‘Killer Clause’ Upheld in Carlsbad Slow-Growth Vote

A Vista Superior Court judge Tuesday rejected a plea by a Carlsbad citizens’ group to enact a slow-growth initiative that got a majority vote in November but was declared a loser.

But leaders of Concerned Citizens, the grass-roots group that pushed the slow-growth measure, said they would recommend to their membership that the ruling be appealed.

Proposition G garnered 51.5% of the vote in the Nov. 4 election, but the Carlsbad City Council refused to adopt it because a rival ballot measure, Proposition E, got more votes.

Proposition E, which was backed by the council, included a stipulation that, if both propositions passed, only the one receiving the highest number of votes would become law. Under that so-called “killer clause,” Proposition E was the victor with 57.9% of the vote.

Members of Concerned Citizens insisted that a killer clause can only be used if the two measures conflict, which they felt was not the case.

But Judge David Moon ruled that the measures in fact were in conflict with one another and that the killer clause was correctly implemented by Carlsbad officials. The ruling marked the first time in California that a judge has addressed the use of a killer clause in the initiative process.

Noting that the two measures were presented to the voters as rival measures during the campaign, Moon stressed that Propositions E and G were “not harmonious--they’re not sister propositions or measures.”

Moreover, Moon pointed out that the killer clause “was of equal benefit to both propositions. The way it was worded, had Proposition G garnered more votes . . . the killer clause would have piggy-backed onto G and the tables would have been reversed.”

Moon refused, however, to rule on the constitutionality of Proposition G, which had come under attack from city legal officials and attorneys for the development community as a legally dubious measure fraught with problems.

Proposition G proposed an annual cap on the number of dwelling units built in the city, limiting it to 1,000 in 1987, 750 in 1988 and 500 in each subsequent year through 1996. Proposition E is designed to insure that public facilities such as streets and parks grow apace with housing.

In Vista and Oceanside, the outcome of similar battles--pitting city council growth-management measures against citizen-sponsored slow-growth initiatives--could have been colored if Moon had rejected use of the killer clause.

Thomas Smith, co-chairman of Concerned Citizens, said the judge’s ruling will not stop the group’s efforts.

“We had a setback today, but obviously this is not the end of the story,” Smith said, adding that the organization plans to continue its slow-growth efforts on both the political and legal fronts.