X marks the sore spot

Today’s election won’t make Debra and Barry Allen agree on everything, but it will resolve one of their dinner-table debates.

The Allens, husband and wife attorneys who live in Newport Beach, have taken opposite sides when it comes to Measure X, the ballot initiative that would require public votes on some development projects in the city.

Their split — he’s for X, she’s against it — illustrates the complexity of Measure X and how people feel about it. While most City Council members oppose it, some residents want to vote them out of office, so the measure is not simply a vote-the-party-line issue.

Barry Allen was one of those who helped get Measure X on the ballot. He said he supported it as soon as he heard about it.

“I signed the petition, and so my mind was made up at that point in time, because I had been in favor of Greenlight originally,” he said. “Measure V will basically wipe out the original Greenlight.”

Greenlight is the name of both the residents’ group that put Measure X forward and the common term for Measure S, the group’s successful 2000 ballot issue that requires votes on projects that exceed the city’s General Plan by certain thresholds.

Measure V, an update to the General Plan that’s also on the ballot today, would change the types and amounts of development allowed and thus affect when votes are required.

But for Debra Allen that’s not a reason to change the rules — especially with what she believes is a flawed measure.

“First of all, as a lawyer, I think it’s constitutionally infirm. I don’t think it will withstand a constitutional attack,” she said.

But even more than that, she doesn’t believe people should be at the mercy of voters to build something that’s already supposed to be allowed.

If the General Plan permits a 50,000-square-foot office building on a property, for example, it would still have to pass a public vote under Measure X, she said.

“Under Greenlight I, you could still build your office building. Under Greenlight II [Measure X], you’d have to go to a vote to build what you’re already entitled to, and I think that goes too far.”

Unless the project is a fire station, hospital or school, it would probably fail at the polls, Debra Allen said.

Barry Allen disagrees that Measure X would take away property owners’ rights. In fact, he said, it’s giving residents back the ability to control growth, since the City Council seems to approve nearly every development that comes down the pike

“You just heard her tell you all the projects are going to fail,” he said. “Why should the City Council give them [developers] something if the people are against it? … We’re supposed to be a representative democracy, and that doesn’t mean the developers have more rights than the people who vote.”

Another reason Debra Allen objects is that the measure could affect homeowners because Measure X’s authors failed to exempt all residential properties.

If other development happens, such as a major store remodel, and a few more people add on to their homes, she said, “the third person down the road whose home remodel will kick the project [area] over 40,000 square feet has to go to a vote. Is that going to happen this year? No, but will it happen five years down the road, maybe six or seven years down the road? Yeah.”

Barry disputes that.

“If somebody wants to remodel their house and add a 10-car garage and drive their cars out 10 times a day … I agree that might happen. It won’t happen anywhere else.”

In the course of their debate, it becomes clear that the Allens fundamentally disagree on what kind of restrictions on growth are fair.

“I just don’t think that you can pass something that is basically going to halt all development rights that people already have on property they already own and say you just can’t build it,” Debra Allen said.

But to Barry, that’s what the update to the General Plan does — it changes the rules, in some cases replacing commercial uses with residential ones.

“Don’t tell me we can’t do it in [Measure] X when we can do it in the General Plan,” he said. “It doesn’t take away people’s property rights any more than the General Plan changes what they can do with their property.”

But there’s one thing about Measure X the Allens agree on. When it comes to what will happen today at the polls, both said they expect the measure to pass.

Debra Allen said she thinks so because she’s been walking precincts for one of the council candidates and talking to residents. They seem to support Greenlight’s slogan about reducing traffic, she said, though to her the measure’s negative effects outweigh any positive impacts it will have on traffic.

Whatever voters decide on Measure X, it will end one dispute for the Allens — but not all of them.

Debra Allen said there’s plenty more they don’t agree on.

“I try to convince him all the time that I’m right, but I haven’t done it yet,” she quipped.

Barry, of course, disagrees.

“She agrees with me. She just says she doesn’t to be contrary,” he said.