Irvine Voters Narrowly OK Housing Plan

In a victory for the city’s largest landowner, voters on Tuesday narrowly approved a controversial Irvine Co. proposal to build 3,850 more homes here, following the most expensive campaign in city history.

The vote to pass Measure B by about 70 votes clears the way for Westpark II and signals razor-thin support for the current Irvine City Council majority, which has vowed to back other Irvine Co. developments. Westpark II was approved by the council last December, but Irvine Tomorrow, a citizens group, forced the proposal onto the ballot as a referendum.

The Irvine Co., which sent out slick mailers as late as Election Day, spent nearly $600,000 in an attempt to persuade voters of the project’s necessity. In contrast, Irvine Tomorrow, which gathered signatures to qualify the measure for the election, spent less than $2,000.

“This is a victory for those who wanted to retain the stability, certainty and security of one of the most praised master-planned cities in America,” said Keith Greer, who heads a division of the Irvine Co. responsible for residential construction. “Most important, (voters) rejected political planning by referendum in favor of a thoughtful planning process that encourages broad community debate and discussion.”

In county school board elections, incumbents lost two races, which included major upsets in Orange Unified and Newport-Mesa Unified.

In Newport, challenger Martha Fluor, a newcomer, defeated Tom Williams, a developer, by more than a 2-to-1 margin. Similarly, in Orange Unified’s Trustee Area 6, challenger Robert Viviano defeated incumbent Russell Barrios by a 2-to-1 margin.

Barrios, an aide to County Supervisor Don R. Roth, was plagued by last summer’s debate over a proposed assessment fee on Orange property owners, even though the Board of Trustees eventually rescinded the measure.

Most of the races were calm, but last-minute clashes prevailed on Election Day in the Orange Unified district, where eleventh-hour bickering erupted when the teachers union accused conservative Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange) of trying to influence the school board.

Conroy had endorsed Maureen Aschoff, who defeated Larry Labrado by 700 votes. Challengers John McCain and Daniel Matranga trailed far behind.

“I think the teachers union was off-centered. I think they should re-evaluate their priorities,” Aschoff said. “People in this district knew what they needed and they needed a change.”

In the Santa Ana Unified race, newcomer Rosemarie Avila and incumbents Audrey Yamagata Noji and Sal Mendoza were the winners. Incumbent Gerardo Mouet lost. Incumbents were also reelected in Garden Grove and Irvine.

But most voter interest in Irvine was generated by three ballot measures, two of which related to the course of development and the ability of the city’s largest landholder to proceed with several master-planned communities.

Most of the pre-election controversy surrounded Measure B, which asked voters to approve Westpark II, or Village 38, an Irvine Co. project to be built between Woodbridge and the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station.

Also up for voter consideration was Measure C, a non-binding advisory vote on the city’s 3-year-old agreement with the Irvine Co. to set aside about 9,000 acres of open space in exchange for development rights on other land. Voters ratified that pact by a wide margin after it cleared the council. On Tuesday, voters approved that measure with 77% of the vote.

Though one of the city’s smallest planned communities, Village 38 plunged Irvine’s political factions and the Irvine Co. into a broad, sometimes contentious debate over the future of urban development and how much voters should participate in planning decisions.

At stake too was the fate of other Irvine Co. projects, such as Northwood 5, which Irvine Tomorrow planned to target for other referendums depending on the outcome of the Village 38 campaign.

Irvine Tomorrow, led by a group of supporters of former Mayor Larry Agran, asserted that Village 38 was ill-conceived and would lead to a host of urban woes despite Irvine Co. assurances that the problems have been addressed.

The group contended that a majority of local voters have grown tired of development in Southern California and no longer want to live in a city with politics and planning dominated by the Irvine Co. Irvine Tomorrow dubbed its campaign committee Citizens Against Rampant Growth.

“I think it means that this pro-development council is going to rubber-stamp every development project this company brings through,” said Councilwoman Paula Werner, who opposed the project. “Another thing it means, and it’s very sad, is that a big developer and big dollars can buy an Irvine election.”

Supporters of Village 38 countered that a vote against the project would create what developers perceive as a potentially disastrous domino effect for builders and other Irvine Co. projects. The referendum, they said, would add great uncertainty in a previously stable and secure atmosphere for managed, carefully planned growth.

Irvine Tomorrow has accused the Irvine Co. and its supporters of using scare tactics by claiming that a vote against Village 38 will destroy the city’s open-space agreement with the company.

But supporters of the project contended that the community was the first development approved under the agreement and its defeat could trigger a string of project denials that would undermine the pact.

The campaign for and against Measure B turned out to be the most expensive campaign ever in Irvine, exceeding the previous spending record by a candidate or ballot measure more than fivefold.

