Watching Greenlight

This fall’s election in Newport Beach, like the two prior to it,

is being shaped strongly by the forces behind the city’s

controlled-growth Greenlight law. Just what those forces are is a

matter for discussion and, possibly, concern.

First off, though, it bears repeating that the philosophy behind

Greenlight is a beneficial one to Newport Beach. Controlling growth,

limiting traffic, giving the nod to residents over developers and

bringing a civil nature to city government are all worthy goals. It

also is imperative to note that Greenlight is the law of the city. As

such, it of course needs to be respected and followed.

It is less the law, though, than the movement that is Greenlight

that bears watching. On one hand, Greenlight in this larger sense

might be considered a nascent political party and a member of a local

“two-party system” that would include, as its opposite, developers

and other special interest groups.

In this sense, Greenlight plays an important role in fostering

debate and discussion about Newport Beach issues -- starting, of

course, with traffic and development, but also expanding to involve

City Hall’s responsiveness to residents -- in the way that discussion

in Washington, D.C. is held between the Democrats and Republicans. A

Greenlight “party” in city politics is a victory for residents who

suddenly have a voice they lacked before.

Or Greenlight could be thought of as a new special interest, no

more concerned about residents than, as the Greenlight charge goes,

developers are now.

In this thinking, there is a grand divide between the more than

60% of voters who supported Greenlight becoming the law of the city

and the handful of people -- Phil Arst, George Jeffries, council

candidate Allan Beek, Tom Hyans, former councilwomen Jean Watt and

Evelyn Hart -- who make the decision on where Greenlight stands.

In this permutation, Greenlight is not just a growth law. It is

synonymous with a small group of people who want the power in Newport

Beach to shift to them from, in their opinion, developers and

business leaders. Their drive to run a slate of candidates is

worrisome because their intentions, their potential power, is

unknown. No amount of insistence that the candidates they support

will be free to vote as they wish will dispel the thought that a

Greenlight-dominated Newport Beach City Council will answer to a

power center of people who for the most part are entirely

unaccountable to voters.

If Greenlight truly acts like a political party, and does not

stand to be controlled by a core group of leaders, it will make

Newport Beach a better city for all who live and visit here. But if

it turns out to be otherwise, and voters fill the council with

Greenlight-backed candidates, Newport Beach will simply end up in new

special-interest hands. What that will mean, only time will tell.