The San Diego County Board of Supervisors ordered an impact report for an initiative which will be placed on the March 2020 ballot and would require a public vote for general plan amendments which increase density on parcels with semi-rural or rural land use designations.
The county supervisors voted 5-0 September 11 to order the impact report while also accepting the certification from the county’s Registrar of Voters that the initiative petition has sufficient valid signatures to be placed on the ballot.
“The study is appropriate, but I want to make sure it’s an unbiased study,” said Supervisor Dianne Jacob.
If the initiative passes voter approval would be required to ratify any Board of Supervisors support of any general plan amendment which increases residential density for any property with a land use designation of SR-0.5 (semi-rural, one dwelling unit per 0.5 acres), SR-1, SR-2, SR-4, SR-10, RL-20 (rural lands, one dwelling unit per 20 acres), RL-40, or RL-80. The increased density would be exempt from the voter approval requirement if the increase is for no more than five dwelling units, if the property is entirely within an existing village or rural village area, or if the increase is necessary to comply with federal or state housing law. The measure would also permanently prohibit density transfers from higher-density parcels to lower-density parcels and prohibit new Specific Plan Area designations until Jan. 1, 2039.
“I don’t have a problem putting this on the ballot,” said Supervisor Bill Horn.
An initiative petition for a countywide vote requires 67,837 valid signatures, and 110 percent of that is 74,621. The Registrar of Voters samples three percent of the signatures to determine the percentage of signatures which are valid and extrapolates the total number of valid signatures from that percentage. If the extrapolated figure totals more than 110 percent of the necessary valid signatures the Registrar of Voters certifies the petition without further verification. If the extrapolated figure is between 90 percent and 110 percent all signatures are reviewed to determine whether the petition has a sufficient number of valid signatures. The petition is rejected if the extrapolated number of valid signatures is less than 90 percent of what is required.
If a petition has a valid number of signatures the governing body has three options: to adopt the ordinance without a public vote, to submit the measure to the voters at the next regular election, or to order an impact report and place the measure on the ballot during a subsequent meeting.