Supporters, Foes Meet on Slow-Growth Initiative

Supporters of a proposed countywide slow-growth ballot initiative and county officials met Friday to exchange views on the measure, but no negotiations toward a compromise took place, according to participants from both sides.

“It was a good meeting, but I think the county is afraid to back off and embrace what we’ve done,” said Tom Rogers, chairman of Orange County Tomorrow, the group that has circulated the proposed ballot initiative.

“(County officials) were worried about how the initiative might jeopardize the financing of road improvements, but I pointed out that the financing issue is separate. We’re not trying to tell them how to do it, we’re just setting a base line for development in this county. . . . They would have to make those (road) improvements anyway.”

The proposed ballot measure would bar most major construction projects wherever traffic flow does not meet strict standards spelled out in the measure. However, at existing intersections that already fail to meet such standards, growth would be allowed if developers could show that their projects--with road improvements--would result in better traffic flow.

Among those attending Friday’s closed-door meeting were County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish, Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez and executive assistants from the four other supervisors’ offices.

The supervisors’ aides insisted that they attended the meeting to observe and not to negotiate.

Rogers said slow-growth advocates will begin circulating the proposed initiative by the end of this month. The signatures of about 66,000 registered voters are needed to qualify the measure for the June, 1988, countywide ballot.