SLOW GROWTH : SLOW-GROWTH CHRONOLOGY

Key events in the history of the county’s slow-growth initiative:

June 13, 1987: Members of Orange County Tomorrow, a citizens organization formed to deal with growth issues in the county, unveil the Citizens’ Sensible Growth and Traffic Control Initiative. At the same time, a special committee, Citizens for Sensible Growth and Traffic Control, is formed to mount a petition drive to get the measure on the June, 1988, countywide ballot. The group also announces plans to push for identically worded initiatives in each of the county’s cities.

Aug. 6, 1987: After meetings with builders and government officials, sponsors of the initiative announce that they have agreed to drop provisions that would have barred development at major intersections.

September, 1987: The new initiative is unveiled, and supporters start collecting the approximately 66,000 signatures needed to to qualify it for the June ballot.

December, 1987: Some copies of the petition have to be recirculated because thousands of voters who received them by mail failed to sign twice, as required by law.

January, 1988: Local builders start raising money for lawsuits against slow-growth measures throughout the region. Initiative sponsor Tom Rogers and Bruce Nestande, vice president of the Costa Mesa-based Arnel Development Co. and a former county supervisor, meet with county supervisors to discuss alternatives to the slow-growth initiative.

Feb. 9, 1988: Supporters of the initiative bring petitions bearing about 96,000 signatures to the county registrar of voters as 11th-hour negotiations between initiative supporters and county supervisors fail to yield a compromise.

March 1, 1988: The Board of Supervisors votes to put the initiative on the June 7 ballot.

March 3, 1988: The Building Industry Assn. of Southern California, the Orange County Chamber of Commerce and the Commercial Industrial Development Assn. file a lawsuit in an attempt to keep the slow-growth initiative off the June ballot.

March 29, 1988: Orange County Superior Court Judge John C. Woolley refuses to order the initiative off the ballot.

April 8, 1988: The 4th District Court of Appeal rejects an appeal by the Building Industry Assn. and refuses to order the initiative off the ballot.

April 22, 1988: The Orange County Human Relations Commission votes to oppose slow-growth initiative on the grounds it would prevent low-income people from obtaining affordable housing.

April 22, 1988: Officials of Building Industry Assn. drop lawsuit seeking to remove the measure from the ballot.

May 25, 1988: Initiative supporters report raising $48,000 through mid-May to finance their battle to get Measure A approved.

May 27, 1988: Initiative opponents report raising $1.6 million to defeat the slow-growth initiative.