Newport Traffic Initiative Put on 1988 Ballot

A residents’ traffic initiative that could significantly reduce development in Newport Beach will be placed on the Nov. 8, 1988, municipal ballot, the City Council decided late Monday.

The so-called “Traffic Phasing Ordinance Initiative” would force developers to make traffic improvements or scale back their projects if the development “would make traffic worse,” according to Paul Ryckoff, the organizer of the initiative drive.

Moreover, building permits would not be issued by the city until the developer agreed to institute the necessary traffic improvements. Ryckoff, a former Newport Beach mayor, said the improvements could range from the widening of an intersection to staggering workers’ hours or implementing car pools.

Newport 2,000--the group that sponsored the traffic initiative--was 85 signatures short of the required 6,810 names to qualify for a special municipal election early next year. There were sufficient signatures, however, to qualify the measure for a regularly scheduled city election.

City Manager Robert L. Wynn said Tuesday that should a special election on some other matter be called between now and the 1988 election, the council could schedule the traffic initiative then.

Some who favor growth have called the proposed initiative a veiled moratorium on construction, while those in favor of the initiative argue that it would strengthen the traffic law already in place in Newport Beach.