Panel Eases Development Restrictions

San Diego’s development industry won a victory in the struggle to shape the city’s growth management plan Wednesday when the advisory panel mapping that blueprint substantially altered stringent measures designed to protect environmentally sensitive lands.

In voting that pitted a bloc of environmentalists against a bloc of development industry representatives, the Citizens’ Advisory Committee on Growth and Development approved surprise language offered by leading land-use attorney and committee member Paul Peterson. In general, the new language offers City Council wider discretion in decisions over construction on sensitive lands than environmentalists had intended.

Peterson’s proposals were offered for the first time Wednesday when the two sides were unable reach agreement on key provisions of the so-called Sensitive Lands Initiative that will govern building on hillsides, canyons, flood plains and wetlands.

Votes Denounced

The smaller group of environmentalists, who lost on four key votes to a coalition of development industry officials and swing voters, angrily denounced the results. The committee’s decisions are recommendations to the San Diego City Council, which has the power of final approval.

“We now have a sensitive lands initiative that was rewritten by the construction industry,” said Lynn Benn, the advisory group’s vice-chairman, and a member of San Diegans for Managed Growth, which mounted an unsuccessful effort to put the measure before voters through the petition process. “The flexibility put into it reduces it to the level of existing regulation. It has no teeth and it has no substance.”

‘Example of No Compromise’

“What we’re seeing here today is an example of no compromise” by the building industry, said David Kreitzer, another committee member and San Diegans for Managed Growth’s chairman. They are “going to ram it through no matter what the people want.”

Peterson agreed that the approved language dramatically alters the original sensitive lands measure, which he called an “Alice in Wonderland” proposal that could not work “in the real world.”

But he argued that his proposals are much tougher than the current city zoning regulations designed to protect hillsides and other environmentally sensitive lands from home building.

“The language is much stricter than anything on the books presently,” Peterson said. “Every single instance is tougher than what’s on the books.” He also said that the changes “probably saved (the measure) from being invalidated” by the courts.

Competing Plans

The sensitive lands measures are considered a critical aspect of the growth plan that the council will place before voters for approval Nov. 8. The city-sponsored plan will compete with the already-completed Quality of Life Initiative, which was placed on the ballot by a citizens group through the petition process.

The Quality of Life Initiative calls for stricter limits on growth than the current version of the city-sponsored plan. It also contains provisions protecting environmentally sensitive lands.

Council members began a preliminary discussion of the advisory panel’s sensitive lands recommendations Wednesday evening, but are not yet ready to vote on the measures. However, District 2 council member Ron Roberts, who heads the advisory panel, predicted that the council will toughen the provisions approved by the panel Wednesday.

‘Too Much Flexibility’

“I think this council will be looking at this with a fresh eye,” Roberts said. “I think this council will strengthen what has been recommended. There’s too much flexibility in it. It tends to give rights to anyone who has even thought about a project.” Roberts was absent for three of Wednesday’s votes because he was voting on Transient Occupancy Tax funding at the City Council’s Rules Committee.

The sensitive lands measure began as a citizens initiative led by San Diegans for Managed Growth, but was referred to the advisory committee for inclusion in the city’s plan. The citizens group later gave up its petition drive because it lacked the money and manpower to place the measure on the ballot.

But Wednesday its members saw many of their most prized provisions defeated in favor of language more favorable to builders.

On the definition of steep slopes, Peterson went along with the environmentalists’ strict methods of measuring the slopes. But it leaves the City Council wider discretion in determining which lands around those slopes would be protected from development.

The approved language makes it easier for some of the 60,237 homes currently in various stages of the city’s planning process to win a guaranteed building right, regardless of the plan voters approve in November. The citizens initiative had required substantial construction before a guaranteed right would be granted.

The new language also allows builders to put a greater number of homes on non-sensitive lands than the measure’s writers had intended.

Though the committee did not vote on it Wednesday, environmentalists and builders are almost certain to be divided over a provision allowing the City Council to override the environmental protection. Peterson’s proposal would allow a variance with five votes, while the measure’s authors would require seven votes on the nine-member council.