Newport Beach’s government at a balanced spot

Two years ago, when Newport Beach voters passed the Greenlight

initiative and elected a controlled-growth candidate to the City

Council, it sounded like a mandate for change. Residents wanted a

more responsive government. They wanted council members who worked

together well. And they clearly wanted a halt to major developments.

This year, given an opportunity to seal that mandate by populating

the council with Greenlight-endorsed candidates, they did not. They

voted in both incumbents -- Tod Ridgeway and Gary Adams -- along with

a longtime city employee, Don Webb. Only Dick Nichols in Corona del

Mar won by running with the Greenlight philosophy.

It is a stunning change of direction. The Greenlight movement had

staged a series of successes, both at the ballot -- the defeat of the

Koll project -- and in City Hall, where other developments -- the

Dunes hotel expansion -- were put aside to avoid a Greenlight

election showdown. Cries against a “business as usual” council and

City Hall resonated from West Newport to Eastbluff.

But on Tuesday, the power of the Greenlight movement was no longer

unlimited, the edge to the fervor a tad softened.

For all of Newport Beach, it is a change that should be welcomed.

Unlimited power -- whether tending toward developers or toward

slow-growth residents -- rarely has positive effects on government.

Now, Newport Beach has settled at a middle point, precisely where a

“checks and balances” form of government can operate best.

Greenlight now has two voices on the council in Nichols and John

Heffernan. Together they can argue more compellingly for the

Greenlight philosophy of controlled development and more limited

government. Despite Tuesday’s setback, it is a philosophy shared by

many in the community that deserves to be part of City Hall

decision-making.

Other interests have a place in that process, from the developers

who have been so pilloried in recent elections to landowners and

business owners. They all have deep-rooted stakes in this community.

Residents, of course, always have their place in determining the

course of the city’s future, a role they should continue to fulfill

by speaking with their council members, attending meetings and being

active in the plethora of community organizations that Newport is so

fortunate to have. And they have one final role in this balanced

government: the Greenlight law, which gives them the opportunity to

decide at the ballot box whether large developments will be allowed.

It is now up to all the players to work together to make this

system work.