News Scrapbook 1986-1988

Los Angeles, CA (Lo~ Angeles Co) Times (Sdn Diego Ed.I (Cir . D 50,010) (Cir. S 55,573) AUG

1987

•

So -Growtl1 Forces NowHold ~1%,t:~~o:~,:~: he me •tings convenetl in a conference room in San Diego City Hall during the last two weeks, the par tictpants ummoned by r,t;iyor Maureen O'Connor ,o hammer out a behind-the-scenes compromi. over how to control urban growth. On one side of the negollatmg table sat some of the he vyw 1ghts in the local development industry: A pr1•mi r land - use attorney with a stable of impressive ch nt ; th pr 1d •nt of goh th Pa1dec Cons ruction Co.; the lobbyist for the CqDBI.U\'IJQIJ lnfl11~1ry """'Jf!:et1on, a tract group that serve~ as a rich source of polit1cai contributions. On the oth r. 1de of the table, A Pacific Beach act1v1st, a Mis 1011 Hills real estate agent and an rch1t ct with offices 111 Del Mar-leaders of a group alhng I s If C1t1zen for Limited Growth. "1 don't know who those people art'. but t:1at doesn't m Lo reaiiY matter, does 1L?" s 1d K,m K1lk<'nny, the lohhy1. t." • .. Thesepcopl have power. Very real power" Unlikely Chok 'l'wo y rs ago. "power" would have been an unhkely choice of d scnpt1ons for the people who found th m elves eyeball to eyeball with reprcsent2uves of the d v lopment industry last week. Ye they and a handful of other environmen~alists and slow-growth advocates have emerged as a political phenomenon. an unstoppable fore for change in mun1c1pal gov rnment-de pile the lack of financial r ourc!'s and. oci:11 connections that normally ompany movers and shakers at City Hall. Brought to life with the stunmng 1985 victory in Propo 1t1on A, the slow-growth ballot measure. leaders of he environmental movement have used the threat of still another c1t1zens· initiative to outmaneuver the powerful building industry and convince the City Council to limit the number of new homes to be built ove1Pthe n xt LS months. And Friday, the group won another victory when the City Council voted to adopt restrictions on what can be built on hillside . canyons. wetlands and flood plains. Loo~e-knll Union The loose-kmt union of activists has ties to community groups and environmental organizations. most notably the local chapter of the Sierra Club, which has 11,000 members. Th ir personal political views run the gamut from liberal Democrat to evangelical Christian Republican. Their occupations include attorney, homemakers. architect. and a Social S"curity employee. One current leader was once a developer m the Midwest. Some of them are veterans of many community-versus-developer skirmishes or have been bird-dogging the actions of the City Council for years; others have just recently begun, bringing to the battle fresh energy and outrage. , Their power, trey say, comes from the fact that the maJOritY of San Diegans feel the same way they do about controlling growth- Please see GROWTH, P p M b1 tt m er

re - ,y•s m - at an ~ts, 1p-

he ed ed

ne 1p, w re ITT r- id

Dwight Worden, 40, is an attorney who wrote Proposition A ;:;nd several other growth-limitation initiatives tor groups throughout the county. He graduated in 197 4 from the Universit of San Die o Law Sc ool, where he helped found the Environmental Law Society. He was Del Mar city attorney from 1977 to 1983. Worden is a member of the Sierra Club and moved to San Diego in 1970.

Kathy Giles . 39, was elected a member of the Scripps Ranch Community Planning group last month. She became an active member of Citizens tor Limited Growth after she discovered the controversial County Island development bordered her backyard. She is an evangelical Christian Republican and homemaker.

David Kreitzer , 57, is the business manager of the college business department at Harcourt Srace Jovanovich. A San Diego resident for 22 years, he chaired the first Rancho Bernardo Planning Board in 1979. In early 1985, Kreitze1 joinad San Diegans for Managed Growth and eventually became its chairman. He also serves on O' Conno• s citizens task force on growth.

Linda Martin, 4 7, is co-chairman of Citizens for Limited Growth. She moved to San Diego in 1983. She wasn't involved in the strategy of Proposition A but helped with the effort to collect petition signatures and work the phone banks. In the 1960s, Martin and her first husband developed a half-million dollars in income property in the Midwest. Martin serves on the county's Growth Management Task Force.

Bob Hartman . a supervisor in a San Diego Social Security office. was a charter member of San Diegans for Managed Growth and currently serves on the executive committee of the local chapter of the Sierra Club. he 1s also secretary of the California Sierra Club.

B, 1,

_1 01 0 e

The Players

Tom M ullaney, 38, is co-chairman of Citizens for Limited Growth. Owner of Pacific Properties, he is a M1ss1on Hills real estate agent. He wasn't involved in the Proposition A campaign, but became active in the latest fight to limit growth after he read a call to arms against growth written by Linda Martin for the Sierra Club's · newsletter. Mullaney has lived in San Diego since 1979 .

