Greg Rubens, the City’s general counsel, sent me the following email in reply to my questions about referendums.

Mark. Thank you for posing these questions in advance of the meeting. I’m taking today off sort of, to help my inlaws.

A couple of basic points that would answer some if your questions.

A referendum must be filed within 30 days from the second reading by filing the requisite number of signatures. I don’t recall the approximate number but 1100 sounds about right. I’ll confirm tomorrow.

Also. A referendum simply requests the voters overturn a legislative action of the council. It cannot propose new zoning.

An initiative can propose new zoning. Therefore a developer faced with a referendum can only propose an initiative but I’m not sure if it can occur at the same time because the process requirements are different. The residents could propose an initiative as well, which is how we could be faced with competing initiatives.

We can talk tomorrow and I’ll be prepared for the meeting.