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Examples & Resources

• Greenfield, MA stops Wal-Mart rezoning
• Inglewood California
• Lorain, OH Measure (2005)
• Agawam, MA Pavilion Plan (2006)
• San Marcos, CA Proposition G
• View All

In some communities and states, if an applicant or a citizen’s group is not pleased with a rezoning vote, they can collect signatures and put the measure on the ballot for residents to decide. If a city council, for example, has rezoned land against the wishes of neighborhood groups, they can file a “referendum” by gathering signatures of registered voters, and asking the voters if they approve, or disapprove of the rezoning. Check your city or town’s charter to see if you are permitted to seek a referendum.

Wal-Mart may seek to appeal a city council denial by ballot measure. The retail giant will spend as much money as is needed to gather signatures and wage PR campaigns - and community members must be ready.

Perhaps no city is more famous for its successful ballot measure campaign than Inglewood, CA. In 2002 the Inglewood City Council voted to adopt an ordinance restricting the amount of square footage of non-taxable items a big box store could carry. Wal-Mart pressured the city to rescind the ordinance--which they did--but then went further. The Bentonville, Arkansas corporate giant hired signature gatherers to put a 71-page zoning measure before the voters, allowing a Wal-Mart in the city without the traffic reviews, environmental studies or public hearings required of other developments. Community leaders and site fighters, like the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, stood up to Wal-Mart - and won. Despite the fact that Wal-Mart spent over a million dollars in PR, 60.6 percent of the votes said “no” to Wal-Mart and just 39.3 percent supported the initiative.