Escondido ‘Troika’ Is Expected to Put Brakes on Growth

For two decades, growth and business have been the primary goals of Escondido’s civic leaders, transforming a sleepy town of 25,000 into a bustling metropolis that will soon number 100,000.

On June 7, San Diego County’s fastest-growing city elected a majority of slow-growth City Council members, headed by veteran Councilman Jerry Harmon.

Harmon, at swearing-in ceremonies Tuesday evening, thanked the voters for speaking with “a clear voice” in endorsing the ideas he has been promoting since he first ran for Escondido council--and lost--in 1972: limits on population and development.

‘There Are Limits’

He called for the community to “move in a different direction” as it begins its second 100 years, pacing itself and recognizing that “there are limits to how much we can grow” and a finite “holding capacity” for the inland city.

Though Harmon was an expected winner, newcomers Carla DeDominicis and Kris Murphy were not. Both attorney DeDominicis and businessman Murphy were endorsed by Harmon, and Murphy shared a campaign headquarters with Harmon, a telephone company executive.

All three have campaigned on the issue of putting the brakes on runaway growth, and all three have earned the loyalty of Escondido’s more than 6,000 mobile-home park residents by aiding the group in its successful initiative drive to impose rent control at mobile-home parks.

Holdover council members Doris Thurston and Ernie Cowan have little to say about the sudden reversal in Escondido voters’ fancies. Thurston, who was sworn in to replace retiring Mayor Jim Rady, may find her council stewardship challenged by Harmon, who has spent 14 years on the short end of 4-1 votes.

Though the new council majority--Harmon, DeDominicis and Murphy--have been nicknamed “The Troika,” even Harmon admits there is no guarantee his protegees won’t go galloping off in different directions once they get the feel of the position.

However, Harmon’s dominance and the direction he plans to lead the Escondido council majority is apparent by looking at the agenda for tonight’s first meeting with the newly installed council members.

Harmon has scheduled consideration of an urgency ordinance to freeze mobile-home park rents until Proposition K--the mobile-home rent-control ordinance passed June 7--goes into effect. That ordinance will roll back rents to their Jan. 1, 1986, levels and limit future rent hikes to cost-of-living increases.

Harmon also scheduled the possible revision of council rules and procedures. One proposal, to allow any council member to bring up a matter for reconsideration, might signal the death knell for several major housing developments in the city.

Under present rules, only a council member on the prevailing side of a vote can move for reconsideration. Harmon, who has usually been on the losing side of development votes in the past, wants the change to reopen and possibly revoke several development agreements to which he is opposed.

Eaglecrest, a 640-home development on the city’s eastern outskirts near the Wild Animal Park, might be the first to feel the sting of the slow-growth coalition. The Signal Landmark project, which was approved a few weeks ago by the former council majority, with Harmon voting against the measure, might have its agreement revoked tonight by the new council.

Land Sale Threatened

Harmon also is expected to take the lead in unraveling a three-way land sale under which Escondido is to buy 263 acres around Lake Hodges for $11.3 million and then sell it to a private developer for the same price. The property would be developed into housing and an 18-hole public golf course.

Murphy was a leader in a successful referendum campaign to place the land deal before Escondido voters, and Harmon was the lone council opponent to what he called “an insider deal” that was offered to one local developer instead of being opened to competitive bidding, which Harmon thinks will result in “a better deal for the taxpayers.”

The new council majority is expected to rescind the land swap agreement and to cancel the election on the issue.