Supporters awaiting clerk’s count
CITY HALL An initiative aimed at fighting overdevelopment and traffic congestion in Santa Monica is likely headed for the November ballot after the resident group sponsoring the measure announced Wednesday that they have collected close to twice the required signatures.
Proponents of the Residents Initiative to Fight Traffic (RIFT), collected 10,295 signatures from Santa Monica voters and submitted those signatures to the City Clerk’s Office on Wednesday. By law, RIFT needs the signatures of 10 percent of registered Santa Monica voters, or 5,800 signatures, to qualify the initiative for the local ballot in November.
“We found that residents, in overwhelming numbers, agree with us that development and traffic in our city is ‘out of control,’” said Diana Gordon, co-chair of the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City, which is sponsoring RIFT. “Santa Monicans are tired of commercial overdevelopment and ever worsening traffic.”
While the number of signatures is important, equally noteworthy is the number of volunteers passionate about the issue who joined SMCLC and spearheaded the petition drive, Gordon said. Volunteers hit grocery stores, post offices, public events, and even went so far as to invite residents into their homes during the final push to help make it easier for them to sign.
“Over 100 residents gathered signatures as part of an historic movement to give residents the right to control and pace future development and related traffic impacts in Santa Monica.” Gordon said.
Proponents and traffic experts say that commercial development is a prime source of Santa Monica’s growing traffic congestion. RIFT would place an annual limit of 75,000 square-feet on new commercial development for the next 15 years. Schools, hospitals, religious buildings and other community-serving development would be exempt.
The initiative is supported by all five neighborhood groups and is opposed by the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce. Officials in City Hall have also expressed some concerns about the initiative, as it would be coming before voters before the City Council has a chance to approve a comprehensive overhaul of development policies and land use.
Tom Larmore, president of the chamber, said previously that the initiative’s definition of commercial development is too broad and would hamper efforts to upgrade hotels, movie theaters and medical facilities that support local hospitals. He also expressed concerns about its affect on building workforce housing through commercial partnerships.
Gordon said the initiative would protect many of the chamber’s members, those being the smaller mom-and-pop businesses that are facing competition from larger chains.
“Residents have said time and time again they want to keep independent retailers, the hardware stores, shoe repair stores, in our city and RIFT really helps that to happen,” Gordon said.
SMCLC plans to raise money to fund a campaign in support of RIFT. So far the SMCLC political action committee has raised roughly $50,000, much of which was spent on the signature drive, Gordon said.
Like Santa Monica, a growing number of Southern California communities are putting traffic congestion and overdevelopment limits before local voters. Newport Beach, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard and Redondo Beach are either working on traffic-related initiatives or have enacted them in recent years.
The City Clerk has 30 days, excluding weekends, to verify the validity of the signatures. If the petition qualifies, the City Clerk will present the petition to the council at its next regularly scheduled meeting.
The City Council may do one of the following: • Adopt the ordinance, without alteration at the regular meeting or within 10 days. • If petition contains 15 percent of voters’ signatures and a request for a special election, order a special election; if petition contains 10 percent of voter’s signatures, place the proposed measure on the ballot of the next regularly scheduled municipal election. • If the council has not yet done so, council may order a report.
Should the council order a report, it will be presented to the council no later than 30 days, at which time the council may adopt the ordinance as presented or call an election as indicated above.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 24, 2008. Read the original PDF.