Readers Respond -- Has Greenlight begun to take its course?

Reality has set in. Not for the author of the editorial (“Lexus

stopped at Greenlight in Newport Beach,” March 25). A piece lamenting the

lost opportunity of having a new car dealership built in Newport Beach?

The downside of being inconvenienced with a trip to the far reaches

of Huntington Beach or Tustin to purchase a new Lexus? Developers taking

their business elsewhere is supposed to be viewed as a detriment to our

future? Take a drive down Harbor Boulevard in my hometown of Costa Mesa.

You’ll see more than a mile of car dealerships and I don’t feel

saddened for the people of Newport Beach having missed this opportunity

of much needed revenue to enhance and progress the quality of life in

their community. I envy them and their Greenlight initiative.

ROBERT HILCHEY

Costa Mesa

Lexus of Newport Beach will not be. Too bad, maybe we will have to

drive to Costa Mesa to buy that car.

We don’t need another Fletcher Jones type dealership. We need

responsible build out of what remaining assets Newport Beach has. And

this means exactly what Greenlight means: limiting future traffic by

limiting growth and development now. Doesn’t the term “quality of life”

mean anything?

Or must we remain at the mercy of development that may strangle the

very life that provided us the reason for being here in the first place?

PAUL JAMES BALDWIN

Newport Beach

I suspect the fact that a new Lexus dealership won’t be moving to

Newport because of the Greenlight initiative is only the tip of the

iceberg. Many worthwhile projects the city needs will be quietly killed

because they are not worth the extra effort.

Our firm is a small for-profit firm in the business of developing and

rehabilitating apartments with affordable rents under the federal tax

credit program. We had been in early discussions with the city about

developing a new affordable housing project for senior citizens. We had

identified a city-owned site we thought was suitable and were attempting

to gain city support for this project when Greenlight made the ballot. We

decided to wait and see if the measure would pass.

Upon passage of Greenlight, we made the decision that the extra layer

of risk and expense imposed by Greenlight made continuing the process

uneconomical. I suppose this is what the Greenlight proponents want. Only

very large developers with substantial projects that have large potential

rewards make this extra layer of risk worthwhile.

For a project of perhaps 40 affordable senior units, we decided there

are better places to spend our limited resources. Whether or not

affordable senior housing with limited traffic was the type of

development Greenlight was meant to stop, this is clearly the type of

project Newport needs and, in fact, the city is under governmental

mandate to provide affordable housing. I suspect there are numerous

low-profile developments such as this one that will die without a sound.

PAUL FRUCHBOM

Newport Beach

You must miss the point. The people of Newport don’t want a car

dealership here and I don’t think most of the people would care if

Fletcher Jones left. The idea is to have no more commercial buildings.

You make it sound like a tragedy. Let’s look at it like a victory.

STEVE DENNEHY

Newport Beach