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Business leaders see red over Greenlight

Noaki Schwartz

NEWPORT BEACH -- If it passes at the ballot box this November,

Greenlight’s slow-growth proposal -- in its attempt to curb development

-- could strangle the health of the business community, local leaders

say.

“Under this initiative, you couldn’t put in a Starbucks coffee or one

residential unit in [without a vote],” said Newport Beach architect and

business leader Rush Hill.

The Protect from Traffic and Density initiative proposes to allow

residents to vote on “major” amendments to the city’s general plan.

“Major” means it generates more than 100 car trips, 100 homes and 40,000

square feet over what the city’s general plan allows. The thresholds

apply to each of the 49 district neighborhoods in the city, not the city

as a whole.

Taking into account the 10-year retroactive nature of the measure,

supporter Allan Beek said there are seven areas in the city that are

maxed out in either one, two or all three of the Greenlight thresholds.

As a result, measure supporters acknowledge residents will have to go to

the ballot box more often for proposed developments than originally

anticipated.

Officials argue that the expense of working around an election campaign

could discourage potential moneymakers for the city. And, according to

Newport’s recent five-year financial forecast, the city needs to find

additional sources of money to maintain its services.

“There is a great deal of cost associated with engineering and developing

plans. After facing the entitlement process, no developer is going to put

up that amount of money to face an electorate,” Leuhrs said.

Arst, however, argues that the additional expense will be dwarfed when

compared to the tempting gains that will keep developers courting

Newport.

“Let the people vote when the time comes,” he said.

While city services are a consideration, most residents appear more

concerned with solving the traffic problem as promised by the initiative.

However, city officials say the measure will not alleviate the growing

congestion.

While the measure will slow or in some cases stop growth, business

leaders say these projects will simply move to surrounding cities,

leaving Newport to deal with commuter traffic.

“One example is the airport area. If they don’t get approved in Newport,

they can literally go across the street to Irvine,” said Ed Selich of the

Planning Commission. “Irvine gets all the revenue and we still get all

the traffic.”

But Arst is emphatic that the measure will accomplish its goal of slowing

congestion by curbing development.

Even with proposals that do jump through all the hoops, they may face a

disengaged electorate. Community members won’t take the time to pour

through planning documents in order to make an informed decision, Selich

said.

“On the Dunes project, I’ve spent in excess of 40 hours reading and

researching environmental documents and another 40 hours just in meetings

and discussions on it,” Selich said. “I haven’t even gotten to the public

hearing yet.”

Arst, however, counters that residents won’t have to read the reports.

“We’ll have experts read them and give highlights,” Arst said.

Combining development with politics could cause overwhelmed residents to

look for a summarized opinion, said Selich, adding that having city

planning intersect with political posturing is a dangerous combination.

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