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Proposition T was drafted and circulated in 1998 to change then existing law that allowed general plan amendments to be approved by not less than four members of the city council. Subsequently, in 1998, Solana Beach citizens voted into law an initiative petition now known as Ordinance No. 251.

Ordinance No. 251 requires a public vote on all city council approved general plan amendments meeting the following threshold requirements: a 2½ gross acre size, an increase in the amount of potential building space allowed by 50,000 square feet, or an increase in potential traffic generation by 25% or 10% during peak hours.

Both Proposition T and Ordinance No. 251 require a public vote for general plan amendments affecting land use, with the exception of amendments necessary to comply with state or federal law.

The primary difference between the existing law and the proposed law is that Proposition T, if enacted by the voters, can only be amended or repealed by the voters. Ordinance No. 251 can be amended or repealed by a 4/ 5 vote of the city council. In addition, Ordinance No. 251 clarifies that only city council approved general plan amendments go to a public vote. Proposition T does not require city council approval before submitting a general plan amendment to the voters.

North Coast Times

• Solana Beach council elections could hinge on land-use initiative - 10/22/00 (via KPBS)
• Prop. T generates heat at Solana Beach forum 10/6/00

Do you want the right to vote on changes to our General Plan that increase the intensity and density of land use, increase traffic and change the character of our community? If you want the right to vote on land use changes to our General Plan, vote YES on the Solana Beach Community Protection Act (Prop. T).

How would the Solana Beach Community Protection Act "protect" our community?

The City Council has repeatedly supported developers applications to amend our General Plan to allow increased densities and intensification of land use. Their actions resulted in an unusually high number of referendums which were brought by your neighbors and supported by a vote of the people of Solana Beach to reverse the Council's decisions.

Voting YES on the Solana Beach Community Protection Act (Prop. T) ensures that voters of our community will have the final say on unpopular decisions made by the City Council to change our land use laws.

Prop. T, the Solana Beach Community Protection Act, also protects our community because it ensures that no City Council, now or in the future, can take away your right to vote on land use changes to our General Plan that permit dense development of our City.

By voting YES on the Solana Beach Community Protection Act, you will send the message to developers to bring only those projects to our City which will enhance and be compatible with the character of our community. Voting YES on Prop. T will remove undue pressures brought on our Council by developers to change our community.

JOIN your neighbors who put this initiative on the ballot with the signatures of 1,160 Solana Beach residents, by voting YES on Prop. T.

DAVID A. ZITO, Computer Scientist

JOSEPH C. OLSON, LCDR USN (Ret.)

DOUGLAS SHERES,Partner/ Financial Analyst

BEN D'ANDREA, Chief Operating Officer

VICTORIA SCHALL, Attorney-R. E. Broker

Residents of Solana Beach already DO have the absolute right to say "NO" to land-use changes and the absolute right to say "YES" to these same changes as evidenced by the two previous referendums and the public hearing process.

The Special Interests involved in two recent referendums have, by their very conduct and influence, NOT IMPROVED THE BEAUTY OR CHARACTER OF SOLANA BEACH which they claim is their objective.

Solana Beach, about 98% built out, voted on only TWO referendums regarding changes of land use in fourteen years. The "Kaypro" property on Stevens Avenue West was approved by the City Council for a residential community of small single-family homes on small lots on this light industrial zoned site. As a result of that referendum, instead of a residential landscape, we now have approximately 316,000 sq. ft. of green/ blue metal storage unit buildings, that could triple in size, surrounded by asphalt paving. A PERMANENT MONUMENT TO SPECIAL INTERESTS.

WE ALREADY HAVE A VOTER APPROVED LAW FOR GENERAL PLAN AMENDMENTS WITH THRESHOLD REQUIREMENTS TO PREVENT DENSE DEVELOPMENT. Proposition T will replace the law. Proposition T eliminates City Council evaluation of projects which require a General Plan Amendment. Our ELECTED officials have NO SAY, only special interests.

Let the City Council THAT WE ELECT decide first on General Plan Amendments and then go to a public vote if it exceeds the strict thresholds that WE, THE VOTERS, set in 1998.

VOTE NO on PROPOSITION T!!

