Editorial

The election is still a good 10 months away but the campaign platform has

already been erected.

No, there are no town hall forums, no slick mailers, no clever slogans.

Just the steady drumbeat of politics at work.

The Greenlight Initiative -- a high-voltage plan to let voters in Newport

Beach decide the fate of certain developments -- has already sparked an

interesting series of moves in the business community.

The Irvine Co., for instance, announced last week that it was withdrawing

its expansion plan for the Newport Center, saying the Greenlight

Initiative added such a layer of haze to the already cumbersome planning

process that it could not see moving forward.

The State Teachers’ Retirement System followed suit, pulling the plug on

plans for an office building in Newport Center. Others are considering

their options.

Campaign ploy or real-life fear? Difficult to say.

But it’s clear that by the time November rolls around and voters swing

the fate of the Greenlight Initiative, the stakes will be high, the

rhetoric pitched, the truth elusive. The initiative, though billed as a

mom-and-pop effort to improve traffic flow in the city, is simply the

biggest deal to come this way in a long, long time.

The initiative mandates that certain proposed developments must go before

the voters -- not just the City Council -- for approval. Using a complex

formula, the initiative would force projects that deviate from the city’s

general plan to be put on the ballot for citywide approval.

By way of example, the proposed hotel development at the Dunes would have

to be put on the ballot if the Greenlight Initiative were in effect

today. Ditto with the sprawling Banning Ranch project. Same thing with

the expansion plan for Conexant, the high-tech darling of Wall Street.

That the Irvine Co. would already yank its planned expansion of Newport

Center is a troubling sign.

Has the development firm genuinely concluded that it doesn’t want the

added hassle of waiting out the verdict of Greenlight and then, possibly,

waiting around for another vote on its project?

That’s very possible.

That would also explain why the proponents of Greenlight are cheering the

Irvine Co.’s decision, celebrating their first taste of victory.

It’s also possible that the development firm and the business community

in general have closed ranks and have -- symbolically, at least --

offered up the Newport Center expansion plan as a sign of what’s to come.

Either way, these are the winds of war in Newport Beach.