As of this week, the Irvine Co. has reported spending $573,535 in support of the measure. The company’s opposition, Irvine Tomorrow, has reported raising $3,275 and spending $1,504 as of late last month.

“We knew from the beginning that if you take the planning process to the ballot you have to fight the simplistic little slogans and hot buttons that the negative side throws up,” said Larry Thomas, vice president of corporate communications for the Irvine Co. “It is a lot easier to get a no vote than a yes vote.”

Until Measure B, campaigners had never exceeded $100,000 in support or opposition of ballot items. Candidates, however, broke the $100,000 mark in 1990 when then-Mayor Agran spent $114,020 in his unsuccessful bid for reelection against Sally Anne Sheridan, who spent $70,732. That campaign had been the most expensive in Irvine’s 20-year history.

The only item not related to growth on the city ballot was Measure A, designed to change the way that certain open seats on the City Council are filled. Irvine’s current election law allows council members with two years left in their term to run for mayor. Running for mayor does not require them to resign their council posts, unless they win.

A victorious mayoral candidate would create an unexpected council opening with two years remaining on the term. Measure A, which voters approved by a 2-to-1 margin, will allow voters to choose three candidates when two council seats are open and one of the sitting council members is running for mayor.

Should the council member win the mayor’s race, the top two finishers would take the open council seats and the candidate who ran third would assume the unexpired council term of the new mayor.

Supporters of Measure A contended that it would fix a 1988 election law that has led to lawsuits after each City Council election. They say it is the easiest and cheapest way to fill a possible opening on the council, making it unnecessary to call a special election.

Opponents of the initiative feared it could violate the “one-man, one-vote” principle, and also lead to legal disputes as losing council candidates challenged the law’s constitutionality.

The opponents said they preferred procedures used by other Orange County cities, in which the council appoints a replacement when a member resigns. If no agreement can be reached on a replacement, then a special election is called.

In other school board races, a crowded field of eight candidates fought for three open seats in Irvine Unified. Incumbents Mike Regele and Mary Ellen Hadley and newcomer Thomas J. Burnham defeated five challengers: airport coordinator William P. Long, research scientist George M. Gallagher, communications executive Annita A. Sharpe, mechanical engineer Genovica Niculescu-Balteanu and salesman William M. Dunkelberger.

Garden Grove Unified incumbents Joyce T. Johnson, Kenneth Hugh Slimmer and Lynn Hamtil defeated challengers Terry A. Howitz and Watson Lewis Warren for three at-large seats.

Times correspondents Tom McQueeney, Jon Nalick and Shannon Sands contributed to this report.

O. C. Edition Time Election Returns

BALLOT MEASURES

Irvine

A--Filling Council Vacancy 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Yes: 10,768 (71.8%) No: 4,237 (28.2%)

B--Planning Village 38 (Westpark II) Yes: 7,854 (50.2%) No: 7,783 (49.8%)

C--Conservation, Open Space and Land Use (Advisory) Yes: 11,919 (77.6%) No: 3,435 (22.4%)

SCHOOL BOARDS

Garden Grove Unified School District 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Lynn Hamtil *: 4,173 (25.3%) Joyce T. Johnson *: 3,668 (22.2%) Kenneth Hugh Slimmer *: 3,583 (21.7%) Terry A. Horwitz: 3,340 (20.2%) Watson Lewis Warren: 1,761 (10.7%)

Irvine Unified School District 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Mary Ellen Hadley *: 10,096 (27.7%) Mike Regele *: 8,370 (22.9%) Thomas J. Burnham: 6,740 (18.5%) George M. Gallagher: 3,615 (9.9%) Annita A. Sharpe: 2,896 (7.9%) William P. Long: 2,286 (6.3%) Genovica Niculescu-Balteanu: 1,461 (4.0%) William M. Dunkelberger: 1,045 (2.9%)

Newport-Mesa Unified School District

Trustee Area 1 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Edward H. Decker: 4,733 (57.1%) Terry D. Simon: 3,549 (42.9%) Trustee Area 3 Martha Fluor: 5,960 (70.6%) Tom Williams *: 2,481 (29.4%)

Orange Unified School District

Trustee Area 2 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Maureen Aschoff: 4,107 (44.6%) Lawrence Labrado: 3,490 (37.9%) Daniel Matranga: 908 (9.9%) John McCain: 706 (7.7%)

Trustee Area 6 Robert H. Viviano: 6,027 (66.3%) Russell Barrios *: 3,069 (33.7%)

Santa Ana Unified School District 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Rosemarie (Rosie) Avila: 2,809 (24.9%) Audrey Yamagata Noji * : 2,579 (22.8%) Sal Mendoza *: 2,360 (20.9%) Ted R. Moreno: 1,903 (16.8%) Gerardo Mouet *: 1,644 (14.6%)

* Incumbent.

Elected candidates and winning side of measures are in bold type.