DAVID HODGES, Business Owner

DOUGLAS HOPTON, Chairman, Solana Homeowners Association Group (SHAG)

MARCIA E. SMERICAN, Councilmember, City of Solana Beach

MARION B. DODSON, Councilmember, City of Solana Beach

JOE KELLEJIAN, Mayor, City of Solana Beach

When the citizens of Solana Beach approved Proposition CC in the November 1998 election, we, the people, established guidelines (thresholds) for acreage, project size and traffic for our Solana Beach City Council to make amendments to the General Plan. Any modification to the General Plan that exceeds these thresholds requires a vote of the people at a citywide election.

Any further restrictions, as proposed, do not protect our community as titled in Proposition T, rather it burdens our community with needless costs to fund expensive elections and leaves no discretion to the City Council. It further disables the Solana Beach City Council by removing their basic responsibility to their duly elected position-decision making. PROTECTION FROM WHAT? Crime? No! Higher Taxes? No! WHAT then? Supposedly, it is "PROTECTION" for our community, now and forever, FROM our elected council members.

We, all the citizens of Solana Beach, elect the City Council. If Proposition T is approved, then a few, very few, SPECIAL INTEREST CITIZENS COULD BE RUNNING THE CITY. THAT IS NOT A DEMOCRACY.

We elect the City Council for our city and if we don't like their decisions we can vote them out of office. Let our elected officials continue to do their job, the job we have elected them to do.

LET THE CITY COUNCIL PROTECT THE CITY, NOT SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS WHO OPPOSE THEM WITH INITIATIVE AFTER INITIATIVE. The present VOTER APPROVED LAW has worked for our community for two years WITHOUT COMPLAINTS. The law isn't "broke". The law doesn't need to be fixed.

VOTE NO on PROPOSITION T. IT PROTECTS NO ONE EXCEPT SPECIAL INTERESTS. WALT ALLINGTON DIANE WHITE Treasurer, L. O. C. A. L. S. Business Owner

PAUL S. TOMPKINS, Former Mayor/ Councilmember

JACK MC GOLDRICK, Homeowner Associations

SEAN M. MAC LEOD, Resident/ Business Owner

Contrary to the argument by the opponents of this measure, Proposition T --the Solana Beach Community Protection Act has never been put to a public vote. What has gone to public vote was their watered-down version known as Proposition CC. The thresholds of their bill (CC) are so weak, that in two years, no Land Use project has triggered them. Proposition T is straight forward
--it returns Land Use Amendment decisions to you, the Voters. Our opponents refer to you in their Argument as a "Special Interest Group". We agree, the Voters of Solana Beach are a very special interest group indeed.

A YES vote on Prop. T means developers will have to sell their projects to and get approval from the voters of Solana Beach. No longer can approval come from just pro-developer members on current or future City Councils.

Through a YES vote on Proposition T, the voters of Solana Beach will make it clear at the polls what type of project densities they will accept. Once that happens, developers will begin to submit projects that fall well within those parameters. Why? --because time is money to a developer. The true outcome of this will be fewer ballot initiatives or special elections. If a special election is needed, the developer must pay for it --just the opposite of what the opponents to Prop. T are telling you.

Vote YES on Proposition T --IT PROTECTS EVERYONE EXCEPT DEVELOPERS.

ROY E. WARDEN, Electrician (Retired)

IRA G. OPPER, Filmmaker/ Former Member of the General Plan -101 Highway Committee

AGNES M. RILEY, Administrative Assistant

WILLIAM E. MC MURRY, Retired President Computer Company

MARGARET M. SCHLESINGER, Former Mayor/ Councilmember

The People of the City of Solana Beach do ordain as follows:

SECTION I. Purpose and Findings.
1. The quality of life and the economy of the City of Solana Beach are increasingly threatened by mounting traffic congestion and related safety problems.
2. The City's General Plan is the constitution for land use planning and is designed to avoid over-building the City and to foster a healthy balance between residential quality of life and a sustainable local economy.
3. In recent years, the Solana Beach City Council has pursued development goals that, if implemented, will degrade both the quality of life and the long-term viability of local businesses.
4. The City Council has repeatedly supported amendments to the General Plan to allow increased densities and intensification of land uses. This has resulted in an unprecedented number of successful referendum petitions in recent years in which the public has repeatedly supported maintenance of the City's original General Plan.
5. The Solana Beach General Plan is, by law, an internally consistent and internally balanced guide to future development. Inconsistent amendments for special interests threaten the integrity of the constitution for our City.
6. It is essential therefore that the citizens of Solana Beach be allowed to directly participate in decisions changing the portions of the General Plan that materially threaten the character of this community.

