Council Decides Emergency on Growth Can Wait Until After Summer Break

The San Diego City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to delay debate on three growth-control ordinances until after the council’s upcoming summer break.

The vote to tackle growth-control issues at the Sept. 10 council meeting evidently ended any attempt by the council to pass growth-related ordinances on an emergency basis.

The council had hoped to have its series of growth-control ordinances in place before the break. That would have allowed the council to begin campaigning against a competing growth-control plan that will be on the ballot in November.

The council delayed action on a pair of emergency ordinances that were designed to alleviate the impact of new development on the city’s transportation network. The second proposed emergency ordinance would have established a long-term public works program that would maintain the city’s much-discussed “quality of life.”

The council also delayed action on a related ordinance that would have set up a controversial citywide fee designed to generate more than $900 million to help pay for needed public improvements.

Peter Navarro, founder of Prevent Los Angelization Now, a group that supports growth controls, Tuesday chided the council about the “irony of continuing an emergency ordinance” until the September meeting.

But the council’s vote to continue discussion after the summer break drew strong support from the Coalition for San Diego, a group with business and development interests, the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce and San Diegans Inc., a group that represents downtown businesses. Those groups are concerned that any additional growth controls, when added to regulations now in place, would stifle San Diego’s economy.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor echoed those concerns Tuesday when she directed city staff to prepare a report on “the indicators (that predict) when a city is heading into a recession.” O’Connor said she is “very nervous about a recession” occurring in Southern California.

Navarro urged the council to move quickly on the growth-control plan. “You’re creating a budget deficit for you to deal with” by ignoring growth controls now, Navarro said. “Let’s all get on with it.”