Taking measures against traffic

-- compiled by Noaki Schwartz

MEASURE S

* WHAT IT DOES:

If approved, there will be a citywide vote on all developments

requiring a “major” general plan amendment.

“Major” is defined as creating more than 100 peak-hour car trips, more

than 100 homes or more than 40,000 square feet of floor area over what

the city’s general plan allows.

These thresholds do not apply to the city as a whole, but to each of

49 distinct neighborhoods, which all have a different history of general

plan amendments.

The wording of the measure -- also known as the Greenlight initiative

-- says its effects are, in a sense, retroactive. It requires that 80% of

the changes to the general plan during the last decade be added to the

numbers of a proposed project to determine if a vote is required.

Because each area is so different, the end result is that a developer

could build 40,000 square feet of office space in one area without a

public vote, but a project consisting of 200 square feet in another area

could force a citywide vote.

Once any of the thresholds are maxed out in any of the 49 areas,

virtually any proposed development would require a vote.

* SUPPORTERS:

Evelyn Hart, former mayor

Jean Watt, former city councilwoman

Philip Arst, president of District Residents Assn.

Elaine Linhoff, member of Environmental Quality Advisory Committee

Allan Beek, former planning commissioner

Nancy Skinner, water quality activist

* SUPPORTERS SAY MEASURE S WILL:

-- Let citizens vote to limit traffic-generating developments

-- Let citizens prevent office towers and convention hotels that

create demand for expansion of John Wayne Airport

-- Limit developer-lobbyist influence on the City Council by giving

residents an equal voice

-- Never require a vote to rebuild or remodel your home; Measure S

preserves property rights and existing entitlements

-- Retain the city’s traffic phasing ordinance, which requires

developers to pay for road improvements

-- Be more effective because it uses both the traffic phasing

ordinance and a public vote to limit traffic congestion

-- Protect emergency routes to Hoag Hospital

-- Cause only one or two votes per year

-- Never require special elections

* OPPONENTS ARGUE MEASURE S WILL:

-- Not improve city traffic conditions or quality of life

-- Force repeated costly elections, funded by taxpayers, for minor

projects

-- Abandon representative government and divert tax dollars from

priorities, such as public safety agencies

-- Require a citywide vote on every general plan amendment once

thresholds are met; Measure S proponents have admitted that in the last

decade, there would have been at least 15 citywide elections

-- Cause voting on: minor renovations, such as a small businessman

planning to add 100 square feet to his building; park rezoning from

residential use to open space use; a plan to build a fire station where

housing had been zoned

-- Ignore public hearings, environmental reviews and careful studies

in favor of expensive campaigns funded by special interests

MEASURE T

* WHAT IT DOES:

The city’s traffic phasing ordinance, touted by proponents as the

toughest in the county, requires developers to pay for road improvements

to prevent added traffic congestion created by their projects.

Measure T proposes to lock it into the City Charter, which would mean

the ordinance could never be changed -- for better or worse -- without a

citywide vote.

It is because some city leaders believed the ordinance had recently

been weakened that prompted them to draft Measure S. In 1999, the traffic

phasing ordinance was amended in response to a lawsuit claiming that the

city had imposed an unfair burden on builders. The ordinance was amended

to change the way the costs of improvements were assigned to developers.

Also, the number of council votes needed to override the charge to

developers was reduced.

Measure T was created in response to the Greenlight initiative. If it

passes with more votes, it would also nullify Measure S.

However, Measure T proponents also say it would give the city another

weapon in preventing further expansion of John Wayne Airport.

* SUPPORTERS:

Marian Bergeson, member of the state Board of Education

Clarence Turner, former mayor

Tom Edwards, former mayor

Jan Debay, City Councilwoman

Reed Royalty, president of Orange County Taxpayers Assn.

Paul Salenko, treasurer of Newport Beach Police Employees Assn.

John Marder, former principal of Harbor Day School

* SUPPORTERS SAY MEASURE T WILL:

-- Give voters control over tough traffic standards

-- Lock the traffic phasing ordinance into the City Charter, so the

city law can be changed or repealed only by a vote of the people

-- Continue to relieve traffic congestion, although the community is

inundated with regional and beach traffic that has nothing to do with

local development

-- Make development interests, not taxpayers, pay for improvements to

streets and intersections

* OPPONENTS ARGUE MEASURE T WILL:

-- Bring no new money for street improvements

-- Adds no new rules to control traffic

-- Not protect the traffic phasing ordinance because the City Council

can override it at any time

-- Cancel Measure S and, in doing so, allow for overdevelopment

without voter approval

-- Create more pressure to expand John Wayne Airport because it will

permit more office towers and convention centers, which create more

demand for air travel