Slow-Growth Measure Alarms Builders

A slow-growth ballot measure here has alarmed developers and lobbying groups across the state who are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to kill an initiative they say would cripple the economy of the ritzy seaside city, and spark more efforts elsewhere.

The developers have raised $405,061 in support of a dueling initiative, Measure T, that would cancel Measure S, the grass-roots initiative that would require future citywide votes on major developments. The Newhall Land Co., which wants to develop a 22,00-home community across near Valencia, as well as computer chip maker Conexant Systems Inc. of Newport Beach, the California Business Properties Assn. in Sacramento and dozens of other business interests have contributed to the fight against Greenlight, as the slow-growth initiative on Tuesday’s ballot also is known.

The Irvine Co. alone has spent $187,000. By contrast, Greenlight supporters have raised $62,562.

“There’s a lot at stake here,” said Mark Petracca, chairman of UC Irvine’s political science department. “[It] has much less to do with individual development . . . in Newport Beach. What’s at stake is a precedent-setting trend setting a type of involvement by the public. If it can pass here, it is passable in a lot of other places.”

Nationwide, voters in Colorado and Arizona will be asked to approve stringent rules on development on Tuesday. Across California, 50 land use initiatives appear on the ballot, including those in Santa Paula and Fillmore.

In Brea, another measure would require a citywide vote on major developments in the hills above town. And in San Clemente, voters will decide whether to impose a partial moratorium on development.

More than $1 million has been raised for the three Orange County contests. While the vast majority of the statewide initiatives have attracted mostly local interest, the dueling measures in Newport Beach have gained a far higher profile, partly because it is home to many of the biggest developers, including the Irvine Co. and its chairman, Donald Bren.

Surprisingly, conservative Orange County has a rich slow-growth history. Twenty years ago, a State Supreme Court ruling involving a Costa Mesa residential development that laid the foundation for voters to wrest control of local planning decisions from elected officials.

In March, Orange County voters overwhelming approved a measure that requires a two-thirds vote on airports, landfills and jails near residential neighborhoods. Yet Newport Beach voters resoundingly rejected that measure.

Now, those same residents may embrace a similar proposal to require public votes on major projects. Measure S would trigger a citywide vote on developments that exceed the city’s general plan by 100 homes, put 100 additional cars on the roads during rush-hour or add 40,000 square feet of commercial space.

“Every real estate development company, every community developer . . . in the entire state and country has the incentive to make sure this thing gets killed,” Petracca said.

That’s exactly what Measure T aims to do. If Measure T prevails at the polls on Tuesday, it would give developers a meaty side benefit. It would cement into the city charter less stringent traffic impact standards, making it difficult for future city officials to raise the requirements for builders.

Thomas Cole Edwards, co-chairman of the Measure T group, said Thursday that future city council members still would have discretion to change the enforcement rules for traffic standards. However, leaders wouldn’t be able to alter a formula for calculating congestion at key intersections at rush hour, which if too great, could scuttle a project.

Nor would future councils be able to change a threshold on how much traffic a particular project could add without having to compensate for it.

“The basic structure would always stay the same,” Edwards said.