Referendum and Initiative: Voters as a Land Use Body

Most land use decisions end at a council vote. A narrow and powerful set of them does not, because California reserves to local voters two direct powers: the REFERENDUM, which can undo a legislative act the council has just adopted, and the INITIATIVE, which can enact one without the council at all.

These tools are used by both sides of growth debates. Slow-growth groups have used them, and so have applicants and pro-housing coalitions. This piece describes the machinery only, names no measure, and takes no position.

The threshold question: legislative or adjudicatory

Neither tool reaches every city action. The line is between LEGISLATIVE acts, which set general policy, and ADJUDICATORY acts, which apply existing policy to a particular property.

Legislative acts are generally subject to referendum and initiative. These include adopting or amending a general plan, adopting or amending a zoning ordinance or the zoning map, adopting a specific plan, and approving a development agreement.

Adjudicatory acts are generally not. A conditional use permit, a variance, a design review approval, a tentative map, or a building permit applies rules to one parcel. Those decisions are challenged through appeals and, after that, through the courts.

This is why the same project can be beyond the reach of a ballot measure or squarely within it, depending on whether it needed a zoning change. Our explainer on how a zoning ordinance amendment moves through a city covers the step that most often opens the legislative door.

How a referendum works

A referendum targets an ordinance the council has already passed. The sequence is compressed and unforgiving.

The clock starts when the ordinance is adopted, and the window to gather signatures is short by design. Proponents must file a notice, circulate a petition that includes the full text of the challenged ordinance, and gather signatures from registered voters in the city equal to a percentage set by state law.

If the signatures qualify, the ordinance is SUSPENDED. It does not take effect. The council then chooses between repealing it outright or placing it before the voters at an election. The council cannot simply re-adopt the same measure to escape the petition.

Two features make the referendum distinctive. It is purely negative: it can only undo what was adopted, never substitute something else. And its suspensive effect means a qualified petition changes the legal status quo before any vote is held.

How an initiative works

An initiative moves in the other direction. Proponents draft the ordinance themselves, file it, obtain the required title and summary, circulate a petition, and gather signatures.

If it qualifies, the council may adopt the measure as written or place it on the ballot. Some petitions that gather a higher signature threshold can compel a special election rather than waiting for the next regular one.

An initiative can do things a referendum cannot. It can rezone land, add a growth control provision, require voter approval for future changes of a stated kind, or adopt policy the council declined to adopt.

The consequences people underestimate

A voter-adopted land use measure is durable in a way a council ordinance is not. Depending on how it is drafted, it may only be amendable or repealable by the voters. That is the point for its supporters, and it is the risk its opponents raise: a future council facing changed circumstances may lack the power to adjust it.

There is a second consequence that surprises people. A general plan is required to be internally consistent, and zoning must conform to it. A measure that changes one element without addressing the rest can create a conflict the city then has to resolve, sometimes through work the measure never contemplated. The relationship is covered in our guide to the general plan as the city's blueprint.

Where state law limits the tools

Direct democracy in land use is not unlimited, and the limits have grown.

State housing law constrains what a city, including its voters, may do to block housing that complies with objective standards. A city is also required to plan for its assigned housing need, and a local measure cannot excuse the city from that obligation. Where a local measure and a state mandate collide, the state requirement generally governs.

Some actions are also mandated by statute rather than chosen, and a mandated act is not a proper subject for referendum. Courts have also held that a measure cannot be used to accomplish what is in substance an adjudicatory decision dressed as legislation.

The relationship between local control and state mandates is the subject of our piece on state housing laws and local control, and it is the live edge of this area of law.

Practical notes for a resident

Signing a petition is not a vote. It qualifies a measure for consideration. Circulators must show you the text, and reading it is worth the minute it costs.

Read the actual ordinance language, not the summary. Land use measures are technical, and the operative effect often sits in a definition or an exception rather than in the headline.

Check what body the measure binds and for how long. A measure with a sunset behaves very differently from one that is permanent until repealed by voters.

Deadlines are jurisdictional. Referendum windows are counted in days from adoption, and they are not extended for good reasons.

Where to verify

Signature thresholds, filing steps, and election timing are set by state elections law and administered locally. The city clerk is the office that handles petitions, and the county registrar handles signature verification and elections. For anything current in Claremont, ask the City of Claremont city clerk rather than relying on a general summary, because procedural detail changes and any given measure has its own history.

Anyone weighing whether a ballot measure or a hearing is the right venue should first identify what kind of act is at issue. More on that sits on our city development hub, alongside the guide to speaking at a planning commission, which remains the ordinary route for the large majority of decisions.

Anthony Grynchal has been licensed in California since November 2009.