Second Growth Measure is Back on the Ballot

PHOENIX-The Arizona Supreme Court has cleared the way for a developer-supported growth-control measure to appear on the November ballot, next to one heavily backed by the Sierra Club that would impose much stricter limits.

Proposition 100, drafted with the support of developers and other businesses to counter the much tougher Prop. 202, was ordered removed from the ballot by a lower court earlier. The judge said that the measure violated state law by addressing more than one issue in a single proposition.

The lower court’s decision was overturned by the state Supreme Court on Thursday, so Prop. 100 can appear on the ballot after all.

Proposition 100, known as “Growing Smarter Plus,” is an extension of a land conservation plan passed last year by the Legislature. Growing Smarter Plus would change the way the state manages its land and would set aside up to 3% of it for preservation.

“It’s great news that Prop. 100 can go back on the ballot,” says Dominic Petrucci, Intermountain Division president of California-based Koll Development Co. and a leading opponent of Prop. 202. “If the public knew all the details of the Sierra Club proposition they would not be in favor of it.”

Real estate and business groups hope that Proposition 100 will take some of the steam out of Proposition 202, which calls for restrictive growth boundaries and a two-year building moratorium. Some economist have projected that if Prop. 202 passes, it would cost the state more than 200,000 jobs in the first two years alone and abort the expected creation of 1 million more after that.

Now that Proposition 100 is back the ballot, the battle between the business/real estate community and environmental groups is sure to heat up as the November election approaches. Developers and elected officials across the country are watching, in part because Prop. 202 is the first attempt ever to enact municipal growth boundaries on a statewide basis.