ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Too Much Initiative

By their nature, initiatives tend to be cumbersome and simplistic, especially when they cover ground as complicated as a municipal general plan. They clearly cannot address adequately all the land- use decisions involved in a thoughtful growth policy.

Slow-growth advocates in San Clemente have just found this out the hard way. It appears to be the end of the road for their Measure E, the initiative passed overwhelmingly 2 1/2 years ago. Last week, an appeals court agreed with a lower court ruling that Measure E is unconstitutional because it is an improper exercise of the electorate’s initiative power. While slow-growth advocates could appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court, the two lower court rulings do not bode well for success at that level.

The citizens of San Clemente have every right to want a say in how growth affects their city, but an initiative such as Measure E is not the answer. Simply directing the council to rewrite the laws isn’t the way to go. The City Council and its Planning Commission appointees are properly charged with that duty. Those in a city who don’t like what their elected officials are doing should try to replace them with others who reflect their views on growth.

Following the initial lower court ruling, the city formed a growth-management committee to add provisions from the initiative into the city’s general plan. That’s the proper way to proceed. Residents who still are unhappy should direct their efforts at electing new representatives and actively participate in the city’s land-use planning policy.