Greenlight hits halfway mark for initiative

Susan McCormack

Proponents of the Protect from Traffic and Density Initiative announced

Friday that they have obtained more than half the signatures needed to

get the measure on the November 2000 ballot.

“The excitement about getting this initiative on the ballot is really

contagious,” said Susan Skinner Caustin, a volunteer circulating

petitions.

The initiative, if passed, would require a majority vote to allow major

amendments to the city’s general plan if proposed developments create

more than 100 peak-hour car trips, add more than 100 dwelling units or

add more than 40,000 square feet of floor area.

City officials and developers have been quiet about controversial

proposed initiative. Opponents have said the initiative may block the

development of larger, but beneficial, projects. Also, officials have

complained that the initiative goes against the concept of a

representative government.

But proponents, who make up the group Greenlight, argue that voters’

voices in these projects are needed because development in the city is

running amok.

The proponents have been collecting signatures since July. Out of about

7,500 required signatures, Skinner Caustin said they have gathered about

4,500. The group must gather all the signatures by early December to

qualify for the November 2000 ballot.