Greenlight ahead

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- The city’s residents handed developers a crushing

defeat Tuesday, overwhelmingly passing the tough slow-growth Greenlight

measure and rejecting a counter-initiative backed by the building

industry and funded largely by the Irvine Co.

As a result, the city’s voters will have the final say on certain

general plan amendments.

Measure S, as the initiative appeared on the ballot, took 62% of the

vote.

“The dam is broken,” said Susan Caustin, a supporter of Measure S,

adding that the initiative would spread to other parts of the state. “Up

to this point, special interests have had a lot of sway. ... Greenlight

will ensure that [the people] have the final say.”

The measure proposes to put before a citywide vote any development

that allows an increase of more than 100 peak-hour car trips or dwelling

units or 40,000 square feet over the city’s general plan allowance.

Only 35.7% of Newport Beach’s voters favored Measure T, an opposing

initiative that would have added parts of the city’s traffic phasing

ordinance to the City Charter and nullified Measure S.

While commending their opponents on running a good campaign,

supporters of Measure T said Greenlight could have a detrimental effect

on the city’s future.

“Some businesses will leave the city,” said Tom Edwards, co-chairman

of the Measure T campaign. “People will start discovering that the

traffic has gotten worse. The infrastructure will deteriorate. I hope I’m

wrong, but I think that’s what’s going to happen.”

While both small and large developments currently before the city will

likely be brought to voters for final approval, city officials cautioned

Tuesday that it was still unclear how Greenlight would work.

Based on the assumption that general plan amendments made over the

last 10 years would count toward the thresholds in each of the city’s 49

neighborhoods, projects like a 2,160-square-foot lobby expansion and a

440-square-foot filing room will require a citywide vote, because both

are located in areas that have reached their “construction allowance,”

said Patricia Temple, the city’s planning director.

While Measure S supporters have countered that the City Council would

probably adopt Tuesday as the “clean slate” date for general plan

amendment accumulations, opponents such as Councilman Gary Adams have

argued that such a decision would likely be challenged in the courts

since it goes against the wording of the initiative.

A 566,000-square-foot expansion proposal by Conexant Systems, Inc. and

a 250,000-square-foot expansion project by Koll Center will definitely

require a vote. The Conexant project has been removed from the city

calendar, but has not been withdrawn. The Koll Center proposal is

currently before the Planning Commission and is scheduled for another

hearing in December.

The Dunes hotel project, a planned resort with 470 rooms and 31,000

square feet of conference space proposed by the Newport Dunes Resort, has

also been taken off the calendar, but has not been withdrawn.

Since the resort has been approved to construct up to 515,000 square

feet and the project is currently proposed at 581,000 square feet, the

developers could probably avoid a citywide vote by reducing the resort’s

size by 26,001 square feet, said Temple. The project will probably not

require a vote if it stays below 554,999 square feet.

Largely backed by developers and real estate organizations, Measure T

supporters had run one of the most expensive campaigns in the city’s

history.

Contributions to Measure T came to $405,061, with the Irvine Co.

topping the list of donors with $147,000 in contributions. The California

Assn. of Realtors gave $52,000, followed by the Building Industry of

Southern California with $24,500.

The Measure S campaign raised just more than one-fifth of the money

collected by its opposition.

At $90,395, Greenlight’s largest contributions came from Defend the

Bay, an environmental group that spent $14,014 in the last days leading

up to the election, and Stop the Dunes, a group opposing the proposed

hotel and convention center at the Newport Dunes Resort, which gave

$10,271 in postage, printing costs and flier designs.