Election Roundup: Most Valley-Area Measures Pass

Voters on Tuesday gave their approval on Tuesday to a variety of issues found on ballot measures, including airport development, recreational marijuana and transportation projects. Voters were faced with 17 state ballot measures along with others for the county and city of Los Angeles. With all precincts reporting, Measure M passed by 69.8 percent, just above the two-thirds needed to raise the sales tax half a cent to fund public transit and freeway projects. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has identified three Valley projects to be paid from the tax: the East San Fernando Valley transit corridor connecting Van Nuys with Sylmar; improvements to the Orange Line busway that would include grade separations with plans to eventually convert it to light rail; and a rail connection between the Valley and the Westside of Los Angeles that would require tunneling under the Santa Monica Mountains in the Sepulveda Pass. Coby King, immediate past chair of Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a Van Nuys business advocacy group, said the ballot measure was a game changer that will bring the Valley into the golden age of rail transit. “VICA is gratified that voters of the county passed Measure M,” King said. “We now see our role as making sure the Metro board executes the plan in the way they promised to the voters of the Valley.” Marijuana, condom issues In other statewide ballot propositions with impacts on the Valley, voters rejected a measure to require adult film performers to use condoms and approved a proposition legalizing recreational use of marijuana. Proposition 60, which would make condoms mandatory in adult films lost with a 53.9 percent no vote. Supporters pitched the measure as a workers’ safety issue while the adult industry, much of it centered in the Valley, opposed it, saying it would open workers to harassment and drive film production underground or out of the state. In a statement from the Free Speech Coalition, the Canoga Park trade group for the adult industry, the failure to pass Prop 60 was hailed as a victory of “science over stigma, and facts over fear.” Attempts to get a statement from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the primary backer of Prop 60, were not successful. Steve Hirsch, co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment, one of the Valley’s largest adult production companies, said that voters saw right through the mandate that AHF and its president, Michael Weinstein, were trying to pass. “Here’s a man who tried to hijack our industry and make himself the porn czar,” Hirsch said in a statement emailed to the Business Journal. “The voters said no.” Proposition 64 to legalize recreational use of marijuana passed with a 55.8 percent of the vote. Supporters claim the law will provide a controlled and taxed environment for adult use of marijuana. Opponents contend the law will increase impaired driving and black market marijuana sales. In Burbank, city residents gave their backing to a new terminal at Hollywood Burbank Airport. Measure B passed with 69 percent of support from city residents. Its approval allows the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority to build a 14-gate, 355,000-square-foot replacement terminal on 49 acres along Hollywood Way north of the existing 14-gate terminal, which was built in 1930. A new terminal would improve safety at the Valley’s only commercial airport by moving the terminal farther away from the center of a runway. The current terminal is too close for it to meet Federal Aviation Administration standards. Airport Executive Director Frank R. Miller said the authority was pleased the voters approved Measure B overwhelmingly. “Burbank will receive a safer, modern 14-gate replacement passenger terminal, as well as a greater say in critical decisions about the Airport’s future,” Miller said in a statement emailed to the Business Journal. “This is a victory, not only for Burbank but also for the San Fernando Valley residents and businesses we serve.” Calabasas as well had a ballot measure concerning development, Measure F, which was rejected by voters by 65 percent. Saying “no” to the measure means that a small hotel and housing development cannot be built. But a larger housing project and a strip shopping center apparently can be built on the property, near Las Virgenes Road a couple blocks south of the 101 Freeway.