4th DCA - No Repeal Referendum for Small Scale Amendment and Rezoning (take that Blackner!)

In City of Lake Worth v. Save Our Neighborhood, the 4th DCA gave Hometown Demogogcy founder Leslie Blackner a black eye when it rejected the lower court's decision that allowed a recall referendum to be initiated against city ordinances that adopted a small-scale plan amendment and rezoning.

At issue was Section 163.3167(12), which prohibits any initiative or referendum for plan amendments affecting five or fewer parcels. The statute was adopted specifically to ensure that small scale plan amendments would not be subject to referendum when the status of those amendments as legislative versus quasi-judicial was still at issue.

Ms. Blackner and Ross Burnaman misled the Florida Supreme Court into error in the Hometown Democracy ballot summary case, and Burnaman helped with the 2d DCA's St Pete Beach debacle, by arguing that the prohibition of some initiatives regarding plan amendments indicated legislative approval of all others (though this was clearly NOT the intent).

Now Ms. Blackner argued that the statute didn't prohibit using a referendum to repeal a small scale plan amendment and rezoning on the basis that parcels other than those subject to the amendment and rezoning were "affected" by it. Somehow, they got the trial court to buy this clearly ridiculous argument, which would effectively gut the restriction totally. The Fourth didn't buy it and overturned the circuit court.