New council, Greenlight speak of harmony

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- With little sleep and a major victory under their

belts, supporters of the slow-growth Greenlight measure said Wednesday

they plan to work with city officials on guidelines for putting the

initiative into place.

The city’s voters overwhelmingly approved the measure with 63.4% of

the vote in Tuesday’s election.

Greenlight will 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 over the general plan allowance.

An opposing initiative, Measure T, which would have added parts of the

city’s traffic phasing ordinance to the City Charter, was rejected by

64.9% of Newport Beach’s voters.

When Greenlight becomes law once the county’s Registrar of Voters

certifies the election results, council members will face the burden of

deciding how the measure will actually work.

Several council members said Wednesday that they expect to get legal

advice from City Atty. Bob Burnham on what they could and should do to

put Greenlight into action. Burnham could not be reached for comment

Wednesday.

“We’ll figure out a way to make it work,” said Councilman Gary Adams,

who called supporters of the initiative to extend an offer to cooperate

on implementing the measure. “We need to sit down with the people that

formulated [Greenlight] and do what’s consistent with their original

intent. ... We need it to be defendable, and it’s hard to say at this

point what it’s going to be.”

City Manager Homer Bludau said he planned to bring the matter before

council members at their Dec. 12 meeting, when the newly elected

officials will be sworn into office.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it would take more than one meeting,”

Bludau said. “We’re really going to have to put our heads together and

come up with a list [of sections in the initiative that need

interpretation].”

Councilman-elect John Heffernan said he expected challenges from the

measure’s opponents.

“Clearly I’m the lone ranger as the only Greenlight guy on this

council,” he said. “I think this is an unusually bitter defeat for the

Measure T people. I don’t think they’re done. The money still exists.

They’ll still try to dilute Greenlight or knock it out entirely.”

But outgoing Councilwoman Jan Debay, one of the principal supporters

of Measure T, said she thought a legal challenge to Greenlight from the

opposition was unlikely.

“I think the challenges are going to come when we try to interpret

[Greenlight,]” she said, adding that she respected Greenlight supporters

for doing a “masterful job” in their campaign.

Allan Beek, one of Greenlight’s foremost supporters, said he couldn’t

think of anyone who would challenge a council decision to set election

day as the starting date for the so-called accumulation period.

The accumulation adds up general plan amendments over a 10-year period

in order to avoid attempts by developers to push through their projects

in pieces.

Greenlight opponents had argued that since the initiative’s wording

seems to require a 1990 starting date for the accumulation period,

council members would face legal challenges should they decide to begin

counting projects as of Nov. 7.

“Who would want to challenge [a Nov. 7 starting date?]” said Beek, who

helped write the initiative. “We all believe it should start Nov. 7.”

Another question the council will have to answer is whether developers

should be credited for decreasing the amount of square footage, car trips

or dwelling units in a project, said Beek.

In addition, the council may have to decide on an interpretation of

Greenlight for areas in the city that do not have a specific square

footage allowance and are simply zoned as “governmental,” or

“commercial.”

Councilman Tod Ridgeway, who also called Beek and other Greenlight

supporters to offer his cooperation, said he hoped the group would soon

appoint a representative to work with the council.

“We have a new chair on the table,” he said. “The chair is Greenlight.

... We probably had more mutual goals than we had differences,” he said.