Pitchman Builds Project Support
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In an age when a combative public either kills or carries developments to approval, Tom Tomlin’s services as a pitchman for California builders are in high demand.
Threatened with ballot measures and lawsuits aimed at halting sprawl, developers are increasingly turning to Tomlin, a onetime campaign operative for Ronald Reagan, and others like him for help in winning public support.
From Ventura to Escondido, the president of Century City-based Tom Tomlin Associates conducts polling and runs focus groups selling business owners, stay-at-home moms and horse enthusiasts on suburban development.
Tomlin organizes project supporters into “grass-roots” movements. He buys them dinner and listens to their suggestions on everything from equestrian trails to floor plans, which are then used to make a project more desirable. In turn, they pack city council hearings for him. They do the selling.
“Fifteen or 20 years ago, I wasn’t necessary,” said Tomlin, 58. “Now, in every community I go into, there are these ‘slow-growth environmentalists.’ A developer can’t build a project without consensus-building.”
The market for consultants like Tomlin emerged in the mid-1980s, when a real estate boom collided with a rising slow-growth movement, said Bill Fulton, a California land-use expert.
“Consultants who help developers have always been around,” Fulton said. “The difference is, they’re moving from consultants who schmooze the politicians to consultants who schmooze the public.
“Any large development project in a community is essentially a political campaign now. There’s always the threat of a ballot measure or a lawsuit. So you have to sell the public from the moment you unveil the project.”
To date, Tomlin’s strategies have helped develop 8,000 homes statewide. He is working on half a dozen projects, with his fees per project ranging from $100,000 to $700,000 a year. Two of his thornier developments are in Ventura County.
In Simi Valley, Unocal’s the Canyons would add 1,600 homes and a business park. The Ranch at Santa Paula by Pinnacle Development Group would double the geographic size of the city and add 2,250 homes, in addition to apartments and a shopping complex. Both projects require extending city boundaries.
Ventura County-based Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources, one of the most effective slow-growth organizations in the nation, is pushing ballot initiatives this fall that could block both developments. The group argues that the projects will increase sprawl without meeting affordable housing needs.
Simi Valley Councilwoman Barbra Williamson said Tomlin’s ability to engage the public gives elected officials “a feel for what’s acceptable. I’m a servant of the people. If they’re telling me they’ve listened to Mr. Tomlin, and he’s good and they’re happy, what am I going to do? Tell them they’re all wrong?”
But Thousand Oaks Councilwoman Linda Parks, a slow-growth activist, disagrees. “You’ll not see Tom Tomlin come to a meeting and say, ‘Hi, I’m Tom Tomlin, the PR guy,’” she said. “It’s all disguised through these minions, shills who appear to be genuine supporters.”
Indeed, Tomlin’s adversaries say they respect his skills but find his work dishonest.
“These people are in the hands of a master,” said Richard Francis, a Ventura attorney and driving force behind SOAR. “He goes into a community, runs these little focus groups, tries to peel off the edges, and tries to make people think they have a sense of empowerment, when in fact there is none because he is completely pulling the strings.”
Tomlin feels an equal disdain for Francis and his crowd.
“They have a great way of framing the issues: urban sprawl, traffic--all those buzzwords. I’ve always felt they’re an elitist group. The bottom line is, they’ve got theirs and they don’t want anyone else to have theirs.”
Tomlin’s efforts in both Simi Valley and Santa Paula are just gearing up. But his background provides a road map of what to expect.
As a young man, Tomlin saw his future in politics. At Pepperdine University, he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. He went to work for Ronald Reagan’s 1966 gubernatorial campaign as an assistant campaign manager. From 1967 to 1970, he ran Southern California campaigns for the Republican Party.
“I learned press relations, how to identify target publics, strategy, research,” Tomlin said. “It was like going to graduate school--but for real.”
The money wasn’t great. And burnout came quickly. When public relations man Carl Terzian asked Tomlin to join his start-up firm in Los Angeles, Tomlin signed on.
He still craved politics. But then, he thought, wasn’t selling California homeowners on growth the ultimate political challenge?
As president of Terzian’s firm, Tomlin managed Fox Studios’ campaign to expand its Century City lot starting in 1991. A local homeowners group opposed the project. While Los Angeles grappled with recession, Tomlin made his case: The expansion meant more jobs. Rejecting the expansion meant Fox might pick up and leave.
He formed “Friends of Fox,” tapping area business owners and neighbors. Hundreds packed hearing rooms. Fox mounted a celebrity campaign. In 1993, the City Council approved the deal.
Tomlin left Terzian’s firm to start his own in 1997. He took with him client New Urban West Inc., which planned to build Long Canyon, a 650-home community in Simi Valley.
Dominique Dunn, 56, a local resident who lives two blocks from the development, remembers getting a call from Tomlin asking her to join “Friends of Long Canyon.”
She accepted. “I figured it was a foregone conclusion that it was going to be built, so my thought was to make sure it was done right.”
She told Tomlin she was concerned that the plans would raze too many of the oak trees near her home. New Urban West agreed to reroute a road, she said, creating a more rural look and saving many trees.
The executive committee met once a month; the developer picked up the dinner tab. They talked about everything, including home design. “They’d show us the floor plans for the models and, literally, we’d say, ‘No, we don’t like this floor plan,’ and they’d change it,” Dunn recalled.
Her committee was given an annual stipend of $12,000 to distribute to local charities, she said.
When it came time to go before the City Council, she and hundreds of others did. “You didn’t feel like you were being used,” she said. “I like to know what goes on in my community and feel I have a say.”
Two years ago, on another New Urban West project in Escondido, Tomlin learned that several neighbors opposed a 222-home project because it would pave over land they used for horseback riding.
The developer altered its plans to add a public equestrian trail. “We were able to accommodate their needs and they supported us in the public arena,” said Tom Zanic, vice president of New Urban West.
Tomlin hasn’t won over everybody.
Laura Lee Custodio of Thousand Oaks took issue with the master-planned Dos Vientos community near her Newbury Park home, and sued the developer over a road extension. Tomlin has represented one of the project’s developers since 1995.
“Tommy Tomlin manages the public,” Custodio said. “He keeps them stupid. If a project is a good deal for the public, it sells itself. You don’t need an agent.”
Tomlin and other consultants disagree.
“There are all kinds of people out there who are not aware of a project that will benefit them,” said Debra Stein, president of GCA Strategies in San Francisco. “They need to be brought into the process and motivated to participate. Their opinion is as valid as someone who wants to be able to keep using someone else’s property to walk their dog on for free.”
Tomlin says there is no shortage of business. The state is in a housing crisis. And slow-growth activists become more sophisticated every day.
“There’s not a community in this state that puts up signs saying ‘Developers welcome,’” he said. “If it was easy, no one would hire me.”
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