Navarro Forms Group to Size Up Bid for Mayor : Politics: After much speculation, leader of managed-growth group PLAN! enters fray.

Growth-control activist Peter Navarro, pledging a campaign not limited to the single issue of San Diego’s rapid development, on Tuesday took the first formal step toward a widely expected campaign for mayor in 1992.

Navarro, chairman of the growth-management organization Prevent Los Angelization Now!, established an exploratory committee to test the financial support for a bid to succeed Mayor Maureen O’Connor, who says she will step down next year.

Navarro, 42, joins County Supervisor Susan Golding, City Councilman John Hartley, financier Tom Carter and at least two other minor candidates who have established committees to test the waters for mayoral campaigns. City Councilman Ron Roberts is almost certain to join the list.

Navarro, perhaps the city’s best-known growth-management activist, on Tuesday portrayed himself as a candidate familiar with the wide variety of issues he would confront as mayor.

“I would present myself as a candidate with a fairly broad and deep understanding of the major issues that will be debated in the campaign, including sewage, water, crime, economic development and downtown revitalization,” Navarro said. But Navarro has long sought to blame unchecked development for most of the city’s major problems.

A decision to run for mayor would place Navarro on the June primary ballot alongside the growth-management initiative that his organization is putting before voters. However, a pending lawsuit seeks to force the Planned Growth and Taxpayer Relief Initiative from the ballot.

Navarro predicted a much more difficult time raising money than expected front-runners Golding and Roberts because developers, who traditionally donate heavily to political campaigns, would give him little support. But he said his personal fund-raising efforts would not sap resources from the campaign to persuade voters to pass the ballot measure.

The UC Irvine academic, who has never held elected office, said he considers his outsider status an advantage and would seek to fill “a leadership vacuum” in city government.

“I think there needs to be a vision for San Diego that will take us into the next century, a vision that will allow us to grow but continue to maintain a quality of life,” Navarro said.