Council favors starting Greenlight clock at 2000

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Developers will probably have an easier time getting

approval for their projects after City Council members said Tuesday

they’d support a 2000 starting date for Greenlight’s “look-back”

provision.

Passed by voters in November, the new law 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.

The initiative’s look-back provision requires that 80% of previous

general plan amendments within each of the city’s 49 distinct

neighborhoods “adopted within the preceding 10 years” should count toward

the threshold, which triggers a citywide vote.

Council members had expressed concern about the text of the initiative

in previous meetings, saying it seemed to require a starting date for the

provision that reached back 10 years from the time it was passed. But

research by city officials convinced them that a 2000 date would not

contradict the initiative’s text.

City Atty. Bob Burnham said past court rulings on similar situations

showed that an initiative should not be applied retroactively unless the

measure itself clearly stated such an intent.

Burnham “got me with the last one,” said Councilman Steve Bromberg,

who had said in the past that Burnham’s arguments in favor of a 2000

starting date had not been convincing.

The five council members present at Tuesday’s study session --

Councilmen John Heffernan and Dennis O’Neil were excused because of other

engagements -- unanimously supported the 2000 starting date in a straw

vote.

At least one more council member must join the group because the

initiative requires six of the city’s seven council members to support

any guidelines to put Greenlight to work.

While council members agreed on most other issues, such as definitions

for “peak-hour trips” and “floor-area,” the inclusion or exclusion of

parking structures in deciding whether a project triggers a Greenlight

election remains uncertain.

Greenlight supporters wrote letters to council members saying that

parking structures should be included in calculating a project’s total

floor area.

“Lack of inclusion of parking garages will allow more square footage

for the adjacent building, thus indirectly allowing more traffic to

occur,” wrote Susan Caustin in a letter to council members.

Bromberg cast the only straw vote in support of including parking

structures.

Council members could vote on the guidelines as early as their Feb. 27

meeting.