News Scrapbook 1986-1988

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1 G -OWTHj Environment3lists Flex Muscles in Showdowns Over Li~its Condn';l f m Pagel !!mPllll!'P,,_l!l!!ll!J!" !lll'!!l!ll,ffl!D!P!JPlll!I , f . .. r'l . . . - Prop A was sort O The second would severely re- The b II is rollmg m our direc- · · ,4t1pllllil • ill- • iiiall•IIIII • strict development on U•ie city's tion, and_ e're going to play with it the test case whether wetlands, flood plains and can- for a _w~1I .an? see how far we can e:=::~~--~- . yens-including all hillsides that take It, _s id Jim Kelley-Markham, thts amorphous can be viewed from any, of San th~ archit ct from De_! Mar. • • Diego's freeways and major streets, . We _h e to a?~lt, t~e p~ndu- coahtton of a provision that has the develop- lum swm s, and 1t 1s gomg m the ment industry worried. direction!,; want," said Kelley- environmentalists In May, the activists followed the Markham :ou can see the ~nti- Proposition A examplt and formed g~owth s llment '.111 ove~ Cal!!or- ------· --~- types could put yet another nonprofit group called ma now• • •The time 1s right. •••••=~ , Citizens for Limited Growth. The Added. ilkenny !:0!11 the devel- together a ballot purpose of the reconstituted group, opment lfdustry: Right now, a · Martin said, is to push the new sizable POftiOn of the public [in San measure and initiatives, which she said were D1egol w nts to slow and ~top designed to "break the back" ,of an growth. al gives power lo those deliver.' economic boom cycle that is draw- who by beer force of luck or Dwight Worden Ing outsiders to San Diego to find happenst nee call themselves Author of Prop. A jobs. leaders o ~hat p_osition. . . . ~y "It draws a lot of carpetbaggers, perso~al pm1on 1s that they ~111 the pyramid schemes," said M~. have mfl nee for several years. "It adds to this whole go-gOJll~n- The qu st to influence govern- lality. There's no commitment 1 to ment is f led by a basic distrust of the community, no commitment to locally el cted officials, said Kathy the long-term. It is dedicated to U e Giles, a cripps Ranch housewife l:!!!!!11~ quick turnaround, the quick p~·- and one o the newest members of it." the slow- rowth group. "It's an er, frustration," she said. "I guess ch of us has our stories

Enjoyed Succeu So far, the group has enjoyed success without having to resort to the ballot. Publicly and privately, O'Connor used the threat of the drafted initiative to convince her col- leagues to enact the controversial Interim Development Ordinance, despite strong opposition from de- velopers. The compromise mea- sure, which was approved by a 5-4 council vote and is good for 18 months, limits construction of resi- dential units lo 8,000 every 12 months. And the waiting initiative ...med at preserving hillsides and wet- lands was enough to allow Council- man Mike Gotch to push for a similar measure durmg the IOO debate. On Friday, the council put the finishing touches on the ordi- nance, which is called the Resource Protection Overlay Zone. Before Friday's vote, however, O'Connor invited Martin, Mullaney and Kelley-Markham to three pri- vate, closed-door negotiating ses- sions with the development indus- try heavyweights. The sessions were held in O'Conno1·'s conference room and took place over the last two weeks, during which the sides made some progress t.ut were una- ble to forge a compromise over how much protection should be given to city hillsides. said Mullaney, Clout Counts Kilkenny, the developer lobbyist who participated in the private talks, credits the clout of the slow-growth group for the way the City Council hurried to adopt the building limit and environmental protections m recent months. Land-use attorney Paul Peter- son adds: "The perception of politi- cians is there is a great groundswell of opposition [to growth) and this small but mfluenlial and persuasive group of environmentalists have unprecedented success in getting drastic and far-reaching ordinan- ces passed." , And so it should be, say members of the group. "We slapped them in the face and made them wake up," said Glaser.

about ha ing watched the council in action i what we consider to be duplicity and evidence of them being in l e pocket of the develop- ers." Turniof Point It was e actly this kind of feeling that galv nized the slow-growth group in e first place. The turn- ing point as an emotional 5-4 City Council v le in September, 1984, to _permit d velopment of La Jolla Valley, a 5.100-acre project that inc: :ded a Christian university, industrial ark and housing. The vo e outraged environmen- talists be9ause the La Jolla Valley project w,is localed in the city's ur')an re · rve-52,000 acres, con- centrated mainly in San Diego's northern ier, that were designated by city olicy as off-limits to developm nt until 1995. Spurre on by fears of Los Angeles- e sprawl, the Sierra Club-bas d activists began holding meetings o hash out a strategy for repealing the council's La Jolla Valley v e, as well as drafting a citizens i iliative to protect the urban re rve from future devel- opment. They e Still Ac lve Some f unding members who are still activ include Bob Hartman, a Sierra Cl b activist who works in a local Soc Security office; Emily Durbin, former chairwoman of lhe Sierr Club; Kelley-Markham, an unsuc essful City Council can- didate an veteran of many com- munity b tties in the Mission Hills , and Hil rest area; and Dave Kreitzer, a longtime resident of Rancho ernardo, where opposi- tion to Jolla Valley ran high. Kreitzer as chosen to chair the new grou because he did not have lies with he Sierra Club, a connec- tion that others felt could be a political r bility. The g up also developed two other vi I links, Legal and politi- cal. Atto ney Dwight Worden, a veteran ,e nvironmentalist who once servi~d as Del Mar city attor- ney, wou d be the one to draft the citizens i itiative, which became known as Proposition A. Bob G aser, who runs the La Jolla Gro p, a political consulting profit gro Managed ber steeri 'the nucl moveme ernment. entually formed a non- P called San Diegans for rowth, and its 20-mem- g committee has become for the slow-growth now muscling city gov-

