City Council May Revive Rejected Growth Initiative

A San Diego growth-management initiative booted off next June’s ballot by a Superior Court judge will get a second chance at qualifying for voter consideration, courtesy of the City Council.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor has scheduled a public hearing for Dec. 9, at which the council will consider whether to place the controversial Planned Growth and Taxpayer Relief Initiative, sponsored by Prevent Los Angelization Now!, back on the June 2 ballot, officials said Monday.

O’Connor called the hearing in response to Superior Court Judge James R. Milliken’s Oct. 16 decision to reject the initiative, which was signed by more than 82,000 people, as illegal. Milliken said that provisions of the measure violate a clause of the California Constitution that restricts initiatives to single subjects.

“In this case, there is a real strong sentiment that you can’t ignore that number of (signatures),” said Paul Downey, the mayor’s spokesman, Monday.

In a memo last Thursday, O’Connor directed City Atty. John Witt’s office to split the PLAN! initiative into two parts to comply with Milliken’s ruling.

The council will consider the growth-management provisions that make up most of the initiative and a separate measure mandating prevailing wages for construction workers on all but the smallest of housing, commercial, industrial and infrastructure projects.

Because the city is one of the defendants in the lawsuit that struck down the PLAN! initiative, the council also could vote to appeal Milliken’s decision.

PLAN!’s initiative, petitioned onto the ballot after a $122,000 signature-gathering campaign, seeks to force builders to pay their fair share of the services required to accompany new development--something the construction industry says it already does.

The initiative would prohibit new construction if that growth reduces the number of police officers per capita or increases the likelihood of water shortages, water rationing or increased water rates.

The timing of the hearing could work to PLAN!’s advantage because newly elected council members George Stevens and Valerie Stallings, each of whom received support from PLAN! or its environmentalist allies, will take office Dec. 2.

The pair will replace Councilmen Wes Pratt and Bruce Henderson, respectively, who are less sympathetic to the organization and its aims.

Stallings and Stevens could not be reached for comment Monday.

Whether PLAN! has the five council votes needed to get its initiative back on the ballot is unclear. Complicating the matter is the fact that PLAN! Chairman Peter Navarro is a likely candidate for mayor in the same election, and the initiative is seen as a key element in his platform.

“We hope the council will work with us and usher in a whole new era of cooperation,” Navarro said Monday.

But Mac Strobl, a government consultant and one of the plaintiffs in the business-backed lawsuit, expressed disappointment that the measure will come before the council and urged council members to keep it off the June ballot or defer a decision until the November election.

“It is bad public policy,” Strobl said of the ballot measure.