NEWPORT BEACH

More than 10,000 residents support an initiative that proposes requiring public votes on major development projects in the city.

Greenlight, the grass-roots group sponsoring the Protection From Traffic and Density Initiative, announced Wednesday that it had collected 10,251 signatures--50% more than the 6,778 needed to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

The group handed over the signatures to Newport Beach City Clerk Lavonne Harkless at 9 a.m. Thursday. After that, Harkless said her office will have 30 working days to check the signatures before sending the petition to the City Council for certification. If the signatures are validated, the council must take action to place the measure on the ballot and set an election date, Harkless said.

If passed, the initiative would require a public vote to approve any projects that generate more than 100 peak-hour automobile trips, add more than 100 housing units or add more than 40,000 square feet of floor area over what the existing General Plan allows.