From the Newsroom -- Tony Dodero

Last week in this space, I bemoaned the anonymous critics who don’t

give their names but instead lob salvos at us from the shadows. It’s a

detrimental practice, I believe, that doesn’t create good relationships

or even good debate.

So this week, I thought I’d illustrate how just the opposite works.

I admit, though, the first time I recall speaking with George

Jeffries, I was on the defensive also.

It was about two years ago, and he was taking the Daily Pilot to task

over our reporting on the growing friction between the Newport Beach

Library Board of Trustees and the Library Foundation, the fund-raising

arm that had done so much for the creation of the new central library on

Avocado Avenue.

Jeffries didn’t believe our reporting was fair and he told me so. I

disagreed but we parted company amicably and with, for me at least, a

respect for his point of view. Thus began a casual acquaintance and

discussions over lunch that continue to this day.

We still disagree on many issues, only now, it isn’t the library, but

the entire future of Newport Beach that we’re discussing.

You see, Jeffries is a Greenlighter, though he admits he is

reluctantly in that camp, and this newspaper has consistently been a

voice against Greenlight’s methods, though we do agree with much of their

goals.

Still, in the business community, being a Greenlighter is the same as

being a wacko environmentalist. It’s Al Gore and Ralph Nader all rolled

into one.

But it’s hard to put that tag on Jeffries. He’s a 40-year resident,

homeowner and local income property owner and small business owner who

operated his law practice in town from 1965 to 2000. He’s developed

property in the area and represented developers, real estate industry

members and small business owners. He was a longtime member of the

Library Board of Trustees.

He’s hardly Che Guevara, or even Bob Caustin, of Defend the Bay fame.

But as a neighbor and confidant to one of Greenlight’s most vocal

leaders, Phil Arst, he’s wedged deep in a battle royale between

development and residential interests that only grows more heated by the

day as the council hammers out the general plan and future development

guidelines for the city.

Greenlight, as many of you know, is the name coined for the group that

successfully passed Measure S in November of 2000, an initiative that now

forces developments that exceed the general plan to face a citywide vote.

The first test case was the Koll Center project last November that was

skewered at the polls.

In one of our most recent conversations, Jeffries was seething over

media coverage once again.

This time, though, it wasn’t the Pilot, which has been a steadfast

opponent of Greenlight’s Measure S, that he was mad at, but a column

written in a competing weekly publication.

Jeffries scoffed at the column for failing all true tests of

journalism and objectivity and labeling the Greenlight crowd as

“terroristic haters.”

With that column fresh on his mind, Jeffries popped by the Daily Pilot

office and picked up a carload of us for a field trip around the airport

-- most likely to lay the groundwork for what could be Greenlight’s next

battleground.

He did admit to one point in the column being correct. A terrorist is

one who instills fear in the opposition, Jeffries said to his car-captive

audience. And in that case, the title may fit him because he believes big

developers are “very, very afraid.”

But the truth is that Jeffries and many like him in the Greenlight

camp are hardly lefty, granola-eating Earth First members ready to tie

themselves to trees.

“My concern, in reluctantly supporting Greenlight, is that business

and development interests have too great an influence on the City

Council,” said Jeffries, who declined to tell us who the Greenlight

council candidates would be this coming November. “Now, Measure S permits

our voters to review major developments, which can distort our general

plan and increase our already serious traffic problems. Greenlight is not

‘no growth’ or ‘slow growth.’ The voters decide.”

This is where Jeffries and the Pilot part ways.

It would be hard to deny that Greenlight has had a major chilling

effect on development, causing the Irvine Co. to abandon expansion plans

for Newport Center and putting plans for the expansion of Conexant on

ice.

The biggest prize of all, however, was the Dunes development that not

only has now been scrapped by the resort owners, but the owners

themselves have put the property up for sale and are near to closing a

deal, we hear. I’m not sure how much “slower” the growth can get.

I guess we’ll see if Greenlight is able to quash the plans for the

Sutherland Talla resort hotel plans the city is considering for the

public-owned Marinapark site on Balboa Peninsula. Back to the car trip,

though, for now.

As we drove around the airport area, near the scene of Greenlight’s

November Koll Co. kill, Jeffries pointed out that many of the commercial

buildings in this area are dogeared and in need of new life.

So what could a developer put here, we asked?

Car dealerships, Jeffries said, that’s about it.

Not humongous amounts of office space that he and the Greenlighters

say only increases traffic loads on local streets and doesn’t add

anything of value to city coffers.

His remarks initiated a new round of devil’s advocate responses from

me and my newsroom colleagues, but Jeffries was not swayed.

“I’ve been an advocate all of my working life and I enjoy hearing the

other side in order to help me in framing my views,” Jeffries said of his

driver seat debate with us. “I don’t need to be right. I’m trying to

understand what’s in the best interest of the city and the residents.”

To my way of thinking, as long as Greenlight is holding the cards, and

there’s no indication they will be dropping them any time soon,

developers should heed the latter part of Jeffries’ words if they are

indeed, “very, very afraid.”

Do what’s best for the residents first and they stand a better chance

of keeping Greenlight out of the equation. And then they’ll have nothing

to fear.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. His column appears on Mondays. If you

have story ideas or concerns about news coverage, please send messages

either via e-mail to o7 tony.dodero@latimes.comf7 or by phone at (949)

574-4258.