What happens when elected officials go astray? When they fail to lead? When they adopt laws that actually hurt our community? Or when they put special interests ahead of the public interest?
Fortunately, here in California — and, yes, in Irvine — we have recourse to “direct democracy” through a process called “Referendum.” We can gather enough signatures (more than 12,000 in Irvine) and actually put a bad law or bad City policy on the local ballot, so that Irvine voters can decide whether they want to vote NO and stop the law before it goes into effect.
That’s exactly what’s happening here in Irvine. During this year — 2018 — Irvine voters will have the chance to say NO by voting NO on an unpopular Council decision to give away 125 acres of our Great Park to developer FivePoint Communities, along with zoning that would permit FivePoint to use the Veterans Cemetery site in the Great Park to build more than 800,000 square feet of intense office and commercial development, bringing a flood of new traffic to north Irvine neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, here at Irvine Community News & Views, we want to start a community conversation. One way we do that is by inviting Irvine residents to participate in our online Irvine Community Poll, asking residents what they think about the upcoming ballot referendum, and also asking for comments that we’d like to share with the rest of the Irvine community.
Take our Irvine Community Poll at: IrvineCommunityNews.org/Referendum
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