Local News in Brief : Irvine : Slow-Growth Group Snubbed by Institute

Backers of the proposed countywide slow-growth initiative are not invited to a discussion Wednesday sponsored by the Urban Land Institute, despite claims made in ULI’s advance publicity to the contrary, organizers said Monday.

“There was a mistake,” said one of them, Kevin T. Hanson, vice president and regional manager of Bedford Properties Inc. “The press releases were written in Washington, D.C., and they are incorrect.”

ULI is a nonprofit organization of city planners, architects, developers and financiers.

Hanson said sponsors of the Citizens’ Sensible Growth and Traffic Control initiative could pay $45 to attend as members of the public, something initiative co-author Russ Burkett said his organization will not do.

“First they advertise that we’re going to be part of the program without telling us, and then they refuse to include us,” said Burkett. “Now, some people who don’t know the initiative will be talking to others who don’t know the initiative.”

Hanson predicted that most of those at the luncheon will have attended forums previously at which proponents and opponents presented their views. “This (Wednesday) program is a chance for the audience to state its views,” he said.

The meeting of the ULI District Council Network is scheduled from 11:15 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Registry Hotel in Irvine.