City of Morgan Hill, Plaintiff and Respondent v. Shannon Bushey, as Registrar of Voters

Summary

The court held that voters may use a referendum to challenge a zoning ordinance amendment adopted to bring zoning into conformity with an amended general plan, because the referendum temporarily preserves an existing inconsistency permitted under the statutory reasonable-time provision. The referendum is permissible if the local government has some means of achieving consistency with both the general plan and the referendum's result. Because the record did not resolve whether alternative zoning designations or other means of achieving consistency were available, the court vacated the Court of Appeal's judgment and remanded for further proceedings.