A taste of things to come?

Mathis Winkler

ESCONDIDO -- At first sight, the “hidden” city -- as Escondido means

in Spanish -- resembles many other towns in Southern California.

Incorporated in 1888, Escondido is nestled among hills and avocado and

citrus groves in Northern San Diego County. The ocean’s a half-hour drive

away.

Its 125,000 residents -- Escondido still plans to accommodate 25,000

more -- live in everything from million-dollar hilltop homes to

$500-a-month rental apartments downtown.

Escondido’s spacious City Hall and the California Center for the Arts

stand next to an open-air historical museum and large, box-like

department stores.

Last week, street banners announced the city’s annual harvest festival

and the firefighters’ softball game, and schoolchildren gathered around

the fountain at City Hall to kick off Red Ribbon Week.

PREDICTING NEWPORT BEACH’S FATE?

Two things have happened in Escondido that make it relevant to Newport

Beach voters this year.

In 1998, that city’s residents passed a slow-growth measure that

requires a citywide vote on amendments to the general plan. As a result,

Escondido voters will decide on eight ballot measures that propose to

increase the number of residential units in some parts of town or propose

to change current zoning from residential to commercial or industrial in

others.

Granted -- Proposition S, as the 1998 measure was known, differs in

many ways when compared with Newport Beach’s Measure S.

Escondido’s initiative, which passed with about 53% “yes” votes,

requires that all general plan amendments that increase residential

density, change the plan’s residential land-use categories or change

certain residential designations to commercial or industrial use go

before a citywide vote.

It doesn’t establish a threshold as does Newport Beach’s Measure S,

which proposes to put before a citywide vote any development that allows

an increase of more than 100 peak-hour car trips or dwelling units, or

40,000 square feet more than the general plan allowance.

Measure S supporters have said that while this would limit elections

to three per election year, about six projects requiring a residents’

vote would already wait on the sidelines.

Opponents to Measure S in Newport Beach have put their own initiative

on the ballot. Measure T would add parts of the city’s traffic phasing

ordinance to the city charter and nullify Measure S if voters approve

both measures.

In Escondido, the Chamber of Commerce-led opposition didn’t take that

route and simply campaigned, unsuccessfully, against Proposition S.

SIMILAR NAMES, SAME ARGUMENTS

When proponents and opponents of the Escondido proposition talk about

the 1998 campaign, they sound quite similar to their Newport Beach

counterparts.

“To whom does the city belong?” asked Niel Lynch, who campaigned for

the proposition. “The residents or a bunch of developers who make a few

bucks? We should be the ones to decide. If it’s a good project, we’ll

vote for it.”

Lynch and his fellow proposition supporters oppose all measures on the

ballot this year.

The initiative’s opponents responded with familiar arguments.

“Does the voter have the knowledge and is he going to spend the time

to make an informed decision?” asked David Ish, the chief executive of

Escondido’s Chamber of Commerce. “When it gets too technical, you’re just

going into the voting booth, not really knowing the ins and outs of the

issue. The reason that we elect a city council is that we entrust those

people with making those decisions.”

One of the city’s former elected officials and a supporter of the

proposition countered that this came close to calling voters “stupid.”

“To say that the voting population is not bright enough is contrary to

democracy,” said Jerry Harmon, who served on Escondido’s City Council,

including a stint as mayor, from 1974 to 1998.

OUTSPENT BY FAR

While Newport Beach’s battle of measures is turning into one of the

county’s most expensive election campaigns, both sides in Escondido spent

only a fraction of the money.

But relatively speaking, the comparison still stands: Opponents

outspent proponents by a ratio of about 10 to 1, campaign disclosure

statements show.

“Talk about David and Goliath,” said Lynch, an English teacher at a

local community college. “We were the bulldozers and the ant. And we were

the ant.”

Lynch and fellow Proposition S supporters said they had one major

advantage. Poway, a neighboring city, had passed a growth-control measure

a decade earlier.

“It was really helpful for people in Poway to come up and say, ‘This

kind of legislation has been in place and the town hasn’t folded up and

the economy hasn’t been hurt,”’ he said.

In Poway, the measure hadn’t triggered any citywide elections, Lynch

said, adding that a citywide vote had probably deterreddevelopers from

pursuing such projects.

“It took the fun out of land speculation,” he said, adding that

developers in Escondido seemed to try their luck this year.

“We have so many people that have speculated so much,” Lynch said,

adding that about two dozen projects had been set to appear on this

year’s ballot initially. “They are probably saying, ‘What have we got to

lose?”’

PASSING THE BUCK

While the regular process of public hearings at the Planning

Commission and the City Council was not changed by Proposition S, it has

had its effect on council decisions. Instead of holding the typical

public hearings, a majority of Escondido’s City Council members decided

to move the projects straight onto the ballot.

“Unfortunately, three votes said that the people wanted to vote” on

these projects, said Lori Holt Pfeiler, who became a council member in

1992 and was elected mayor in 1998. Pfeiler added that she and another

councilwoman had planned to discuss the projects before presenting them

to voters on the ballot.

“It was frankly a cop-out on the part of the pro-growth council,”

Harmon said. “Under Proposition S, you are supposed to have public

hearings. If you are not doing that, you are not doing your job.”

In Newport Beach, opponents of Measure S were quick to say the same

would happen if the initiative passes Nov. 7.

“You trash representative government and do away with planning,” said

Tom Edwards, who co-chairs the Measure T campaign. “I think it will

happen. That’s what we’ve argued.”

Supporters of Greenlight scoffed at the idea.

Allan Beek even suggested the City Council would likely face a lawsuit

if it pushes measures onto the ballot without reviewing them.

“I don’t think it could happen here,” Beek said. “You have to have an

environmental-impact review, you have to have public hearings. If the

City Council is trying to duck out of responsibilities, I would suspect

that there would be a lawsuit.”

STIFLING OR CONTROLLING FUTURE GROWTH?

People on both sides of the Proposition S divide said the outcome of

this year’s election on the eight general plan amendments will be crucial

to Escondido’s future.

Keeping that in mind, surprisingly little campaigning has taken place

so far. Supporters of some of the ballot measures didn’t even file

arguments in favor of their projects.

Only Proposition L, which proposes to build office buildings instead

of homes next to a freeway and is backed by the mayor and other community

leaders, has its own campaign committee, which has spent about $3,770 so

far. Another committee, which supports passage of all propositions, had

raised $1,500 by Oct. 21 but spent nothing.

Pfeiler said she supports all but one of the propositions. That one

plans to increase the number of homes in a rural area. She said she was

glad the money bar had been set low in light of potential future

measures.

But she said she worried that a “no” vote on all measures could halt

future investment in the city.

“If people vote every single [measure] down, you’ll have people

saying, ‘You can’t do anything in Escondido,”’ she said. “And they’ll go

elsewhere.”

Lynch countered that Proposition S supporters didn’t want to stop all

development -- the group had even endorsed a developer running for City

Council this year. That developer, though, had never asked for a general

plan amendment.

“All we’ve scared away are the speculators, not developers per se,” he

said. “All we’re telling people is, ‘Play by the rules.”’