SECTION II. Amendment of the General Plan.

Section 4.3 on page 10 of the General Plan Introduction, is hereby amended, in relevant part, to read as follows (overstrike indicates deletion, underline indicates addition):

The City Council shall approve general plan amendments which could result in an increase in the intensity or density of land uses only by a four-fifths vote of all of its members. No General Plan Amendment, including Specific Plan adoptions or changes, shall be adopted which would:
1. change, alter, or increase the General Plan Residential Land Use Categories; or
2. change any land use designation to any other, except changes to land already designated residential that clearly result in a reduction in intensity or density of said land use designated as residential;

unless and until such action is approved by a majority of voters in the City.

This provision shall not apply to amendments which are necessary to comply with state or federal law or which are necessary to implement or obtain certification of the local coastal program.

Similarly, Section 2.2.5 paragraph 3, on page 9 of the General Plan Land Use Element, is hereby amended, in relevant part, to read as follows (overstrike indicates deletion, underline indicates addition):

The City Council shall approve general plan amendments which could result in an increase in the intensity or density of land uses only by a four-fifths vote of all of its members. No General Plan Amendment, including Specific Plan adoptions or changes, shall be adopted which would:
1. change, alter, or increase the General Plan Residential Land Use Categories; or
2. change any land use designation to any other, except changes to land already designated residential that clearly result in a reduction in intensity or density of said land use designated as residential;

unless and until such action is approved by a maiority of voters in the City.

This provision shall not apply to amendments which are necessary to comply with state or federal law or which are necessary to implement or obtain certification of the local coastal program.

SECTION III. Implementation.

A. Upon effective date of this initiative, the provisions of this initiative are inserted into the Solana Beach General Plan as amendments thereof, except that if the four amendments permitted by State law for any given calendar year have already been utilized for that year prior to the effective date of this initiative, the General Plan amendments shall be the first inserted into the Solana Beach General Plan on January 1, the following year. At such time as the General Plan amendments are inserted in the Solana Beach General Plan, any provisions of City law inconsistent with those amendments shall be unenforceable to the extent of such inconsistency.

B. The Solana Beach General Plan in effect at the time of the Notice of Intent to propose this initiative measure, comprises an integrated, internally consistent and compatible statement of policies for the City. To ensure that the Solana Beach General Plan remains an integrated, internally consistent and compatible statement of policies for the City, the General Plan provisions adopted by the initiative shall prevail over any conflicting revisions to the General Plan adopted between May 27, 1998 and the date the amendments adopted by this initiative measure are inserted into the General Plan.

C. This initiative measure shall not affect development projects that have received discretionary approval prior to May 27, 1998.

D. The City Council shall take all steps necessary to defend vigorously any challenge to the validity or constitutionality of this initiative.

E. In the event that the City Council approves a change, amendment or other land use decision which must, by the terms of this initiative, be adopted by the voters of the City in order to become effective, the City Council shall set such matter for public vote.

F. The City Council shall set any election required by this initiative to the next available general municipal election at no cost to the proponent of the land use change, or set a special election, the cost of which should be borne by the proponent.

SECTION IV. Construction.

Nothing contained in this initiative shall be construed to make illegal any lawful use presently being made of any property, or to prohibit the further development of any property in accordance with that property's present zoning and general plan designation at a density and intensity presently permitted by existing zoning and general plan standards. Nothing contained in this initiative shall be construed to require more than a simple majority vote for the adoption of this initiative or for the approval of any future measure required by this initiative. Nothing in this initiative shall be construed to:

a) Interfere with rights to obtain density bonuses or other entitlements available under affordable housing laws, or

b) Limit rights or entitlements available under affordable housing laws.

SECTION V. Severability.

The provisions of this initiative measure shall not apply to the extent that they violate state or federal laws. If any word, sentence, paragraph, subparagraph, section or portion of this initiative is declared invalid by a court, the remaining words, sentences, paragraphs, subparagraphs, sections and portions are to remain valid and enforceable.

Section VI. Amendment or Repeal.

This initiative may be amended or repealed only by the voters at a City election.