Message is Clear: Voters Want Managed Growth

Voters in the city of San Diego have demonstrated that they weren’t daunted by the failure last year of two growth-management ballot measures.

Instead, using a new tool--district elections--they threw out two pro-development council members and elected two others with more managed-growth, environmentalist points of view. They also returned a slow-growth incumbent to office.

The mandate seems inescapable: San Diegans want growth managed more effectively.

This can be accomplished better by the council than through the initiative process. And the election of Linda Bernhardt, John Hartley and Abbe Wolfsheimer should make it possible. If Mayor Maureen O’Connor provides the necessary leadership, the council should finally be able to enact a growth-management plan with teeth.

But San Diegans should not get high expectations about what this new coalition can accomplish.

The new council might be able to slow future growth somewhat and make it pay its way better. It might enact stronger protections for sensitive lands. But the new council won’t make San Diego any less crowded.

As growth management has been debated in recent years, and some changes made, San Diego has continued to grow. And that growth did not pay its full share.

What’s more, some of that growth will continue despite the philosophical shift in the council, because development agreements for thousands of additional housing units have already been approved to be built over the next two decades. It’s doubtful that the council could, or should, try to reverse that.

If San Diegans expect more roads, schools, libraries, parks and police as a result of this election, they will be disappointed. San Diegans will probably still have to tax themselves or pay higher fees to correct the deficiencies of past growth.

But the new council can make a difference. It can build on what was learned in last year’s growth debate and perhaps, in the process, defuse the latest initiatives waiting in the wings. It can set a course for growth that takes regional as well as municipal needs into account. It can enact a growth-management plan that makes sure that growth pays its way. And it can provide the necessary leadership for the tough financial decisions San Diegans will soon face on how to pay for libraries, parks, police and affordable housing so that San Diego will continue to be good place to live, as it grows.