The future of an 80-acre parcel eyed for Mendocino County?s largest commercial development was in limbo Wednesday after voters overwhelmingly defeated a ballot measure that would have allowed developers to bypass the local planning process.
?We will now take time to review what we learned from this process and carefully consider how we may wish to proceed,? said Jeff Adams, project manager for the proposed Mendocino Crossings development.
More than 62 percent of voters rejected Measure A, which would have freed developers to build up to 800,000 square feet of retail stores and other commercial buildings on the former Masonite plant property just outside Ukiah without going through the county planning process.
The battle over Measure A set new records for campaign spending in Mendocino County. As of late October, an Ohio developer and Texas businessman had invested a record-breaking $880,000 in Measure A ? or more than $125 for every ?yes? vote they won in preliminary results at the polls.
The final tally has not yet been completed, but voters cast 23,834 ballots in the election. Only 7,029 of the 18,750 counted as of Tuesday night favored Measure A.
What happens next depends on how the developers, Ohio-based Developers Diversified Realty and its Texas partner, David Berndt, interpret the vote.
?All possibilities certainly remain. The current owner could submit any project through the planning process,? said Mendocino County Supervisor Kendall Smith.
Or they might decide to sell the property they bought for $6.5 million in 2006 and move on.
?The ball?s in their court,? said Ukiah City Councilwoman Mary Anne Landis.
Smith said the developers still have options for the property. She believes the lopsided defeat of Measure A was triggered by voters? response to the attempted end-run around the county planning process, not necessarily the development itself.
Others say the developers? only logical choice is to cut their losses and sell.
?With the board of supervisors made up the way they are, I don?t think they have a chance,? said Guinness McFadden, a spokesman for the campaign against Measure A.
The developers have said the makeup of the board of supervisors is one reason they launched the ballot measure. But that could change next year when two seats come up for election.
The developers also complained that the county?s planning process is too cumbersome.
The project?s opponents largely are betting the developers will give up. They want something other than big-box stores on the property, where a molded wood products plant once provided some of the county?s best-paying jobs. The land should remain zoned industrial in order to attract other production jobs, such as in timber, wine and green energy, they say.
Measure A proponents have said that?s just a pipe dream. But the failed ballot initiative just might have made the dream more likely to materialize, McFadden said.
?This assault on the Masonite property by DDR (Developers Diversified Realty) is really a blessing in disguise because it?s galvanized serious people into looking in depth into what exactly can be done there,? he said.
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