in the slow-growth movement is an ironic twist because she and her first husband became small-time developers by building income property during the early 1960s. But Martin said her experience living in major American cities caused her concern about the way San Diego was growing out, and not up. She also said her penchant for community organizing drew her into the Proposition A fight, during which she served as a foot soldier by passing out leaflets at shopping centers and c· c · r;, etitions. Other New Faces Ot er new faces came forward: om Mullaney, a Mission Hills real estate agent who became interest- , m the slow-growth movement ai er reading an article by Martin in the Sierra Club newsletter; Giles, a rn-again Christian and Scripps Ranch homemaker who got in- volved because her backyard is adJacent to the proposed County Island project. "Two years ago, I would have never thought I would be involved with the Sierra Club," said Giles. "But what I've noticed is that growth development in San Diego crosses all party lines "You can't stereotype the people who are concerned about growth," she said. "You c... 't say they're just a bunch of left-wing tree-loving people. I am a very conservative Republican." With the infusion of new blood, th core of advocates once again la ed Worden to helo write two initiatives aimed at blunting growth. The first would have dramatical- ly slowed the city's general growth. rate by imposing a limit on the number of new homes that could be built. The limit would start at 6 000 units the first year, drop to s:ooo the second and level off at '4 000 uni from the third year on. '

firm favoring Democrats and envi: ronmental issues, would collect signatures for initiative µ!titians and help conduct the campagn on a paltry budget. Whal San Diegans for Mm-aged Growth offered voters was Propo- sition A, a revolutionary measure requiring a citywide vote for ap- proval for any construction project proposed for the urban reser e. 56% Majority Despite heavy spending de- velopers, who outspent the slow- growth advocates many \Jmes over, the measure passed with a 56% majority in November, 1 5. The outcome gave the !Aow- growth coalition instant credibJity, said David Lewis, the camplign consultant hired to fight the intia- live. "Pre-Prop. A, everyone kiew they were there," Lewis said. "I don't think anyone worried abo)l them. They were a fringe gr

planning group, was recently ap·- pointed to the city's Planning com- mission. Meanwhile, political consultant Glaser said the Prop. A campi::ign helped show slow-growth advo- cates exactly what they had to do if they needed to put another citizens initiative on the ballot. First off, he said, they know any initiative must be written to ad- dress a single issue, rather than a whole range of environmental and growth concerns. They also have learned that it takes initiative cam- paigns a "bare minimum" of $35,000. The trick, said Glaser, is to find several large donors to supple- ment the smaller contributions coming in from Sierra Club mem- bers and other environmentalists. In addition, Glaser said, slow- growth advocates should aim to put an initiative on the ballot during odd-numbered years :when there isn't the plethora of federal, state and local candidates to crowd the ballot. Thal way, said Glaser, the newspapers can dedicate more space to the initiative campaign, which needs plenty of free publici- ty to counter any heavy spending by developers. Another Hard Reality But with that knowledge came another hard reality. "Prop. A was a very long and diff1cul l effort for a group of volun- teers to go through," said Emily Durbin. "I don't know anybody who is jumping up and down and anxious to repeat that. I think that many of us view it as the tool of last resort ...." Yet it wasn't long after Prop. A that slow-growth advocates found themselves reaching for the club of the initiative again. Although vot- ers had expressed their anti-

growth sentiment by shutting down the urban reserve from de- velopment. council members con- tinu • approving den e porojects i r c.he city's suburban and inner- city neighborhoods. f particular concern, said those mvolved in the Prop, fight, were the council's decisions to adjust the boundaries of the urban reserve to allow for construction of a freeway and developement of the 385-acres County Island proJect in Scripps Ranch without a citywide vote. Debate Expanded "It definitely was the recognition that Prop. A wasn't enough and there was a need to do something more," said Benn. "We felt that the City Council hadn't really respond- ed lo the growing support, the growing concern for the quality of life and for limiting growth." Thus, the debate became what should be done about the stop- and- go 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 initiative fight. One of them was Linda ,iartin, a Pacific Beach woman who moved here from Hawaii in 1983. Born in the Midwest, Martin's involvement