Slow-Growth Measures Are Winning in 3 Cities

The slow-growth movement that appeared to have been stopped cold in a decisive countywide defeat in June showed signs of life Tuesday as its nearly identical offspring were winning in early returns in three cities.

In Costa Mesa, where the countywide initiative was voted down in June, the local Measure G was ahead by a slim margin. The unexpected anti-development sentiment in Costa Mesa also appeared to spread to two other ballot measures, H and I, in which a $300-million proposed office and hotel complex called Home Ranch was going down to defeat.

“We’re feeling very good over here,” said Diane Goldberger, chairwoman of the Costa Mesa Residents Political Action Committee, a slow-growth group that also supported Measures H and I to kill the development by C.J. Segerstrom & Sons. “We’ve always been thought of as a vocal minority; now it appears we’re not such a minority.”

An identical slow-growth measure in San Juan Capistrano was winning by a wide margin, while a third in Huntington Beach had a narrow lead. In Newport Beach, meanwhile, a different measure restricting development was losing.

Fireworks Measure Losing

In other local measures, Stanton voters were narrowly rejecting an advisory measure to allow the sale of so-called “safe-and-sane” fireworks. A San Clemente measure that would require a referendum for onshore oil facilities was winning.

Three of the slow-growth measures on city ballots are nearly identical to the countywide initiative that was soundly defeated in June, 56% to 44%.

The Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa and San Juan Capistrano measures would require developers to pay for road construction within the area of their project to meet certain traffic-flow standards. Each measure would also require certain levels for police, fire and flood-control protection.

The Newport Beach measure would close loopholes in the city’s existing growth ordinance, which already requires certain traffic-flow standards to be met when new development occurs. This measure does not contain provisions for police, fire or flood-control services.

But the slow-growth campaigns--once thought to represent an immensely popular groundswell--instead have faced daunting obstacles in the fall campaigns.

Like their predecessor last June, the measures have been overwhelmingly outspent. By Sept. 30, finance reports showed that opponents had outspent supporters by $204,127 to $8,653.

The slow-growth effort also was thrown into doubt last month when a Superior Court judge invalidated a slow-growth measure adopted by San Clemente voters in June. The San Clemente initiative is nearly identical to three of the initiatives on the November ballot.

The judge ruled that the San Clemente measure unconstitutionally required developers to solve traffic problems not caused by their projects. Opponents of the current slow-growth measures predict that lawsuits will follow if any of the initiatives pass.

Times staff writers Nancy Wride and Rick Vanderknyff contributed to this story.