Initiatives Orange County

Orange County slow-growth proponents conceded defeat Tuesday as their far-reaching measure was being rejected by voters opposed to the idea of linking future growth in unincorporated areas to the ability to provide additional public services to new developments. "There's no question we're going to lose," said a disappointed Tom Rogers, co-founder of the group that sponsored the initiative.

A San Diego appeals court on Friday breathed new life into the effort to build an urban park at the former El Toro Marine Corps base, staying a lower court ruling that effectively killed efforts to place the issue on the March ballot. The preliminary ruling means that the 128,000 signatures gathered to place the "Great Park" plan on the ballot can be submitted to the county registrar for certification.

The slow-growth movement, which has hopes of sweeping California like a Proposition 13 prairie fire, was given some painful political lessons in Tuesday's election. One was that a well-financed, well-planned advertising campaign, pointing out ambiguities and possible weaknesses of complex slow-growth citizen initiatives, can defeat them. That was demonstrated by the rejection Tuesday of such measures in Orange County and Pasadena.

For the third time, supporters of a plan for a large urban park at the closed El Toro Marine base must start from scratch collecting voter signatures to put an initiative on the March 2002 ballot. As many as 30,000 signatures collected on petitions at shopping centers and public events in the past three weeks will be scrapped because a crucial map was missing from documents sent to county officials, park proponents said Thursday.

In a sign that the political struggle over tobacco funds is intensifying, state Sen. Joe Dunn asked legislative colleagues Thursday to sign a letter warning Orange County officials not to commit the county's share to jails and debt repayment before voters speak in November.

Rep. Ron Packard on Tuesday joined Rep. Christopher Cox in announcing his opposition to the El Toro airport and signing the Safe & Healthy Communities Initiative. The ballot proposal, if passed, would require two-thirds voter approval for new or expanded airports, jails and hazardous-waste landfills. The measure already has more than the 71,000 signatures needed to qualify for the March ballot.

Orange County airport officials on Wednesday announced they are pushing back the Board of Supervisors' vote on the El Toro airport plan from December to next spring, a move that critics said demonstrated a slip in the planning process. "[The county] has said they would have the base, signed, sealed and delivered, when the Marines left by July 2," said Meg Waters, a spokeswoman for a coalition of anti-airport cities.

Handing a legal victory to airport foes, a judge Thursday refused to remove Measure F, the initiative designed to stop a commercial airport at the closed El Toro Marine base, from the March 7 primary ballot. "This is very good news for us," said Jeffrey C. Metzger, chairman of Citizens for Safe and Healthy Communities, the petition drive organizer. "This was another ill-fated attempt to prevent the initiative from being approved by the voters." Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard M.

The City Council defined the Safe and Healthy Communities initiative, a countywide measure proposed for the March 2000 ballot, at its meeting Tuesday. The initiative requires county voters to approve plans for airports, hazardous waste landfills and large jails by a two-thirds vote. If passed, the initiative could help the city fight plans to build a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, which is soon to close.

Residents favor a proposed initiative that would require approval by two-thirds of voters to build or expand airports, jails or hazardous-waste landfills, but support dropped when residents were told it could kill the planned airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, a Times Orange County Poll has found. The survey indicates that south Orange County backers of the initiative face a tough fight to win passage of the measure, which is targeted for the March 2000 primary.

Two residents announced plans Tuesday to put an initiative on the March 2002 ballot to halt the importation of trash to the three Orange County landfills. San Juan Capistrano Mayor Wyatt T. Hart and Laguna Beach attorney Merritt McKeon filed a notice of intent at the registrar's office to qualify the Taxpayers Solid Waste Disposal Act of 2002.

A printing error has delayed for a second time the distribution of additional petitions for an initiative to replace airport zoning at the closed El Toro Marine base with parkland and a nature preserve. Supporters hope to gather enough voter signatures to place the measure on the March ballot, spokesman Len Kranser said. New petitions will be ready by this weekend, he said. Supporters had rushed printing the petition so signatures could be collected during the Memorial Day weekend.

Officials representing nine South County cities will unveil today their latest weapon in a seven-year war to defeat plans by Orange County to build an airport at the retired El Toro Marine base: A March 2002 ballot measure to replace the airfield with a park.

An Orange County Superior Court commissioner Thursday upheld Measure H, a voter-approved county initiative that earmarks hundreds of millions of dollars in national tobacco lawsuit settlement funds for health care. The ruling is a setback for county supervisors who had challenged the measure after a long battle with health care and community leaders over how the tobacco dollars should be spent. Commissioner Jane D.

In a move that puts the stalled El Toro airport back on track, a judge ruled Friday that voters cannot usurp the Orange County government's authority to build a commercial airport at the closed Marine base. The decision resuscitates plans to build Southern California's second largest airport and also might embolden local governments across the region to site controversial projects without fear of being overruled by the initiative and referendum process. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge S.

In a move that puts the stalled El Toro airport back on track, a judge ruled Friday that voters cannot usurp the Orange County government's authority to build a commercial airport at the closed Marine base. The decision both resuscitates plans to build Southern California's second-largest airport and also may embolden local governments across the region to undertake controversial projects without fear of being overruled by the initiative and referendum process.

A new UC Irvine poll shows that a March ballot initiative that could scuttle plans for an airport at El Toro has managed to confuse voters on both sides--a finding that could further inflame what is one of the most divisive issues in Orange County history. The UCI poll shows that support for the measure is almost evenly split, 48% in favor to 46% against, in otherwise fervently anti-airport South County, where roughly two-thirds of the voters have traditionally opposed an airport.

A judge has cleared an anti-airport initiative for the March ballot but said Friday she has "grave doubts" about whether the measure is constitutionally valid. Pro-airport forces had sought to keep the Orange County Board of Supervisors from placing the initiative on the ballot.

County officials filed a lawsuit late Monday in an effort to overturn a successful ballot measure that would force the county to spend millions of dollars over the next 25 years on health care rather than paying off government debt. The lawsuit, supported by three of the five supervisors, attacks the constitutionality of Measure H, which passed with 65% of the vote in the Nov. 7 election.

County supervisors have put themselves on a collision course with voters and face enormous political risk by challenging an initiative that their constituents put on the ballot and then decisively approved just two weeks ago, legal and political observers agree. In a split vote, supervisors ordered attorneys Tuesday to file a lawsuit challenging Measure H, which passed with nearly two-thirds support on Nov. 7.