Ballot Box Planning

Earlier this year, Utah produced a new law barring citiznes from using local ballots to block specific land-use decisions. This attempt to slow down the phenomenon known as ballot box planning has run into trouble, however. The Utah Supreme Court is now examining a challenge to the law's constitutionality. Utah papers seem to think the law should be overturned.

Video now available here of your blogger's May 27 Zocalo LA panel on ballot box planning.

This piece from the San Diego paper blasts a study commissioned about a local planning initiative in San Marcos. This may seem like a small issue, but it's not in California and in the West, where more and more local land use decisions are being made by voters, a phenomenon known as "ballot box planning." In my recent reporting and panel on the subject, I discovered that consulting companies that provide biased studies for cities attempting to fight ballot box planning have become a minor cottage indusry. A land use ballot initiative campaign in Thousand Oaks, Calif., earlier this month turned on just such a study. Commissioned by city officials who opposed the initiative, the study made several unsupported claims about the problems the city would have if the initiative -- which would have required voter approval for large-scale developments -- had passed. While there was some backing away from the study's more ridiculous conclusions, the study appeared to have convinced voters that the initiative was problematic. It lost.

ANTI ABORTION BAN MAY BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL: South Dakota's attorney general suggests that if approved by voters, a November ballot initiative to ban abortion in almost all cases there could face a legal challenge. Such challenges are common, and often are successful. In California, nearly half of all inititiatves passed by voters since World War II have been invalidated at least in part by the courts. (Hat tip: ballotpedia).

DENVER COUNCIL DOESN'T WANT INITIATIVE REVIEW: In California and other initiative states, there is often talk of giving legislative bodies more of a role in reviewing initiatives before they go on the ballot. In Denver, however, the city council, which has such power, doesn't want the headache anymore. Perhaps this has something to do with the extraterrestial commission.

PROBLEMS FOR UTAH BAN ON LAND USE REFERENDA: Is Utah ban on land use referenda and initiatives constitutional? The state's attorney general thinks not.

ADDICTED TO INITIATIVES? An Oregon activist with a love of initiatives is found in contempt of court for using assets to pay for campaigns that a judge says should have gone to a fraud judgment.

I'll be moderating a panel tonight (Tuesday night, May 27) at 7:30 p.m. at the Autry National Center. The title is, "Is Business Abusing the Ballot?" We'll examine the growing use of local ballot initiatives and referenda by businesses to fight competititors and enact favorable land use policy. The panelists are two top consultants in these campaigns, Harvey Englander and Rob Stutzman; Anaheim city councilwoman Lorri Galloway, whose city has recently seen a multi-measure fight involving Disney and SunCal Cos., and Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy chief Madeline Janis, who is deeply involved in labor and redevelopment issues in Southern California. Admission is free. More details on the panel appear here. And an LA Times story I write about the topic is here.