Sounding Board -- Martin A. Brower

As a resident of Newport Beach who strongly opposed the Greenlight

initiative, I was amazed by the July 22 letter to the editor (“Koll

project should pass Greenlight,” Robert Griffin) that said “When I voted

for the Greenlight initiative last year, I was concerned with the

dramatic increase in traffic congestion in Newport Beach . . . . It was

never my intent to stop development completely or prohibit any new

building within our city limits. The proposed new Koll Center Newport is

a perfect example of a sensible development.”

Of course Greenlight will stop all significant development in Newport

Beach and the Koll Center project is indeed a perfect example.

The Newport Beach City Council has now approved the project and, in

accordance with Greenlight, the issue will be decided by the voters at a

special election scheduled for Nov. 20.

Does anyone want to guess how many voters will leave their homes for a

special election on a cold November day to vote yes for a 10-story office

building? My own guess is a small handful, me and very few others.

Does anyone want to guess how many voters will march to the polls,

spurred on by a “Vote No” campaign by the Greenlight backers, to vote

against a 10-story office building? Not a great number of people, but

certainly enough to easily turn the project down.

There is no way that enough voters will go to the polls to vote yes on

any new development of the size for which Greenlight requires a positive

vote -- not for a project with the name Koll, certainly not for a project

with the name Irvine Co., and not even if I would want to develop an

apartment building nor if any reader would want to develop a commercial

building.

In the same issue in which the letter writer stated that he did not

realize Greenlight would stop development, another letter (“It’s not a

good time for Koll project,” Elaine Linhoff) opposed the Koll development

because of traffic.

But, dear readers, Greenlight will not stop traffic growth in Newport

Beach because, except for a few islands within the city, Newport Beach is

not an island. Traffic through Newport will continue to grow as Orange

County and Southern California continue to grow.

One of my favorite letters to the editor was written some years ago by

a resident of Laguna Beach who opposed development of the Newport Coast

because of traffic. This reader and his wife were both on the faculty of

Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. Daily during the week, the reader and

his wife, with different teaching schedules, each drove from Laguna Beach

through Newport Beach to Costa Mesa -- and then back again. He and his

wife were creating the traffic through our city that no Greenlight

initiative will ever stop.

Greenlight, an initiative ordinance written by a small group of people

-- a number of whom do live on Newport Beach islands -- was the wrong

legislation to pass. But now that it is here, we are stuck with it until

it is repealed at some future date.

Meanwhile, let’s watch the special Nov. 20 election. Certainly, the

developers of the Koll Center project will put up a good campaign to get

voters to leave their homes on that cold November day to vote for the

office building. And certainly the Greenlight gang will mount a strong

campaign against the project.

Unfortunately for the project, a well-conceived place to work near the

airport in Newport Beach, the special election will be a waste of money.

It has no chance of passing. I only wish that we could get the Greenlight

gang to pay for the election.

* MARTIN A. BROWER is a writer living in Corona del Mar.