Petition for Height Limits in Culver City Falls Short

A petition by slow-growth advocates seeking to cut Culver City building heights by placing an initiative on a special June ballot fell 100 signatures short of its goal, according to City Clerk Pauline Dolce.

The Los Angeles County registrar’s office checked the height initiative petition’s 3,607 signatures and found that only 2,958 are valid, Dolce said last week.

The initiative seeks to cut the maximum height of new buildings in the city from 167 feet to 56 feet.

The initiative’s backers needed signatures from 3,058 registered voters to force a special vote on the issue this summer, Dolce said. But the county registrar declared invalid 649 signatures from residents not registered to vote, former residents and voters who listed incorrect addresses.

The petition drive, however, did gather signatures from more than 10% of the city’s voters, enough to place it on the April 10, 1990 municipal ballot.

The City Council could stop the initiative by introducing the proposed ordinance on Monday and approving it at a later meeting.

Robin Turner, a co-sponsor of the initiative, said if the council does not respond to the initiative, she may consider starting another petition drive to force an earlier vote on the height limit.