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Council refines ballot question wording for General Plan update, asks staff to prepare voter materials
Summary
Council reviewed and gave direction on a draft ballot question and detailed ballot text for a proposed General Plan/zoning update that would change floor-area ratios, add height limits and address rooftop dining; council asked staff to remove school-site rezoning from the ballot text, add an index and public FAQ, and finalize the 75-word ballot question.
Redondo Beach city staff briefed the City Council on a draft ballot question and the detailed text for a proposed General Plan and zoning update that the city intends to place on the November ballot.
Planning staff summarized the package as a consolidated set of land-use changes that include new floor-area-ratio (FAR) caps for some districts, revised development standards for ACAP, and proposed height limits and rooftop-dining rules. "We will be bringing back a second reading of the ordinance on August 11 to adopt it," a planning presenter said, and staff said the Council would be asked on Aug. 4 to confirm the ballot question and the formal language to go to the county.
Council discussion focused on clarity for voters and compliance with Article 27 (the charter'' requirement governing land-use measures). Members asked that the 75-word ballot question explicitly reference "height limits" in addition to new FAR caps and rooftop dining, and instructed staff to remove proposed school-site rezoning language that staff later determined should not be included under Article 27.
Eleanor, an election staffer, noted the ballot-question limit and explained filing steps: the official 75-word question will go on the ballot and a 300-word pro/argument brief (due to the county in mid-August) will be drafted by council sponsors; an impartial analysis will be provided by the city attorney. "There is 66 words now; you can add maybe a couple more if you'd like," she told the council during the discussion about wording and commas.
Councilmembers also asked staff to produce a plain-language index and a public FAQ so voters can find the specific changes that affect their neighborhoods within a voluminous draft (the packet included a 46-page attachment of full text and code amendments). Several members and a resident urged the city to make neighborhood impacts easy to find and to publish an accessible web page, including the possibility of a QR code or postcard outreach.
After discussion, the council gave staff direction to finalize the 75-word ballot question with the added phrase "height limits," remove school-site rezoning text from the ballot language, prepare a public-facing index/FAQ and coordinate with the county for the ballot-letter designation and argument filing. Councilmembers Barrett and Abhaji volunteered to draft the pro-argument brief if the council wishes them to do so.
Next steps: staff will scrub and finalize the draft ballot exhibit, provide an index/FAQ, and return on Aug. 4 with the resolution asking the council to adopt the ballot question and related resolutions for submittal to the Los Angeles County Registrar. The council's direction aims to keep the ballot question compact and explicit while making the detailed changes discoverable and understandable for voters.
