by Margaret McCown Liles, President

Margaret Liles

In the 1990′s a group of citizens had grown tired of watching the fate of their neighborhoods and their City be determined by three pro-development City Council members. Too often they had watched unpopular, and poorly planned development proposals, turned down by the Planning Commission, and not recommended by the City Staff, be approved by only three City Council members. Often those City Council members had received substantial campaign contributions from the very developers whose projects they approved.

Seeking to  provide additional checks and balances to the system of local government, these aggravated citizens formed the Escondido Chamber of Citizens. They studied the problem. It was their belief that some Council members were more likely to be influenced by the needs of their contributors–land speculators and real estate developers–than by the needs of the average citizens.

The citizens were then subjected to two abuses, first the approval of the poorly planned development, and second, paying for the additional infrastructure that the new development required. Although developer impact fees are charged by the City, they are never enough to cover the actual cost of the new infrastructure needed. Often, the pro-development City Council members would also approve waivers of these fees, adding more to the tax-paying citizens’ burden. Since there is always a lag time between the need for new infrastructure and the actual building of that infrastructure, citizens also have to put up with more traffic, crowded schools, more pollution, etc.

Cities have General Plans that theoretically guide the city’s future growth and development with the end goal of producing a livable, sustainable city at its projected build-out population.  Population density is established in different areas through the General Plan, and fine-tuned through zoning. The General Plan allows the city to plan for the  water, sewer service, police and fire protection, schools, etc. , that will be required as the city develops according to the General Plan.  Increasing population density over that called for by the General Plan pretty much throws the Plan out of whack. For example, changing the zoning to allow an apartment building in a neighborhood designed for single family homes, crowds that neighborhood’s schools and streets, overburdens the police and fire protection, etc. Before Prop. S was passed, it only took three members of a City Council to amend the General Plan.

In 1998, the Chamber of Citizens put together The Growth Management and Neighborhood Protection Act, also known as Prop. S. They gathered enough signatures to put it on the November ballot, and, without much financing and lots of grass-roots effort, got the measure passed by better than a 60% majority.

This act made any amendments to the General Plan that increased residential density be put to a vote of the citizens for final approval. The act did not restrict in any way a development that conformed with the current General Plan. The act did not prohibit reasonable modifications of the zoning that did not affect overall General Plan standards.

The Growth Management and Neighborhood Protection Act has served Escondido well, improving the quality of development.

The City of Escondido is now in the process of revising its General Plan, and the pro-developer crowd is planning how to convince the citizens of Escondido to dump the inconvenient Prop.  S.

The developers and their friends will try to blame Escondido’s economic woes on Prop. S. So many missed opportunities to increase the city’s income–they will claim, without going into any bothersome detail about such opportunities. In fact, all residential development is a net loss to city income–requiring much more in infrastructure development and services than their property taxes will pay for. The Chamber of Commerce will chant their endless mantra that more people will bring more business. Of course more people usually bring more competitors to existing businesses, including the big box stores and malls that toll the death knell for mom-and-pop businesses.

The Growth Management and Neighborhood Protection Act has served a check on the power of three members of the City Council to set aside the goals developed in a General Plan to optimize development to create a healthy, solvent, livable Escondido. It needs to be retained. Come to the January 7, 2009, General Plan Revision Hearing, 7:00 pm at the Mitchell Room at Escondido City Hall. Express your support of the Growth Management and Neighborhood Protection Act.