Not In My Neighborhood

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That "right" has been jeopardized by California's surging population. Greater Los Angeles, with 8 million residents, is expected to surpass the New York City area as the nation's most populous metropolis in the 1990s. Neighboring Orange County is projected to swell 39% in the next 20 years, to 3 million people, while average rush-hour freeway speeds plunge from 36 m.p.h. to an unbearable 10 m.p.h. In once sleepy San Diego County the population has more than doubled since 1960, to 2.2 million. Says Maureen O'Connor, the Democratic mayor of conservative San Diego and an advocate of growth control: "Development is a negative word in this community."

Frustrated by unsympathetic city governments, residents are gathering signatures and forcing initiatives onto local ballots, overwhelming the resistance of politicians and the developers who finance their campaigns. Of 17 slow-growth measures on California ballots last November, 15 passed. "There is a rage out there," admits Sanford Goodkin, a real estate consultant in San Diego. "Developers are scared to death."

In Los Angeles slow-growthers gathered enough signatures to force & Proposition U onto the ballot in 1986. Approved by two-thirds of the voters, the measure halves the size of new buildings on much of the city's commercially zoned property. In San Francisco voters approved an initiative that reduced the annual limit on new office space by half. In San Diego, where the once inviting hillsides are being covered by endless rows of identical- looking houses, municipal services are swamped by surging demand. Last August the city council set a temporary limit on new housing at 8,000 units a year.

In part, California's slow-growth movement is a product of the state's most celebrated previous initiative. Proposition 13, which passed in 1978, severely restricts property taxes. Unable to stick local taxpayers with the rising cost of services, cities have been forced to cut back on improvements, despite tremendous growth. Now, as the strain on roads, schools and water supplies becomes unbearable, local governments are forcing developers to pick up the tab with heavy "impact fees." In San Francisco commercial developers must put aside money for low-income housing, parks, transportation, child care and even public art.

Although a forced slowdown of new building reduces the demand for costly expansion of city services, it inflates the cost of construction, real estate and rents. Says Karla Rainer, 31, a renter in San Diego: "These growth controls will probably kill my dream of owning a home. They've just turned this whole town into a seller's market."

Many neighborhoods see no alternative, particularly bedroom communities that once provided a tranquil escape from urban congestion but now resemble mini- cities themselves. In the past decade, suburbs have been swamped by an influx of jobs and development: about 60% of all office-space construction now takes place in the suburbs. Tired of fleeing growth, many residents are deciding to fight.