The citizens committee appointed to provide input on the Escondido General Plan voted unanimously January 7 to recommend to the City Council that Proposition S not be placed on the ballot when the revised plan is put before voters in November 2012. The vote was a surprise to supporters of Prop. S, the Growth Management and Neighborhood Protection Act, which prevents most land-use changes unless voters approve. It was passed by a more than 60 percent majority of Escondido voters in 1998.

Our report continues after the jump with analysis from Margaret Liles and with a link to coverage in the North County Times.

As discussion of the General Plan Revision has proceeded, city staff  included suggestions that Prop. S be placed on the ballot either along with or as part of the General Plan approval. The committee seemed to want to separate their work on the plan from the controversial suggestion to kill Prop. S. When asked if they wanted to have Prop. S appear on the ballot by itself, only one member supported that approach. In the end, even he voted to not place Prop. S on the ballot, leaving it in effect.

During discussion, committee member Terry Jackson said “I don’t think Prop. S and the provisions of Prop. S have anything to do with what we’re doing here… I don’t believe it belongs as part of the process here.” Chairman David Ferguson concluded “It’s clear we have a substantial committee recommendation.”

The committee vote is a recommendation to the Escondido City Council, which must approve its review of the General Plan and direct that it be submitted to voters for approval. Most council members oppose Prop. S.

Analysis by Margaret McCown Liles

So, the good news is that The Growth Management and Neighborhood Protection Act, Prop. S., will not be voted on in the 2010 election. The bad news is that the new General Plan will be so “flexible” that developers will have no problem in building just about anything they want, wherever they want.

I attended last night’s Escondido General Plan Update Issues Committee meeting. The chairman of the committee was Dave Ferguson, the go-to lawyer for developers who hope to get their plans approved. Since four out of the five members of the City Council are pro-development, it is not surprising that the majority of the Committee were anti-Prop. S. Before the discussion of Prop. S., it was clear that recommendations of the majority of the Committee would pretty much follow those of the City Staff, which in-turn reflect the recommendations of the pro-growth members of the City Council. There was an emphasis on keeping the rules of development “flexible”.

Overall there seemed to have been a trend to making it possible to meet Escondido’s Quality of Life Standards by lowering those standards. Of course, this lowering of standards is always disguised as conforming with modern trends. We should do away with the goals for “smog” standards, because we can’t control what neighboring communities and counties put into the air. Our intrepid warrior, Lisa Prazeau, did point out that our pollution goes into other communities, but the city staff and Ferguson pushed through their notion that air quality was a county or state issue, not a city issue.

The staff suggested three options for the Committee regarding Prop. S. First they could recommend that Prop. S be put on the ballot as a separate issue from the General Plan. Second, they could recommend that Prop. S be linked on the ballot with Prop. S. Third, they could recommend that Prop. S not be considered on the next ballot. After some questioned about what exactly the second option meant, Ferguson suggested breaking into two options: first, passage of the General Plan would be linked with continuation of Prop. S; second, passage of the General Plan would be linked with the annulment of Prop. S. Ferguson noted that it was his opinion that the majority of the committee would support the second option. One of the committee members suggested he supported bringing Prop. S. to a vote as a separate issue, but tempered his argument by noting that the General Plan now being developed would probably overcome the obstacles (read obstacles to the building industry) presented by Prop. S.

The issues of growth management have been postponed to the next meeting of the Committee. What will this Committee suggest as the build-out population for Escondido? I wouldn’t be surprised to see a figure of 500,000 to 750,000 people. We’ll keep you posted.

Read coverage in North County Times:

General plan update should not include Prop. S repeal, panel says
North County Times, January 8, 2010