People, Not the Technocrats, Should Be Trusted on Land-Use Planning

Is city planning best left to city boards and planning experts? The Times thinks so, preferring rule by technocrats to direct democracy. In “Land-Use Planning Is No Job for Voters” (editorial, June 2) the editors argue that when planning issues go to the polls it reveals “a failure of representative government at the local level.”

Apparently, issues of development are too “complex” and “important” to be left to the collective wisdom of citizens on Election Day. This sharply minimizes the role of citizens in a democratic regime, relegating that role to the election of leaders who in turn defer to technocrats. The principle of self-government is all but obliterated when citizens are encouraged to surrender their right and responsibility to make the difficult decisions to politics and bureaucrats.

Citizens in Seal Beach were asked through an initiative to make new planning policy for their city. By a margin of nearly 2 to 1 and despite persuasive expenditures by the Mola Corp. in excess of a quarter of a million dollars, they said “no, thank you” to more residential and commercial development. In November, Irvine residents will be asked to judge plans already passed by the City Council to permit a massive new Irvine Co. development. Win or lose, the Irvine referendum on Westpark II will not make any new planning decisions. It will either endorse a planning action already taken or revoke that action, returning Irvine to the previous zoning for the land in question.

At best, The Times’ indictment of “citizen-planners” is relevant to the Seal Beach initiatives, but it seems wide of the mark in Irvine. For unspecified reasons, The Times has lost faith in the ability of citizens to render sound judgments on matters of importance to the quality of their lives. Development is certainly just such an issue. The portrayal of citizens as ignorant, inept and unwise by the mass media furthers the decline of citizen confidence and efficacy and leads to the lethal aggrandizement of political power by professionals. As citizen confidence and efficacy continue to plummet, so will rates of political participation and voter turnout.

MARK P. PETRACCA, Irvine