W. Hollywood Card Club Plan Losing : Local measures: Two pro-development candidates leading in Santa Monica. Four of five candidates backed by environmentalists ahead in the San Gabriel Valley.

In suburban Los Angeles County, Santa Monica voters sent mixed messages over growth, rent control and homelessness, West Hollywood appeared unwilling to approve card club gambling, the Sierra Club was on the verge of unseating obscure water bureaucrats in the San Gabriel Valley and a judicial candidate in Downey lost after being publicly criticized by a son born out of wedlock.

West Hollywood voted 75% to 25% against a Commerce-style card club with one-quarter of the votes counted. In Downey, David W. Perkins won a contest for Municipal Court judge over Leo Villa, whose most outspoken detractor has been a son born out of wedlock 34 years ago.

And in the San Gabriel Valley, early returns gave comfortable leads to four of five candidates backed by environmentalists.

With half the votes counted in Santa Monica, voters rejected a luxury hotel on the beach, threw out a landlord-backed measure that would have repealed key rent control laws and voted down a measure to elect rather than appoint their city attorney. A more moderate tenant-backed rent control measure was too close to call.

“One key message in this vote is that voters are cantankerous about development to say the least,” said Santa Monica Mayor Dennis Zane.

Despite those anti-development messages, however, two pro-development candidates for City Council--Robert Holbrook and Donna Alvarez--were leading, while their slate partner, incumbent Christine Reed, appeared to face some trouble.

The word “homeless” never appeared on the unusually lengthy Santa Monica ballot, but it was the issue behind Proposition Y, which proposed making the city attorney an elected official. That measure was trailing 57.2% to 42.8%.

Backers of Proposition Y blamed City Atty. Robert M. Myers’ tolerant attitude toward the homeless for an increase in crime

Proposition Z took a strong lead, 61.3% to 38.7%, as voters repealed City Council approval of a luxury hotel and community center proposed for state beach lands. Supported by celebrity restaurateur Michael McCarty, the project was a symbol of overdevelopment to some.

Competing ballot measures--Proposition U, sponsored by landlords, and Proposition W, sponsored by tenants--tried to address Santa Monica’s loss of affordable rental housing. After 10 years of rent control, rents are generally far below those found in Los Angeles, but some rental units have been demolished or transformed to condominiums by landlords who complain of low financial returns.

But landlords lost their effort to strike down a key law by removing all rent controls whenever a unit is voluntarily vacated.

Meanwhile, votes for and against Proposition W was separated by about 300 votes with half the ballots counted. It would set up “thresholds,” based on apartment size, to which rents could rise after a voluntary vacancy.

In West Hollywood, voters said no to what would have been the first legal gambling parlor on the Westside, modeled after card clubs in Commerce and Bell Gardens. Proposition AA was sponsored by investors headed by New York businessman Philip Marks.

Local leaders were virtually unanimous in opposing the measure, saying that a casino would attract crime and traffic. Backers pointed to the economic windfall the club would bring the city.

In the San Gabriel Valley, a controversy over severe ground-water pollution fueled spirited campaigns in three normally obscure water district board races.

Environmentalists, including the Sierra Club, launched full-scale campaigns to win seats held by those representing private and public water companies.

Of the 16 candidates, vying for six seats, environmentalist-backed candidates Anthony R. Fellow, Marvin Cichy, Carol A. Montano and Paul E. Stiglich, who were backed by environmentalists, were ahead early Wednesday.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers John Mitchell, Berkley Hudson and Vivian Louie.