SAN MARCOS -- A political action committee formed to fight a controversial slow-growth initiative that will be on the November ballot has already spent more than $35,000 and hired professionals with political campaign experience to help with the effort.

Supporters of the San Marcos Growth Management and Neighborhood Protection Act 2007 have yet to launch their own campaign to persuade voters to approve the measure. If it passes, the measure would require any development project that would change the city's general plan to be approved by voters.

One of the two women who led the effort to get the initiative on the ballot said Monday she was not surprised to learn opponents were spending serious money to fight it.

"We know we're going to be competing against deep pockets," said San Marcos resident and chiropractor Cynthia Skovgard, who helped gather signatures to get the measure on the ballot. "We don't have the funds to match that. So we're going to have to depend on people going door-to-door."

Skovgard and other supporters have said the initiative is needed to prevent city officials from overriding the general plan to accommodate projects that residents don't necessarily want. Adopted more than 30 years ago, the plan serves as a guide for future growth and development in San Marcos.

The measure's opponents contend that the plan is outdated and that the proposed initiative would cripple growth and the city's economy by bringing new development to a halt.

The San Marcos Association of Residents and Taxpayers is the first committee to actively campaign for or against the initiative.

Steve Kildoo, a longtime San Marcos resident who currently is chairman of the city's Planning Commission, helped organize the San Marcos Association of Residents and Taxpayers, said Monday the committee is composed of "a really good cross-section" of community members who believe the initiative would be harmful to the city's future.

"They also recognize that controlled, planned and smart growth is all in the community's best interest," said Kildoo, who also is involved in other community activities. "And an initiative that does what Prop. S has done to Escondido creates unintended consequences that are far-reaching and often are hard to discern at the surface."

Kildoo said the group held its first meeting in late July and plans to meet for the second time later this week. At the initial meeting, the group passed out envelopes in hopes of getting donations of varying sizes from a wide variety of sources, he said.

Financial disclosure statements that the group filed last week with the city clerk's office show, however, that a large amount of the group's donations have come from one source: $10,000 from Urban Villages San Marcos. The company is a subsidiary of the development company that has proposed a mix of commercial, retail and residential development called "Heart of the City" near Cal State San Marcos University.

The financial reports also show the committee has spent $13,000 on research polls and surveys and paid $12,076 to longtime San Diego-based political consultant Tom Shepard. Encinitas-based certified public accounting firm Scott & Cronin is overseeing the campaign's finances, though the financial statements do not list any payments to the company, which has also handled finance reporting services for the campaigns of San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other heavy hitters.

When Urban Village San Marcos' contribution is subtracted from the reported expenses, the committee is left with a $26,598 debt, the financial statements show.

Political action committee member Carrie Cleavers, a 56-year San Marcos resident whose father and brother owned and operated their own small development company, said attempts to rein in development can hurt a community.

"There are enough rules, regulations and hoops to jump through, fees to pay, already that will keep away the negative development," she said. "And if you were a developer who was going to invest the time and the money to get through the city's process and then be told, 'Well now you've got to … see if voters agree with the (city) staff's opinion,' the developer's not going to bother. And we're going to lose the good developments."

Skovgard said she believes the San Marcos Residents and Taxpayers is "a phony group" backed by developers afraid of having to seek voter approval for their projects.

The slow-growth initiative's supporters hope to raise $20,000 to cover the cost of fliers and other materials but have yet to launch their campaign and expect to rely primarily on "people support" to get their own message out, she said.

Skovgard said she believes association members are intimidated by the initiative.

"Otherwise they wouldn't be dumping so much big money into it to defeat us," she said.

Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com.