Is more traffic congestion on way?

Philip Arst and John Buttolph

Do the residents of Newport Beach really want tens of thousands of

daily car trips added to our already congested streets?

Do we want to crowd the city and bayfront with new multi-story

developments? Do we want to aggravate the gridlock on approximately

15 of the major intersections in our city?

No, we do not. But it appears the City Council intends to enact

changes this year to our current general plan, making these

consequences all but inevitable.

The evidence suggests that Newport’s city councils historically

promote development interests over residents’ quality of life.

Case in point: A few years ago, 10 pending development proposals

would have added up to 40,000 auto trips a day to our already

over-congested streets.

While the city blithely supported these projects, the residents

stepped forward and passed Measure S (the Greenlight law) to require

voter approval of such large-scale projects.

As a result of Measure S, the proposals for the 40,000 additional

auto trips were withdrawn and the quality of life for the majority

trumped profits for a privileged few.

Greenlight volunteers and supporters thought the issue had been

settled, believing that the city would respect the Greenlight law and

seek voter approval of major developments in the future.

But wait -- the City Council is ignoring the residents’ message.

Just last year, they attempted to foist a clever subterfuge to

evade the existing Greenlight law’s requirements for a popular vote

on all major new hotel developments.

When informal negotiations failed to bring the city into

compliance with the law, Greenlight resident volunteers again were

compelled to act, and as a last resort filed a lawsuit to protect the

people’s right to vote on these major projects.

The outcome? The judge ruled for Greenlight and awarded Greenlight

reimbursement of its legal expenses. Residents came together and

acted to protect our quality of life because the City Council chose

to disregard the law in order to promote more development.

Now, is the city yet again preparing to avoid the Greenlight law

by refusing to acknowledge that resident approval will be required on

the citywide intensification of development and traffic increases in

the proposed general-plan update?

We believe that some members of the council don’t like the

Greenlight law and will evade it if they can.

For example, the city may attempt to shift entitlements for unused

land uses that are scattered throughout the city in the current

general plan and concentrate those uses on the update around the

bayfront and in other areas of the city already saturated with

traffic.

If so, we voters will be denied the right under the Greenlight law

to decide whether we want these increases in traffic and development.

The update is still being considered, so every resident who wants

to maintain Newport as a high-quality, residential, beach/bay

community should learn about how these changes will affect our

quality of life.

The Greenlight website (www.newport

greenlight.com) has a condensed overview of the general-plan

update to get you started.

Then, contact your council member or appear at City Council

meetings to tell the council how you feel about the update’s

potential wholesale intensification of development and traffic

congestion in the city.

Let the council know that you want to preserve our present high

quality of life and property values.

Let the council know how strongly you oppose the major traffic

congestion increases it is considering. We must work together.

Tell the council we want to stop overbuilding our city.

* PHILIP ARST is the spokesperson for the Greenlight Residents

Group.

* JOHN BUTTOLPH is a new member of the Greenlight Residents

Steering Committee.