Friends of Sierra Madre v. City of Sierra Madre

This case presents an issue important to local governments and those interested in historic preservation: whether an initiative ballot measure, generated by a city council rather than by voter petition, submitting to the voters an ordinance that removes a structure or structures from historic preservation status, is a project subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA; Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.). We conclude that CEQA compliance is required when a project is proposed and placed on the ballot by a public agency. In so doing we reject defendants’ argument that the trial court and, by implication, the appellate court, should not consider plaintiffs’ claim that the results of the election at which the ordinance in dispute was adopted must be set aside because their challenge is not one permitted by Elections Code section 16100.

The Court of Appeal rejected the argument of the City of Sierra Madre that a postelection challenge to a local ordinance may not be made on grounds other than those specified by statute, concluding that it was free to address the merits of a claim that the ballot measure in issue here, City of Sierra Madre Ordinance No.…