Supervisors Put Growth on Ballot : Orange County Initiative Will Go to Voters in June

A far-reaching slow-growth initiative, decried by some as poison to Orange County’s economy and promoted by others as the answer to urban blight and gridlock, will be put to the voters on June 7, the Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday.

Putting aside their personal opposition to the initiative, the supervisors voted unanimously to place the measure, formally known as the Citizens Sensible Growth and Traffic Control Initiative, on the ballot.

“The people have spoken in no uncertain terms,” Board Chairman Harriett M. Wieder said. “True democratic rules dictate that the board put this on the ballot.”

Analysis to Be Included

By the same vote, the supervisors ordered that the ballot include a 500-word analysis of the initiative’s impact on the county economy. The analysis, allowed under state election laws, will be prepared by the county’s auditor-controller, whom officials described as objective because he is elected to the post rather than appointed by the board.

The only remaining threat to a June vote on the initiative, one of the most comprehensive measures of its kind in the nation, is a lawsuit being considered by the Orange County Building Industry Assn.

By law, the supervisors had to adopt the initiative or place it on the ballot after a successful petition drive concluded last month. But they could have ordered a 45-day study that would have delayed the vote until November.

The board’s decision to place the initiative on the ballot in June set the stage for a high-stakes debate involving the county’s most prominent business, political and community leaders over a vote that could profoundly affect Orange County for decades.

Builders’ Requirements

The initiative would require builders to pay for improvements to offset the extra demand on roads and public services that their projects cause. It would apply only to the unincorporated areas of the county, though efforts are under way to get similar measures on several citywide ballots.

The board’s decision Tuesday was a landmark vote for the initiative’s sponsors, who began their petition drive in September and qualified the measure for the ballot in February with more than 96,000 signatures, about 9,000 above their goal.

“You’ve got to put this down as an important date in the whole battle,” said Tom Rogers, a co-founder of the organization that drafted the initiative. “Because from this date forward, no matter what happens, they unanimously realized there is a problem.”

On Monday, the county’s business community unveiled a campaign organization called Citizens for Traffic Solutions that promised to lead a fight against the initiative. Its treasurer, Newport Beach attorney John R. Simon, asked the supervisors to delay the countywide vote on the initiative until November so his group would have more time to educate the public about its negative effects.

“We think it can be beaten,” Simon said after the vote Tuesday. “June makes it real tough; the job is enormous.”

Job Elimination Feared

Simon said at a press conference Monday that the slow-growth initiative could eliminate up to 250,000 jobs and reduce the county’s tax base. The supervisors have complained that the measure does not include a financing mechanism to build roads that the county already needs.

A $10,000 report on the initiative’s impact commissioned by the supervisors was released Monday by Chapman College’s Center for Economic Research. It said the initiative would raise housing costs in the county and reduce personal income levels.

A poll conducted for The Times early last month showed that 73% of registered voters support the initiative but that only about 50% knew about it. In the same poll, 58% of those surveyed said they believe the supervisors represent the interests of developers on the issue of growth and only 16% believe they speak for average citizens on that issue.

That image has led the board to recently emphasize its accomplishments and respond gingerly to perceptions of public sentiment on the initiative.

A Second Plan

Tuesday, the board unanimously adopted “in concept” a growth-management plan of its own that would place less stringent restrictions on development than the initiative would require.

The supervisors’ growth plan is modeled in part after the Foothill Circulation Phasing Plan, which is expected to generate nearly $250 million for new roads, mainly in Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez’s 3rd District.

Like the foothill plan, the growth management plan discussed Tuesday would require developers to pay for enough roads to keep traffic flowing at specified levels before any homes are built in the area served by those roads. They also would have to pay for libraries, child care, Sheriff’s Department stations and fire stations adequate for the increased population. There also are provisions for protecting trees and park space.

The board also voted Tuesday to make all future residential development subject to whatever growth-management plan the county eventually adopts. That will be done by including special provisions in all subdivision maps approved by the county.

Guidelines for Future

Wieder said she did not intend the supervisors’ growth management plan to be a vehicle to circumvent the initiative. But she said it will give the county rules to guide future development if the initiative is delayed or blocked in court. If the initiative is passed, it would supersede the supervisors’ plan.

“I do believe this plan is dependable and reliable,” Wieder said. “And it will maintain the integrity of the board. . . . The process I have outlined is in no way intended to conflict with or compete with the initiative.”

The supervisors did leave open the possibility that their growth plan might be placed on the November ballot “as the basis for a ‘cleanup’ measure to correct legal and procedural flaws that exist in the initiative,” Wieder said.

The plan is scheduled for extensive public review that will include hearings before the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. The board also said it will establish a citizens review committee that will include representatives from the business community and the sponsors of the initiative.

The exact makeup of the committee is to be outlined next week. Final adoption of the plan is expected in early April.

“It shows where we wish to go,” said Supervisor Thomas F. Riley. “What we are trying to do now is come up with new ways to do things.”

WHAT SLOW-GROWTH MEASURE WOULD DO

The countywide slow-growth measure known as the Citizens Sensible Growth and Traffic Control Initiative would:

Require that new roads generally be sufficient to accommodate traffic moving at certain average speeds during rush hours.

Require that the average traffic delay at new intersections generally not exceed 40 seconds, depending on the availability of left-turn pockets and other design configurations.

Require that congestion generated by new development on existing roads or intersections be offset by traffic improvements paid for by developers within three years of construction.

Set a minimum response time of five minutes for police, fire and paramedics in emergencies, 10 minutes in non-emergencies.

Require more parkland dedications by developers.

Set a minimum flood-control standard requiring that new developments be able to withstand the kind of heavy flooding that occurs on an average of once every 100 years.