NEWPORT BEACH

A group of Newport Beach political and business leaders have officially launched a counterattack against the so-called Greenlight Initiative, a measure they say will solve the traffic problems that the Greenlight measure can’t. Former Mayor Clarence Turner filed papers with the city clerk’s office late Monday afternoon, notifying officials that he and his group intend to circulate an initiative petition. The countermeasure would make Newport Beach’s Traffic Phasing Ordinance--already the county’s strictest--part of the City Charter.

By locking it into the charter, the ordinance can never be changed or “gutted,” a complaint that prompted the Greenlight group to draft its slow-growth initiative in the first place. The authors believe their measure not only deals with the traffic problem more directly than Greenlight’s, it also saves residents from doing the work of the City Council and Planning Commission.