S.D. Mayor Urges Council to Adopt Growth Initiative

Mayor Maureen O’Connor, taking her boldest step to date on San Diego’s perennial growth issue, Friday urged the City Council to adopt a proposed managed-growth ballot initiative as law and strengthen the city’s environmental protections.

O’Connor, calling the council’s newly elected managed-growth majority to action, made it clear that she views their votes on her proposal as a litmus test of the environmental ideals they have espoused in the past few months.

“She’s more or less saying to everybody else on the council, ‘Either put up or shut up,’ ” said Leo Wilson, attorney for Prevent Los Angelization Now!, the growth-control group whose “Planned Growth Initiative” O’Connor wants to adopt.

“This is a chance for (Councilman Bob) Filner to put his vote where his mouth is,” Paul Downey, the mayor’s spokesman, said of O’Connor’s long-time antagonist. “He says he wants to lead the charge on the environment. Well, he’s a little late because the mayor’s already leading it. But he can get on board, and I hope Linda would get on board,” he said of Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt.

In a memo to her colleagues, the mayor proposed that PLAN’s initiative, now being circulated for placement on the June 5 ballot, be introduced as a city ordinance at a Jan. 11 meeting originally scheduled for discussion only. O’Connor also proposed to introduce amendments to the city’s Resource Protection Ordinance and other regulations to strengthen protection of the city’s topography.

The rival “Traffic Control and Comprehensive Growth Management” initiative is being circulated by the “San Diego 2000 Committee,” which includes building industry, government and business officials.

“There is now, for the first time since my election as mayor, an indication that a clear majority on the City Council reflects my views as well as the residents’ position on these issues, and it is now time to record the new council’s vote on this issue,” O’Connor wrote.

“The city needs to act now . . . and guarantee that our transportation systems and public facilities will keep up with future growth, while still permitting new development to accommodate the needs generated by our healthy economy.”

The mayor’s action comes after local elections in which voters replaced two pro-growth council members, Ed Struiksma and Gloria McColl, with environmentalists Linda Bernhardt and John Hartley. They also narrowly reelected growth-control advocate Abbe Wolfsheimer, creating a solid core of at least four slow-growth votes on the council.

The move comes four days after a bruising internal political battle, which ended when the new coalition forced O’Connor to replace Councilman Bruce Henderson with Filner as head of the City Council committee overseeing parks.

PLAN’s initiative sets citywide standards for traffic congestion and prohibits new development from adding to it without contributions from builders to offset the impact of more automobiles. It also requires that roads, parks, sewer systems and other public works be constructed concurrent with new development, and mandates that the city set standards community by community to ensure the provision of such facilities.

On the environment, the mayor wants to rescind exemptions from current city protections for some major housing projects and strengthen prohibitions against building in flood plains, said Tim O’Connell, O’Connor’s land-use adviser.

O’Connor’s gambit drew a wide variety of reactions from council members, some of whom were taken aback by the suddenness of it. It was only Wednesday that the council’s Rules Committee scheduled the Jan. 11 workshop to discuss PLAN’s initiative and its rival, which was written largely by members of the building industry.

“It’s a little premature for me to adopt or consider adopting the Planned Growth Initiative as an ordinance at this time,” said Councilman Wes Pratt, a traditional O’Connor ally.

“I think it shows that Peter Navarro is going to lead,” Councilman Judy McCarty said of PLAN’s chairman. “Obviously, Peter Navarro has got the City Council and the mayor jumping through hoops, and I think it’s silly.” McCarty favors placing both initiatives on the ballot and letting the public choose.

Bernhardt said she, too, was not ready to adopt the initiative without modifications, suggesting that PLAN’s program might not go far enough. She also said she wants to consider adopting parts of the rival initiative.

A leader of the San Diego 2000 Committee said a council decision to adopt the Planned Growth Initiative as law would effectively make the developer-backed initiative moot.

“I think the effect of it would be to nullify ours before it’s presented,” said Jim Mills, chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Development Board and co-chairman of the San Diego 2000 Committee. Mills said PLAN’s initiative would choke growth to such an extent that development could not generate the fees necessary to expand and complete the region’s roads and mass transit system, as called for in the “Traffic Control and Comprehensive Growth Management” initiative.

“The process is in motion for the people to decide, and it seems appropriate for them to do so,” Mills said.

O’Connell said his analysis of both measures shows that they do not conflict in many areas. Voters could still adopt the rival initiative, and some parts of it might take effect, he said.