Campbell Succeeds Laszlo on Council

Veteran councilman and slow-growth advocate Frank Laszlo ended his 16-year council career Tuesday night, but his successor said she shares his views of “balanced” development in the 12-square-mile city.

“We’re on the same wavelength on most issues,” said Patty Campbell, 54, a former planning commissioner who was sworn into office Tuesday night.

Laszlo, 69, relinquished his council seat because of term limits.

He was first elected to the council in 1976 and served eight years. After a four-year hiatus, he was elected again in 1988.

As a representative of residents living in the city’s College Park East community, Laszlo has been a strong voice among the council’s slow-growth majority.

He was opposed to the Bixby Ranch Co.’s proposed 223-home residential and commercial development, which was withdrawn last November by the company a few days before council hearings on the project were to begin. Company officials said they anticipated rejection by the council.

When the Mola Development Corp. proposed a 329-home development for the environmentally sensitive Hellman Ranch property in 1989, Laszlo was the only council member who opposed the project.

“He was the one dissenting member of that council,” Mayor Marilyn Bruce Hastings said. “So when Gwen Forsythe and I were elected six years ago, it changed the whole direction of the council.”

Laszlo said helping to preserve the city’s “small-town atmosphere” ranks at the top of his accomplishments, saying large developments will not solve the city’s fiscal problems.

“There will always be financial pressures on us to approve these projects,” Laszlo said, “but there are other cities that have done a lot of building that are still worse off financially than we are.”