New Slow-Growth Council Threatens El Segundo Plan

El Segundo’s proposed General Plan appears headed for a major overhaul, if not certain death, at the hands of newly elected council members who won their seats by campaigning for slow growth.

The City Council is scheduled to vote on the General Plan at Tuesday’s meeting, after which the three winners in last week’s election will be sworn in. But because the winners’ margin of victory was so wide, some slow-growth activists are speculating that the council will not even bother to take up the General Plan.

“If they do, they’re going to get up and leave, and our (new council members) will vote to rescind,” predicted Jim McGoldrick, a veteran activist and a vigorous opponent of the current plan.

The General Plan, the city’s blueprint for future commercial and residential development, was the principal issue in a bitter election contest. All three winners--incumbent Mayor Carl Jacobson and political newcomers Michael Robbins and Richard Switz--support a slow-growth plan put together by McGoldrick and other activists.

And all three reiterated after their election victories Tuesday that they still oppose the multifamily housing and high-density commercial zoning that the previous council put into the plan.

What is not known, though, is whether the new council members will merely take out the parts of the plan they do not like or start fresh.

Switz said Thursday that the General Plan review process, which has taken six months, ought to be resumed so that the public can provide more input.

“The majority of the new council feels (the General Plan) needs more discussion by the public before it becomes law,” he said.

Robbins said, “We’re going to do everything possible to make sure that the voter mandate is carried through and that the General Plan is corrected.”

If the outgoing council approves the plan and the new council is unable to rescind that action, then Robbins said he will support a ballot referendum or initiative to have the General Plan overturned by the voters.

City Atty. Leland Dolley declined to comment on what procedural moves the new council members have available to them to change the proposed plan or restart the review process.

Only two supporters of the General Plan, Alan West and J.B. Wise, will remain on the council. Wise says he will fight to keep the current plan intact.

In addition to defeated Councilwoman Janice Cruikshank, Councilman Scot Dannen will also be leaving. An ardent proponent of the current plan, he did not seek reelection.