Welcome to Anaheim, California. As you read this column, there are professional signature gatherers who have been hired by a coalition headed up by the Walt Disney Corporation to qualify a ballot measure in this central Orange County city. No, the measure is not to name Mickey the official mouse of the Anaheim (I would be surprised if that wasn’t the case already!). Actually, the measure they are circulating is a very bad one — which actually is the reason for me spending some time on this local issue.
The measure, in a nutshell, would institute an extreme form of what is called ‘ballot-box zoning’ in this city of well over 300,000 residents. Specifically, Disney is pushing a measure that would set into stone the current city zoning ordinances (the ones that dictate the ‘acceptable uses’ on property) in the Disney Resort Area around the Magic Kingdom. It would do so by requiring that ANY changes (like if you own a coffee shop and want to convert the use into an apartment building) would have to go through a citywide vote for approval at the next regularly scheduled municipal election. Normally you would persue this through the City Council.
Over the past year or longer, the Walt Disney Company has been having some ‘issues’ with the local City Council in Anaheim, some of which may come to a head tonight at a contentious meeting, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. But let me tell you how profoundly disappointing it is that Disney (along with a co-opted group of ‘business leaders’ under the auspices of the local Chamber of Commerce) would resort to a heinous ballot-box zoning measure.
From time to time I have played a computer game called Sim City — you may be familiar with it. It’s very popular. In this game, you actually get to play "God" over a city, controlling literally every facet of its development including, of course, what gets built where and when. In the game there is no ‘City Council’ to deal with — as the player you call all of the shots. Well, in looking into the qualification of this draconian ballot measure (they call it the SOAR Plan – "Save Our Anaheim Resort), which is about half of the way towards being placed on the ballot, it is clear that Disney is ready to perform an end-run on the elected leaders of the city at the expense of the important American institution of representative democracy, which is defined by Wikopedia as:
"…a form of government founded on the exercise of popular sovereignty by the people’s representatives. The representatives are charged with the responsibility of acting in the people’s interest, but not as their proxy representatives—i.e., not necessarily always according to their wishes, but with enough authority to exercise swift and resolute initiative in the face of changing circumstances."
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