Size, traffic can prompt Greenlight

Lolita Harper

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to change language in the

Measure S guidelines to include square footage in hotels or theaters

as a trigger for a Greenlight vote -- an amendment that has long been

pushed for by the slow-growth group.

“The document that is here before us tonight is an excellent

document,” Mayor Tod Ridgeway said. “I personally see no problem with

what is here tonight. It goes a long way to assuage all of

[Greenlight’s] comments.”

The change means that floor area will be a factor when figuring

how much traffic a hotel or theater may generate. If the traffic

estimates cross a certain threshold, then the project comes up for a

public vote.

Previously, hotels were counted by the number of rooms and

theaters by the number of seats, but with the change, the baseline

allowed use for hotels will be 1,000 square feet per room, and 15

square feet will be allotted per theater seat.

Greenlight leaders, who filed a lawsuit in connection to some of

these factors in regard to the Marinapark hotel project, said the

amendments to the measure were a step in the right direction.

“I guess nothing can be perfect, but we are appreciative of all

the efforts,” said Phil Arst, spokesman for Greenlight, referring to

city efforts to make the change.

Arst said that Greenlight’s purpose has always been to supply the

public with all the information it needs to make an informed

decision, and the details publicly available on the Marinapark

project fall short of that.

Arst said Greenlight agrees, tentatively, to drop the lawsuit,

pending approval from its lawyers that all of their concerns

regarding Measure S have been addressed.