City moving too slowly, Greenlight author says

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- It might not get done without controversy after all.

As City Council members prepare to discuss the mechanics of Greenlight

for the third time in a study session tonight, the author of the

slow-growth initiative says he is unhappy with the way the talks are

going.

“In five weeks, we have made no progress,” Allan Beek wrote in a

letter to council members dated Friday.

Greenlight -- overwhelmingly approved by the city’s voters in November

-- requires citywide elections on any general plan amendment for a

project that adds more than 100 peak-hour car trips or dwelling units, or

40,000 square feet more than the general plan allows.

Council members don’t have to adopt guidelines to put the new law to

work, but the text of the initiative encourages them to do so. If the

city’s seven elected leaders decide to interpret Greenlight, at least six

council members must vote for what they decide.

City officials and Greenlight supporters seem to agree on some major

issues, including setting a 2000 rather than a 1990 starting date for the

initiative’s “look-back” provision. But they disagree over others, such

as whether to include parking structures in floor area calculations and

granting credit for projects that reduce car trips.

Beek’s concerns about the process relate largely to minor details or

“kinks” that he said could be better addressed in informal working

sessions.

He also said a set of draft guidelines by City Atty. Bob Burnham

includes mistakes that haven’t been corrected during the last few weeks.

“The result is that you are faced with documents which are confusing,

miss the point and violate” Greenlight, Beek wrote, pointing out that he

was acting as an individual and not an official representative for

Greenlight supporters.

Phil Arst, who has functioned as the group’s spokesman in the past, is

out of the country until Feb. 25. While giving Greenlight supporters

ample time to express their views, city officials have pointed out that

members of the group have no more rights than any other resident to voice

their opinion on the matter.

During a conversation Monday, Beek added that he understands Burnham’s

workload probably doesn’t allow enough time to fix the errors.

But “if he can’t take the time to do it, he should appoint somebody

else to do it,” Beek said.

Burnham countered that he fully intended to correct the problems once

council members have taken straw votes on the guidelines.

Updating the draft guidelines before the vote “did not seem like a

productive use of anyone’s time,” Burnham wrote in an e-mail to the Daily

Pilot on Monday.

Some council members said they were disappointed by Beek’s comments.

“I thought we had made a lot of progress,” Councilman Steve Bromberg

said. “Everybody on the council has put a Herculean effort into the

implementing guidelines.”

FYI

The Greenlight study session will be broadcast live on the city’s

public access channels at 4 p.m.