Lake County residents are anarchists at heart... or at least 9.4% of us are. That's the percentage of the local electorate that showed up Tuesday to vote No on proposed revision of our zoning ordinance. 2.6% of our electorate (myself included) voted Yes. So, on voter turnout of a meager 12% on a gorgeous sunny day, the zoning ordinance revision failed on a vote of 224 to 812, or 22% to 78%.
Uff da: we haven't seen a margin like that since... well, since Russ Olson thumped Clark Schmidtke in the District 8 Senate race last November.
Turnout was just a little lower than the 14% my blog poll turnout suggested. The result, however, diverged completely from my online poll. Given that low turnout, rejection is not surprising, even if the margin is. I don't know anybody who was really passionate about voting Yes. It's a zoning ordinance, for Pete's sake, not a tax measure or a building project that promises immediate, tangible improvement in voters' lives. The zoning ordinance revision was sensible, but not the kind of thing that inspires people to shout, "Definitions collected in one neat section at the start! Hooray! The Republic is saved!"
On the other hand, the No vote offered two key motivations. One chunk of voters could act on fears that the new ordinance would take away their freedom, even though such fears were wrong. Another chunk of voters could say No for mostly personal reasons, thinking they were flipping the bird at Commissioner Dan Bohl for his letter to the editor or Commissioner Scott Pedersen for kicking Charlie Scholl's dog (figuratively speaking) or just government as a whole. There will always be some portion of the electorate who will vote for reasons wholy disconnected from the policy question at hand... and Tuesday, that portion of the electorate was pretty much the only group that showed up.
But life goes on. We stick with the old ordinance for now. The county commission hangs back, lets folks cool off, then takes another swing at revising the zoning ordinance, this time probably one issue at a time.
"well, since Russ Olson thumped Clark Schmidtke in the District 8 Senate race last November."
And that one really worked out well for all of us.
Come on, Matt! At least we get to shoot fireworks on New Year's Eve...
Perhaps a silly procedural question... but why is this placed before the County voters anyway? I haven't rummaged in SDCL for county zoning - are change authorizations required by voters? Seems contrary since municipalities get to avoid that...
Yes, Wayne, zoning is usually decided by the county. However, zoning is referrable, and a few folks were mad enough to put the zoning revision to a public vote.