DANA POINT : General Plan Foes to Continue Petition

Opponents of the city’s General Plan said this week that they will continue to circulate a petition to void the document despite a technicality that could invalidate the petition.

After a disclosure at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting that the petition backed by the Dana Point Action Coalition included an incorrect listing for the city’s General Plan, coalition supporters promised to continue their efforts. The coalition, unhappy about the council’s July 9 approval of the General Plan, is attempting to collect signatures from 10%, or about 1,700, of the city’s registered voters by Aug. 9 to rescind the approval of the plan.

If the petition drive is successful, the General Plan would automatically be rescinded and the council would be forced to either hold a special election or come up with another option, according to City Clerk Mary Carlson.

City Atty. Jerry Patterson informed the council Tuesday that the petition included the wrong resolution number for the General Plan and an incomplete text of the approved resolution. Patterson said he believes that those discrepancies invalidate the petition.

If the petition is indeed invalid, the coalition will print another one and continue circulating it throughout the city, said Ernie Nelson, a coalition spokesman.

“It’s a technicality,” Nelson said. “But we’re not going to let this drop. All it means is we have 15 days instead of 30.”

Council members said they informed the referendum supporters now so that the technicalities would not be the basis for invalidating the petition after its deadline.

Nelson said his group had gathered about 600 of the necessary 1,700 signatures in the last two weeks. He estimated that a new printing would cost the coalition $3,000 to $3,500.

“But we have the support and the money in our coffers, so we’re going to go ahead with it,” Nelson said.

The coalition maintains that the recently approved General Plan will disrupt the character of the city, changing it from a small beach community into a “high-profile destination resort.”