San Clemente Won’t Apply Contested Growth Curbs

Advocates of a San Clemente slow-growth initiative passed last year suffered another setback this week when the City Council decided not to enforce the measure pending the outcome of a court appeal.

The slow-growth proposal, Measure E, was approved by San Clemente voters by a 2-to-1 margin in June, 1988, but was struck down Oct. 19 by Superior Court Judge John C. Woolley, who ruled that it placed an unfair burden on developers and was unconstitutional.

The decision has been appealed to the 4th District state Court of Appeal in Santa Ana, but a decision is not expected before next summer. In the meantime, Measure E supporters have demanded that the City Council enforce it during the appeal process.

The City Council majority, at its meeting Wednesday night, announced it had decided not to enforce Measure E during the appeal process. Councilman Thomas Lorch, however, said he disagreed with his colleagues and deplored the lack of enforcement of Measure E.

“I am pretty upset that this City Council has not shown enough guts to implement the program while the case is still in the courts,” Lorch said. “I think it is a big snub to the citizens--the majority of the citizens--who voted for it.”

The ordinance was designed to allow growth only if city services were not overburdened as a result. The initiative required that either the city or developers be responsible for more streets or improved roads if a development would increase traffic congestion by 1% or more at an intersection or highway link.

In July, the political action group San Clementeans for Managed Growth issued a statement to the City Council through its attorney, Mark Weinberger of San Francisco, which said the group would “actively pursue” enforcement of the ordinance.

Despite the council’s action Wednesday, the group’s president, Lorraine Brouillette, said the organization would continue to press for enforcement of Measure E.

“If we wait until after all the legal proceedings are over, the city of San Clemente will already be overbuilt,” she said. “We are already suffering too much growth.”

Lorch, whose wife, Teddi, is on the board for San Clementeans for Managed Growth, indicated that a lawsuit against the city might be one solution.