Lin

Defendant the City of Pleasanton enacted an ordinance approving a proposed 51-unit residential development on land owned by plaintiffs Jennifer and Frederic Lin. Real party in interest Kay Ayala, a former city councilperson and member of an unincorporated association operating under the name “Save Pleasanton’s Hills,” gathered the number of voter signatures necessary to hold a referendum on the ordinance. (Elec. Code, § 9236, subd. (b).) The superior court granted the Lins’ petition for a writ of mandate directing the city clerk to refrain from certifying the referendum petition based on its failure to comply with the “text” requirement of section 9238, subdivision (b). It granted in part Ayala’s motion to strike the writ petition as a “SLAPP” (strategic lawsuit against public participation; Code Civ. Proc., § 425.16), but denied her request for attorney fees on that motion.

In this appeal, Ayala contends (1) the writ petition should have been denied in its entirety because the issues it presented were not ripe for review; (2) the court erred when it issued the writ based on the referendum petition’s failure to include documents that were referred to in the challenged…