The part of SB 10..the overriding voter initiative provision may have gotten buried under all the neighborhood upzoning, developers descending upon communities, building market rate multiplexes, no affordable provided at all, with no local control or community participation, etc..

But it's important.

So here is the info about that provision explained well by a Palo Alto Councilman..

Two L. A. Councilmembers support SB10 (Cedillo, Raman), the rest of L.A City Council voted to oppose..

A bill that gives City Councils power to override voter initiates.

Assembly passes controversial housing bill SB10 https://padailypost.com/.../assembly-passes.../

Comments:

(Palo Alto Councilman) Eric Filseth says: The notion that SB10 provides City Councils with a “powerful, fast, and effective” new zoning tool is an outright, cynical falsehood.

We City Councils already have that power, as Senator Wiener knows perfectly well.

In fact, the “10-unit zoning” is a distraction from the real intent of SB10, which is the voter-override provision.

By passing it, the State Legislature has shot a significant hole in the California initiative process, one of the last voter checks-and-balances against special interests and out-of-touchness in the State Legislature; and long a thorn in the side of would-be dirigistes in Sacramento and frankly many red states as well.

SB10 establishes a precedent that voter initiatives in California can be arbitrarily overturned by elected officials, even if they pass at the ballot box.

This goes far beyond turf-fights over zoning.

Voter initiatives are elections; SB10 establishes a way to suppress them.

It is a major step towards taking away the power of citizens to rein in a legislative body when it drifts away from serving voter interests, especially relevant in what’s effectively a one-party state.

Forced to choose between party leaders with power over their political careers, against the constituents who elected them, 43 assembly members cynically chose the former and threw the latter under a bus.

It’s an inexplicable, anti-voter action for any of those 43 who purports to work on behalf of voters, and voters should not forget that next year.

SB10 allows City Councils, on a 2/3 vote, to overturn voter initiatives on land use after they pass at the ballot box.

So, suppose voters put an initiative on the ballot to ban new development in the Baylands, and it passes.

The city council disagrees, sets aside the vote, and starts approving more development there.

Who would put the time and effort into getting an initiative onto the ballot in the first place, knowing it could be simply overturned?

Which is the major point of SB10 — to suppress voter ballot initiatives.

Apologists say, well it’s only city councils, and only on land use.

But if City Councils have that power, it’s only a matter of time before other branches of government (Sacramento themselves …) want it too.

And if it applies land use, it’s only a matter of time until it applies to many things.

SB10 is the Legislature’s way of starting to get rid of that pesky Initiative process in California.

Annie Gagen