harbor High School.

“We don’t have $1 million to express ourselves,” said Gridlock spokesman Allan Beek. “We do have our lawn signs.”

Beek said that because so many of the “No on A” signs had disappeared from lawns, his group was trying to get more printed Monday. But he said it was doubtful they would be finished in time to have any impact on today’s election.

Gridlock members and other opponents also spent Monday phoning people to urge that they vote today.

Divisive Campaign

Bobby Lovell, a neighborhood activist and member of Gridlock, said the campaign has been a divisive one.

“I’m disturbed because it pits neighbor against neighbor like the Civil War,” she said. “It makes it very difficult no matter what way the election goes for people to get back together again.”

For the course of the election, Lovell has coined the expression: “Always look a gift horse in the mouth,” referring to the Irvine Co.’s offer to build a teen center, expand the city’s museum and make road improvements in exchange for increased building rights.

“The real issue in this election is the intensity of development,” she said.

Apart from the phone calls, there appeared to be relatively few signs Monday in many Newport Beach neighborhoods that election day was at hand. A few residents who were asked said they either had made up their minds or were not planning to vote.

One elderly woman on Lido Isle, who asked not to be identified, said she was going to vote for the expansion because “most of the people I know who are important are voting yes.”

‘It’s Good for the City’

As she lifted her bags of groceries from the trunk of her white Rolls-Royce, Newport Beach resident Lorraine Carlton said, “We’re voting yes. I think it’s good for the city.”

But Cindy Ferguson, 29, a clothing designer, was ambivalent about the plan.

“I’ve been reading a lot about it, and there’s a lot of good and a lot of bad.” Just the same, Ferguson added, “I just plan on not voting.”

Supporters of Measure A will be waiting for election night returns at the Balboa Bay Club, while opponents will be at the private Lido Isle home of a Gridlock member.

Irene Butler, Newport Beach’s acting city clerk, said the completed ballots will be dropped off by poll workers at the back of Newport Beach City Hall after the polls close at 8 p.m. The ballots then will be transported to the county registrar of voters office in Santa Ana where they will be counted. County officials said results from the 51 precincts should be known before midnight.