Anti-Airport Measure Cleared for Ballot

A judge has cleared an anti-airport initiative for the March ballot but said Friday she has “grave doubts” about whether the measure is constitutionally valid.

Pro-airport forces had sought to keep the Orange County Board of Supervisors from placing the initiative on the ballot.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs rejected that request, but her three-page ruling also raises the first indication that the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative might run into legal problems if approved by voters.

Although the judge did not detail what she perceived as flaws in the initiative, airport proponents have argued in legal papers that the measure violates state law and the state Constitution.

The initiative would require approval by two-thirds of Orange County voters, rather than a simple majority, before county officials could build or expand airports, large jails near homes and hazardous waste landfills.

The lawsuit seeking to keep the initiative off the ballot contends that the two-thirds vote is unconstitutional and that the initiative is illegal because it provides an automatic referendum for any such public works project, rather than evaluating each project individually.

The measure also would preempt powers given to county supervisors by the Legislature, another aspect of the initiative the suit contends would violate state law.

Airport opponents hailed Friday’s ruling as a victory because it clears the supervisors to move it onto the ballot. The judge’s warning represents merely “the unexplained musings of one judge,” said attorney Jeffrey Metzger, who chairs Citizens for Safe and Healthy Communities.

Airport supporters, some of whom said they would use Janavs’ comments in future mail and cable television advertisements, said the judge’s warning clearly signaled that the initiative’s fate is in doubt.