2017 Los Angeles Measure S

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Measure S – 2017

Neighborhood Integrity Initiative
Results
Choice Votes % Yes 121,101 29.60% No 288,012 70.40% Total votes 409,113 100.00% Registered voters/turnout 2,030,173 20.15%

Measure S, originally known as the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, was considered by voters in the city of Los Angeles in the March 7, 2017, election. It would have imposed a two-year moratorium on development projects seeking variances from some aspects of the city's zoning code, made changes to the environmental impact statement requirements in the code, and required the city to update its comprehensive plan during the moratorium. The measure failed, with over two-thirds of those who voted on it voting against it.^[1]

Proponents said it was necessary to curb high-density development that would have adversely affected the city's suburban character and favored gentrification at the expense of affordable housing.^[2] They also charged that city government had been corrupted, citing recent disclosures of campaign contributions to mayor Eric Garcetti and other officials from developers with large projects awaiting city approval that those contributors had attempted to conceal. Opponents, who included many advocacy groups for the homeless as well as the city's business community, building trades unions and developers, said that while the measure addressed some real problems, it went too far and would have not only prevented the construction of new affordable housing but made the city's overall quality of life worse by aggravating an existing housing shortage.^[3] They questioned whether the money spent by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) to get the initiative on the ballot was really related to the foundation's mission, and suggested that it was really motivated by AHF director Michael Weinstein's desire to block a development that would have dominated the view from his office window.^[4][5]

Backers had originally intended for the initiative to be on the ballot in November 2016, but later decided to postpone it to March, when the city's mayor and some council members were up for re-election, a move opponents said was really meant to put the measure in front of an electorate believed more likely to support it. Since those races were not vigorously contested, Measure S received the greatest attention from the media and voters. Both sides accused the other of deception. Proponents filed a suit alleging that opponents overstated the claimed negative impact of the measure in material submitted for the city's voters' guide, while opponents highlighted false claims of support attributed to Garcetti and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.^[6] The sheriff's department also attempted to block a mailer in support of Measure S designed to look like an eviction notice after many recipients mistook it for a real one.^[7]

A fundamental question underlying Measure S was not just its provisions, but the direction the city itself would take. Supporters invoked its late 20th-century image as a highly suburbanized city of detached single-family homes whose occupants primarily used their cars to get around; opponents looked toward a future as a more densely developed city where residents of the densely populated areas relied as much on buses and Metro Rail. Its failure, coupled with voters' approval of a half-cent sales tax increase the previous fall to fund expansions to regional mass transit systems,^[8] was seen as a turning point in the city's history.^[9]