County Still Stymied on Slow-Growth Proposal

San Diego County supervisors, still unable to reach agreement on critical issues in an alternate slow-growth proposal during a special two-hour hearing Thursday, delayed their decisions until June 8.

County officials are attempting to field an alternative measure to the Rural Preservation and Traffic Control initiative being promoted by Citizens for Limited Growth. Numerous recommendations from the county staff, planning commissioners and special committees working on the measure forced the delay.

‘Sensitive Lands’ Snag

Supervisor Susan Golding said the committee she is serving on has not completed its work on a measure to protect “sensitive lands.” She added that the panel has “met more often than the Board of Supervisors” without reaching agreement on major issues involving hillside and flood-plain regulations.

Supervisors received nearly two hours of testimony from builders, attorneys, slow-growth advocates and rural residents on what a county-sponsored growth-control measure should contain.

Most developers sought to exempt their building projects from the proposed restrictions, and residents in Borrego Springs asked that their desert community not be included in any countywide measure designed to slow development.

Citizens for Limited Growth is circulating petitions to place its slow-growth initiative on the November ballot. The petition drive comes after the slow-growth group tried unsuccessfully to persuade the supervisors to adopt the measure and avoid the expensive signature-gathering requirement to place the issue on the ballot.

Pressure Expected

Supervisor Brian Bilbray warned of “pressure that’s going to be coming down the pike” to write loopholes to let developers avoid the stringent building caps, if the initiative succeeds. He advised the board to take a more moderate approach, rather than enact too-strict controls and then “lose credibility” by having to back off later.