Jim Kelley-Markham, 34, lives in the Mission Hills area and is an architect with offices in Del Mar. Long involved in community affairs, Kelley-Markham is a member of Uptown Planners, and was an unsuccessful candidate for City Council and city's Planning Commission. His architectural firm does about a third of its business designing single-family homes for developers in La Jolla and Del Mar.

Emily Durbin, 54, was chairwoman of the local chapter of the Sierra Club in 1984 and 1985, when Proposition A was written and passsd. Durbin, a San Diego resident since 1975, ped organize the club's backing of that initiative, and has since joined Citizens for Limited Growth as a private citizen to fight for added protection for the city's canyons and wetlands.

Bob Glaser. 33, operates the La Jolla Group. a political consulting firm that specializes in Democratic candidates and environmental causes. Glaser's firm collected petition signatures and ran the Proposition Acampaign in 1985.A San Diegan since t960, Glaser is a spokesman for the Clean Air initiativ& and is running for the 6th District San Diego City Council seat.

Illustration by STEVE LOPEZ Los Angeles Times

,

Ouilding I' · 1 1'? 1t and environmental protections m recent months. Land-u1e attorney Paul Peter s?n a~ds: "The perception of politi- c1ans is t~~re is a great groundsweli of oppos1t1on [to growth] and th' small but influential and persuasi is group of environmentalists ha~: unpr~cedented success in gettin drastic and far-reaching ordinang ces passed." · - And so it should~. say membe of the group. rs "We slapped them in the and made them wake up " Glaser. • .

Sll Sil JO<

·-" u, ,cic-wmg uee lo . vmg Republican." a very conservative thWith the infusion of new blood ta;p~~r~~~d~~vocates one~ agai~ initiatives al todhel9 write two growth. me at blunting The first would h ly slowed the cit • ave dramatical- rate by · . Y 8 general growth number o}mposmg a limit on the. built. The l~e~ homes that could be units th _mi would start at 6 000 th e first year drop to 5'000 e second d I ' , uni f an eve! off at 4 000 rom the third year on. ' people. I am -

Thus, the debate became what !~~uld be done about the stop- traffic, overcrowded schools, Inadequate parks and in- ner-city canyons threatened by development. Meanwhile, the character of the core group began to change, and it took on some new activists with fresh enthusiasm for an init1·at· fight. !Ve of them was Linda Martin Pac1f1c Beach worn n who mo • here from Hawaii in 1983 B v~ th M'd · orn m e I west, Martin's involvement - go

-- -· -- J ...~..., .w ucu 1.nere ~s;dt 1 the pleth~ra of federal, state ball ocal candidates to crowd the n ot. That way, said Glaser the ewspapers can dedicate ~ore space to the initiative campaign ;hrh needs plenty of free publici~ Y o counter any heavy spend.in by developers. g Another Hard Reality But with that knowledge came another hard reality . "Prop_ A was a 'very long and d1ff1cult effort for a group of volun- teers . to go through," said E ·1 Durb1_n.. "I don't know an ;:,~y wh~ is Jumping up and dow~ an~ aruoous to repeat that. I think that many of us view it as the tool of last resort " thYet .it. ~~sn't long after Prop A at slow-growth advocat f . d th es oun thel'?se! v~s reaching for the club of e m1t1at1ve again. Although t ers had express·ed th - vo. - e1r anti-

-.-,

uurn; uIITIX"aTl}'One womeaalio t th~m. They were a fringe gr~p an a pain m the ass ... But sc 7 ,nar10 has changed... tl'.e hProp. A was sort of the test c.:re w ethe_r this amorphous coalitilJI of environmentalists types couli put together a ballot m deliver .. .d W easure anl : . sa~ orden, author 0• other rn1t1atives aimed at lim't' growth in Coronado, River~if! Redlands, Corona and Del M HTh ' , ar ey .ve always known where the pubhc opinion lies" W d sa·d b , or en 1 a out members of the sl growth . movement. "Wh~~; changed is that it is organized and 1s focused in an effective way." b Some of the early activists ha~ ecome woven into the fabric

Durbin • -···--, ....., ormer chairwoman of the S1err Club; Kelley-Markham d~ unsuc essful City Council can: I ate an veteran of many com ' mudmty _b ttles rn the Mission Hill; an H1l rest area; and Dave ~reltzer, a longtime resident of ancho ernardo, where o sl lion . to Jolla Valley ra/hi h- Kre1tzer as chosen to chair fh~ new grou because he did not have ties with he Sierra Cl b r h u ,aconnec- 10~ .t at others felt could b political I bility. e a The g up also developed two ot~er v1 l links, Legal and politi- ca . Alto ney Dwight Wo d veteran ,environmentali:t e:ha once serv~d as Del Mar city attor~ n_ey. wou d be the one to draft th c1Llzens . itiative, which became known as Proposition A e Jo~b G aser, who r~ns the La Gro P, a political consulting . • f