ELECTIONS ’88 : Measure A’s Supporters, Foes Battling Down to the Wire : Backers Asked to Step Up Pace as Support Slips

Lorraine Brouillette and Marie Patterson don’t have a lot in common, but as they reach the top of a steep hill in a quiet San Clemente neighborhood, their shared vision comes into view like the ocean on the horizon.

“It is not money that is driving us, just a set of standards,” explained Brouillette, a retired teacher who, like Patterson, has spent the past several months working in the campaign for Measure A, the countywide slow-growth initiative to be voted on Tuesday.

“There is a new attitude throughout the country that has to do with preserving high standards for development,” she added. “People are more sophisticated these days. They’re saying enough: enough of alcohol, enough of drugs and enough of development.”

Then, gesturing to the ocean that appears just over the next ridge, Brouillette turned to a visitor and asked: “What’s the use of living in an area as beautiful as this if you’re afraid to get on the freeway because you’ll either get shot or run down by a big truck?”

Brouillette, who retired to San Clemente just three years ago after years of living overseas, and Patterson, a longtime Orange County resident and environmental activist, are just two soldiers in the campaign to pass the controversial slow-growth measure, which would tie development to the ability of local roads and public services to handle the increased usage.

A Shoestring Campaign

Out-financed and outmanned by developers and other initiative opponents, who have collected almost $2 million to defeat the initiative, Measure A organizers have run a shoestring campaign that has relied almost strictly on volunteers like Brouillette and Patterson. And with polls showing support for the measure slipping, the volunteers have been called on to step up their efforts in the waning days before Tuesday’s vote.

While distributing flyers in a San Clemente neighborhood last week, Brouillette, a registered Republican, and Patterson, a Democrat, said they came together out of concern over what they see as unbridled growth that has clogged the freeways, fouled the air and transformed a once-pristine county into an urban megalopolis.

“We’re not against growth,” said Patterson, a retired school administrator who has lived in Orange County since 1936. “The general public has lost a voice in how these things are managed and we’re just trying to get it back. I feel that controlled development is the only way to benefit not only the present generation but future generations, too.”

“We’re not fanatics,” Brouillette added. “We know that there must be growth and people have to have jobs. We just want it controlled, that’s all.”

Brouillette said her evolution into a slow-growth activist began as a youngster, when she would fight with her mother over trees in their backyard.

“My mother is very much an Italian, very European when it comes to trees,” Brouillette explained. “She was always cutting and trimming the trees. She couldn’t stand for them to soil the ground, make a mess. I’d always fight with her about it. I wanted the trees left alone. Maybe that’s how it all started.”

Later, while living in McLean, Va., she joined with a group of homeowners to oppose a road project and won. The victory turned her into something of a concerned citizen.

“I call the President’s office and my congressmen when I have something to say,” she said. “I do it quite often. The last time I called the President? It was probably over (Panamanian Gen. Manuel A.) Noriega. My concern was that he not be pardoned on those drug charges.”

Brouillette and Patterson first met in 1985 in the campaign to pass a measure on the San Clemente city ballot limiting the number of new building permits that could be issued each year.

Patterson, as it turned out, was no stranger to such movements.

An active member of both the Sea and Sage Audubon Society of Santa Ana and the South Coast Audubon Society, Patterson also has worked to divert a section of the proposed Eastern Foothill Transportation Corridor and has been active in researching the history of the Juaneno Indians.

“I don’t know if I’d say that I’m an activist,” she said while handing out leaflets. “I’m concerned what’s going on here in my own backyard. It’s the wholesale leveling and grading and concentrated, intense housing that concerns me.”

As the women made their rounds, stuffing flyers into mailboxes and garage doors, they occasionally ran into people like homeowner Francis Caldet, a retired truck dealer, who was set to vote against the measure.

“I got one question for you,” Caldet said. “What is your plan for the Foothill Corridor? It’s the only freeway that’s going to give us any relief. How are you going to finance it? They say it will be partially financed by developers, and if this thing passes, it won’t be built.”

“We’re not against the freeway,” Patterson responded. “The freeway will be built--that is already decided.”

“But how will it be built if the developers don’t pay?” Caldet countered.

“We’re not saying no to growth,” Patterson interrupted. “We just want sensible growth.”

“Well, where are our kids going to live, our grandchildren if there’s no growth?” Caldet continued. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t go along with you.”

With just several days left before the vote, both women worry about the negative campaign being waged by initiative opponents, but they hold onto hope that the measure will pass.

“The other side keeps saying that it will mean a loss of jobs and worse traffic,” Patterson said. “But my husband and both my sons are in construction, and they are for it. They have to fight the traffic, too. They realize the problems we’re having here,” she said, adding:

“The sad truth is that if this measure passes, traffic won’t get any better. The damage has already been done. But if we want to preserve what we’ve got, we must start somewhere.”