NEWPORT BEACH MEASURE A : Defeat of Property Plan Blamed on Economy

If she had known then what she knows now, Newport Beach Councilwoman Jean H. Watt said she never would have pushed to place Measure A on the ballot.

But it is too late to dwell on the defeat, Watt said Wednesday--the day after voters rejected the controversial measure, which would have taxed property owners the $68 million needed to buy three bluff-top properties to keep them from development. Voters turned down Measure A by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.

“We obviously underestimated the force of the people against this matter,” said Watt, who also is president and founder of the Newport Conservancy, the environmental group that paid $60,000 to the city to put the advisory measure on the ballot.

“We didn’t anticipate the depth of the opposition, because if we had known what was going to happen, we wouldn’t have started it.”

Watt and other supporters blamed the measure’s defeat on the economy. They definitely couldn’t fault their campaign, they said.

“Given the disparity between the ‘yesses’ and the ‘nos,’ ” Watt said, “I certainly think we did everything we could. If it had been a closer loss, we might have been able to point to something we could have done differently.”

Backers of Measure A ran a sophisticated campaign to persuade voters that $68 million was a relatively small price for the 138-acre Upper and Lower Castaways and Newporter North properties, overlooking the Newport back bay area. The entire acreage would have been preserved as open space and parkland--instead of being developed into residential areas--for generations to come, supporters said.

The Committee for Yes on Measure A spent about an additional $60,000 in recent months on mailers, roadside signs, advertising and voter surveys. Volunteers worked tirelessly until the end, knocking on doors and phoning prospective supporters, reminding them to vote. On Election Day, the volunteers even offered to drive those without transportation to the polls.

But the measure failed, losing 64.8% to 35.2%. The advisory measure would have formed an assessment district to buy the scenic bayfront properties from the Irvine Co. through bonds. It needed approval by 60% of the voters to pass.

Officials of the Irvine Co. said Wednesday that the company will build a marina and 363 homes on the properties as planned, leaving 60% of the land untouched, as agreed last year with the city. Development may begin in the next few months, depending on the housing market, company spokesman Tom Redwitz said.

Opponents of the measure, who spent $40,000 toward their victorious cause, said Wednesday they hope the matter of having residents pay for the properties is finally put to rest.

“The message the voters sent is that (members of the conservancy) need to keep their hands out of taxpayers’ pockets,” said Councilman John W. Hedges, who voted against putting Measure A on the ballot.

The 2,000-member conservancy was founded by Watt in September, 1990, for the sole purpose of acquiring undeveloped properties and preserving them as open space. The group’s first priority was to buy the Castaways and Newporter North, which are the most valuable undeveloped parcels left in the city.

Now that the plans to acquire the land have failed, members of the conservancy and other supporters said they are taking a step back to analyze what went wrong and consider other ways to save the properties.

Economics was against them from the get-go, Measure A supporters said.

“Under an ideal circumstance, this would have been an uphill battle anyway,” said Newport Beach Mayor Clarence J. Turner, who backed the measure along with Watt and Councilwoman Evelyn R. Hart. “But under this economy, where people are worried about their jobs--they know that their neighbors were having problems--it was an almost impossibility.”

Paul Freeman, who ran the Measure A campaign, attributed its decisive defeat to the “effectiveness” of the opposition’s campaign and the division among City Council members on the issue. Times correspondent Bob Elston contributed to this report.