By Jonathan Friedman
Associate Editor

March 4, 2016 -- Slow-growth activist group Residocracy will begin a signature drive on Sunday to qualify its LUVE Initiative for the Santa Monica ballot. If successful, it must then convince voters to pass the measure in November. Recent history shows this is no easy task.

Eight measures have reached the Santa Monica ballot through the initiative process in the past 20 years. Just two of them passed--the anti-corruption Oaks Initiative in 2000 and a proposal in 2006 that made marijuana enforcement a low priority for the police.

Initiatives rejected by voters in recent years include a so-called living wage proposal in 2000, the VERITAS measure in 2002 that called for a strong mayor and council members being elected as district representatives, another measure in 2002 allowing tenants to buy units and a 2003 challenge to how residential landmarks are designated.

More recent losses include Measure D in 2014 that would have severely limited the City government’s control of Santa Monica Airport and the contentious Measure T in 2008 that would have greatly restricted development in the city.

When presented with an initiative featuring enough valid signatures from registered voters (the LUVE Initiative needs at least 6,500), the City Council must either approve the measure or place the item on the ballot.

The council was faced with this decision two years ago when Residocracy gathered more than 13,000 signatures to challenge its approval of the Bergamot Transit Village development (Hines project).

By a vote of 4-1 (with two abstentions), the council chose to pass the measure.

Some council members said the likelihood of a divisive, big money election was among their reasons for choosing to approve the measure rather than bringing it to the voters.

It is unlikely the council will also approve LUVE Initiative because even two of the council members sympathetic to Residocracy--Kevin McKeown and Sue Himmelrich--had problems with the proposal when The Lookout asked in the fall.

The initiative would create a requirement that residents have the final say on most significant development proposals.

Residents would vote on development agreements, most developments larger than two to three stories and major changes to planning policies as well as any City “specific” plan, the zoning ordinance or land use maps and zoning district maps.

If the proposal does reach the ballot and voters approve it in November, it would significantly change how the City government functions, but it would not be the first initiative to shape the future of Santa Monica.

Voters approved an initiative in 1975 that preserved the threatened Santa Monica Pier and made it unlawful to destroy it in most circumstances.

Four years later, voters approved an amendment to the City charter that created the milestone rent control law and brought Santa Monica into a new era.

Also, voters approved the Save Our Beach Initiative in 1990 that banned construction of hotels and certain restaurants west of Ocean Avenue.