Slow-Growth Forces Send 4-Point Plan to Newport Council

In the afterglow of the defeat of the Irvine Co.’s Newport Center expansion plans, slow-growth advocates sent a four-point reform plan calling for stricter limitations on development to the Newport Beach City Council on Wednesday.

Representatives of Newport 2000, SPON (Stop Polluting Our Newport) and Gridlock said they mailed their program to the City Council and are hoping action will be taken in the coming months.

“A lot of people were saying to us after the election: ‘What comes next?’ ” said Allan Beek, who spearheaded the public referendum on the Newport Center expansion last November. “This is our answer.”

The four-point program calls for an early vote on a city traffic initiative now scheduled for the November, 1988, ballot; limitations on high-rise development; strengthening the city’s conflict-of-interest law and consolidating city elections so voters decide all local issues at the same time.

“The outcome of the . . . (Newport Center) election indicates that the residents realize that more office buildings are not needed in Newport Beach,” said Beek, referring to the three office towers that were at the heart of the Irvine Co.’s massive expansion plan. “We hope the City Council has heard the message sent by the voters.”

City Council members, many of whom voted in favor of the Newport Center expansion, are likely to give the groups’ proposals a cool reception. Newport Beach Mayor John C. Cox Jr., saying the city already has laws and procedures to alleviate traffic congestion and overdevelopment, called the program “political rhetoric.”

“I’m not denying the fact that there is a concern for growth in Newport Beach, myself included,” Cox said, but he dismissed the half-dozen leaders of the city’s slow-growth movement as “a broken record.”

“I am very willing to go through what we believe is the orderly public process, holding hearings and doing environmental impact reports,” Cox said. “If Beek doesn’t like something, he raises his sword and collects signatures for initiatives. I don’t think that’s the way to run a city.”

While Newport 2000 spokesman and former Newport Beach Mayor Paul Ryckoff did not rule out the possibility of future referendums on council actions, he said it was the group’s hope to work with the council.

Ryckoff and Beek said they will ask newly elected Councilman Philip Sansone to help push their proposals through the council.

But Cox said Wednesday it was too soon to say what the seven-member council will do about the program.

“I know we will have to respond to them,” Cox said. “It’s a political football, and they’re putting us on the spot.”