Irvine : Effort to Force Vote on Freeway Fees Clears Test

Signatures of 12% of the city’s registered voters have been certified in opposition to an ordinance assessing fees to developers for construction of new freeways, City Clerk Nancy Lacey said Tuesday.

Lacey said the Orange County registrar of voters has determined that an adequate number of the 6,586 signatures submitted seeking a referendum on the ordinance were those of qualified Irvine voters. The legal minimum for qualifying referendums is 10% of the city’s voters.

Accordingly, the City Council must decide Tuesday whether to rescind the ordinance or put it to a citywide vote, Lacey said.

A coalition of residents opposed to the financing plan for the proposed Foothill, Eastern and San Joaquin Hills freeways, the Committee of Seven Thousand, had earlier this year qualified an initiative that would have required the council to submit all new road financing measures to public votes.

But the initiative was ruled illegal by a Superior Court judge after a coalition of business and development groups filed suit to challenge it. The judge concurred with the business groups’ argument that residents in a single city should not be allowed to block financing plans for regional transportation facilities like new freeways.

The Irvine council joined eight other cities Oct. 22 in implementing the developer fee program, under which land developers will be assessed between $400 million and $600 million to help build the new freeways.

The business coalition has not said whether it will file suit to prevent the new referendum from going on the ballot.

The Santa Ana and Costa Mesa city councils have scheduled public hearings on Jan. 6 and Jan. 20, respectively, to decide whether to join the other cities in the program.