A CLOSER LOOK -- Is the door to development closed in Newport

Beach?

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- The people have spoken. Newport Beach, they said,

doesn’t want a new 10-story office tower.

While their words still echo in the days following the defeat of

Measure G at the polls on Tuesday, many are wondering what it means for

the city’s future, for development and for representative democracy.

“I think what the citizens of Newport Beach are saying with Greenlight

and Measure G is that they think developers control the city’s

decision-making process in ways that are inconsistent with their own

values,” said Scott Bollen, professor of urban planning at UC Irvine.

On Tuesday, 6,251 residents voted no on Measure G, killing a

developer’s plan to add 250,000 square feet of office space to the Koll

Center at MacArthur Boulevard and Jamboree Road. It was enough to kill

the project, but not quite by the staggering margin some expected.

A surprising 4,256 came out to vote in favor of letting the developer

move ahead with the project. Their motives were qualitatively different

from voters who opposed the project. Opposition votes came from people

who wanted to avert harsh effects of the project on their daily lives --

namely, the up to 2,700 car trips some estimated would be added to

surrounding streets.

“It’s like they say: It’s the traffic, stupid,” said Evelyn Hart, a

member of the Greenlight Committee that opposed the project.

But the voters who came out to support the project had nothing to

gain; they voted yes on a project that would benefit the developer almost

exclusively, especially given that the project would have brought only

about $28,000 a year in tax revenue to the city.

Herein, some say, lies the weakness of Greenlight, the city initiative

that requires a vote of the people on projects that would add more than

40,000 square feet of building space, 100 peak-hour car trips or 100

homes above what the city’s general plan allows. People will go out of

their way to vote against development, but why get off the sofa to go out

and vote for it?

“It’s problematic. The ones that are going to come out to vote are the

ones who have a grievance,” Bollen said. “What we could lose is a

well-reasoned balanced growth.”

This seems to be a fear shared by developers and the business

community, and a reason that the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce

came out in support of the Koll project.

But Bollen noted that the initiative doesn’t necessarily amount to a

tyranny of the majority.

“It’s important to note that projects that stay within the general

plan vision do not need this citywide vote, only those that exceed the

general plan do,” he said. “The idea is: If you build according to our

city’s vision, everything is fine; if you exceed it, we the citizens need

a voice.”

The city’s general plan could well become the next major battlefield

in Newport Beach’s war over development. The document, which lays out

detailed guidelines for future growth, is due for a complete overhaul.

Beginning with a “visioning festival” on Jan. 12, the city will begin

gathering input from residents on ways to guide the General Plan Update

Committee as it begins to consider revising the document, which hasn’t

been updated since 1988.

The broad plan includes everything from tideland use to tourism.

Officials say it’s too early to speculate what changes will be made or

how they will affect or be affected by Greenlight. But many anticipate

that traffic and development will be the most contentious aspects of

revising the plan.

“Greenlight was started because a number of very large projects are

coming before the city and we don’t have the street capacity,” Hart said.

“We have a lot of work to do to make sure that the general plan gets

updated in a reasonable fashion for our city.”

It’s a goal they plan to keep in mind as several issues like the

Newport Dunes and Marinapark are simmering.

The Dunes was one of the first places to feel power of Greenlight.

Developers bailed out on plans for a major hotel and convention center

at the site when Greenlight passed, dimming their chances of ever getting

voter approval for the project.

But Greenlight can’t put a stop sign in front of a smaller project. A

small, family-style hotel approved for the site in the 1970s by the

land’s original lease agreement is exempt from Greenlight.

Owners are now negotiating to sell the property and the option to

build the smaller hotel seems a likely selling point, as it would be more

lucrative than the camper hookups and marina there now.

At Marinapark, a developer wants to build a 156-room luxury resort

where a mobile home park and the American Legion hall now stand. If he

first convinces members of the American Legion post at the site to move

to a new building he will build for them, and then passes muster with the

Planning Commission and City Council, a Greenlight election could still

kill the project.

One word could change all this. But no one has yet uttered the L word

-- lawsuit -- which has loomed above Greenlight from the beginning.

That legal challenge could be on the near or distant horizon. Koll

Center developer Tim Strader has gone from refusing to speculate on the

subject to saying he needs time to think about it. And if he doesn’t,

others might be tempted to take the city to court in hopes of overturning

the initiative. Until then, Greenlight will continue to be subject to

debate.

“The Greenlight issue is basically a question of: How much do you

believe in direct citizen voice over development?” asked Bollen. “In all

cases or just in selected cases?”

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 june.casagrande@latimes.comf7 .