Court Opinion

ID: 9629813
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:50:14.354851+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:25.015180
License: Public Domain

ARABIAN, J.
I dissent.
The question before the court is whether a county’s comprehensive general plan for land use and development may be amended by initiative. The issue turns on the meaning to be accorded certain provisions of the Planning and Zoning Law (Gov. Code, § 65000 et seq.)1 (planning law) which vest specific authority over general plan amendments in the local “legislative body.” Although any limitation on the initiative power must be scrutinized with special care, evidence that the Legislature meant exactly what it said when it delegated specific authority to the local representative body is—as I will demonstrate below—compelling and irrefutable. Indeed, the problems of logic and practical planning that arise from a contrary conclusion are prominently displayed by the majority, which expends considerable time and effort attempting to rationalize the anomalous consequences of its own analysis. That effort, unfortunately, is fundamentally misplaced, for as this court has frequently observed, the remedy for inconvenient or unpopular laws lies with the Legislature, not the courts.
Discussion
A. Elections Code Section 9111
It is telling that the majority begins its analysis not with the language, structure and history of the planning law, but with a temporally and textually unrelated provision of the Elections Code. The latter, Elections Code section 9111, was part of a package of amendments first enacted in 1987 (50 years *800after enactment of the original planning law and 30 years after the last substantial amendments to the law) to revise the notice provisions governing local initiatives. A new section was added requiring that proponents of initiative measures file a copy of the proposed measure with the county clerk (Elec. Code, § 9103, added by Stats. 1987, ch. 767, p. 2434), and another requiring that county counsel provide a ballot title and summary. (Elec. Code, § 9104, added by Stats. 1987, ch. 767, pp. 2434-2435.)
Once an initiative petition containing the requisite number of signatures is submitted to the county clerk, the law requires that the board of supervisors either enact the proposed ordinance without alteration, or submit it to the voters. (Elec. Code, § 9116.) Elections Code section 9111 created an additional step in the process by authorizing the board to submit a proposed initiative measure to any county agency for a report on its fiscal impact, its “effect on the internal consistency of the county’s general plan and specific plans including the housing element, the consistency between planning and zoning,” or any other matters requested by the board.
The majority claims that the reference in Elections Code section 9111 to “internal consistency of the county’s general plan” provides decisive evidence of the Legislature’s intention to subject general plans to amendment by initiative. As evidence of the legislative intent underlying the planning act, however, the Elections Code provision is decidedly inapposite. The views of the Legislature in 1987 have little relevance to the intentions of an earlier Legislature in assigning responsibility for general plan amendments to the local “legislative body.” (Honey Springs Homeowners Assn. v. Board of Supervisors (1984) 157 Cal.App.3d 1122, 1137 [203 Cal.Rptr. 886]; see also United States v. Price (1960) 361 U.S. 304, 313 [4 L.Ed.2d 334, 340, 80 S.Ct. 326] [“the views of a subsequent Congress form a hazardous basis for inferring the intent of an earlier one”].)
Nor does Elections Code section 9111 persuasively establish a contemporary legislative “understanding” that a general plan may be amended by initiative. The statute does not purport to define the scope of the initiative power. It was enacted as part of an overall revision of the initiative notice provisions, and was aimed at providing the board of supervisors with information to better deal with proposed initiatives. As one committee staff analysis observed, the purpose of the provision was to accord the board of supervisors the “opportunity to make an informed decision on a proposed initiative . . . .” (Assem. Com. on Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments, Analysis of Assem. Bill No. 2202 (1987-1988 Reg. Sess.) May 4, 1987.)
The majority’s argument rests entirely on the supposition that Elections Code section 9111 cannot be “reconciled” with any conclusion other than a *801legislative “understanding” that general plans may be amended by initiative. This is demonstrably incorrect. It is often unclear whether a proposed land use initiative aims to amend the zoning ordinance or the general plan. As Lesher Communications Inc. v. City of Walnut Creek (1990) 52 Cal.3d 531 [277 Cal.Rptr. 1, 802 P.2d 317] (Lesher) well illustrated, die purpose of a proposed land use initiative is not always self-evident; there, it was unclear whether the electorate intended an amendment of the city’s general plan or a zoning ordinance. Thus, a report from the planning agency to the board of supervisors identifying the target of a proposed initiative as the general plan or indicating that it might result in some inconsistency, could influence the board’s decision either to enact the proposed ordinance itself or perhaps even to initiate a legal challenge to the proposal as outside the scope of the initiative power.
It is illogical and unnecessary, therefore, to infer a legislative stamp of approval on the kinds of information that may be contained in the notice provisions of Election Code section 9111. Indeed, since it was part of an overall legislative revision of the initiative notice provisions, it appears much more likely that the statute was designed to enhance the response capabilities of the local legislative body rather than to define the scope of the initiative power. Given the uncertain intentions underlying the statute, it is dubious at best to conclude that it rebuts the clear inference of a legislative intent to vest exclusive authority in the local “legislative body.”
B. The Planning Law
1. The Text Specifically Contemplates Amendment by the Local Legislature
Turning to the more pertinent provisions of the planning law itself, one finds at the outset that the relevant statutes strongly support the inference of a legislative intent to repose specific authority over general plan enactments and amendments with the local governing bodies of cities and counties. The adoption or amendment of a general plan begins with the local “planning agency,” which may consist of a planning department, planning commission, or the legislative body itself. (§ 65100.) Each planning agency is charged with the initial responsibility to “prepare, periodically review, and revise, as necessary, the general plan,” and then forward its recommendations to the local legislative body. (§ 65103, subd. (a).) “The legislative body shall [in turn] adopt or amend a general plan by resolution, which resolution shall be adopted by the affirmative vote of not less than a majority of the total membership of the legislative body. The legislative body may approve, modify, or disapprove the recommendation of the planning commission, if *802any. However, any substantial modification proposed by the legislative body not previously considered by the commission during its hearings, shall first be referred to the planning commission for its recommendation.” (§ 65356.) Section 65358, subdivision (a) adds that “the legislative body may amend all or part of an adopted general plan”; subdivision (b) of that section limits amendments to four per calendar year, but “Subject to that limitation, an amendment may be made at any time, as determined by the legislative body.”
As guided by our seminal decision in Committee of Seven Thousand v. Superior Court (1988) 45 Cal.3d 491 [247 Cal.Rptr. 362, 754 P.2d 708] (COST), the first point to be gleaned from the statutory text is that the express, albeit generic, references to “legislative body” in sections 65356 and 65358 support at least an “inference that the [Legislature’s] intent was to preclude action by initiative . . . .” (45 Cal.3d at p. 501.)2
This bare inference finds additional support in the statute. As discussed more fully in the part that follows, the planning law creates a unique, process-intensive structure for the enactment and amendment of general plans. It begins with the planning agency, a highly specialized body of individuals charged with the responsibility to review proposed amendments to the general plan and, when necessary, to propose revisions of its own. (§ 65103, subd. (a).) Thus, from the outset the statutory procedure for the amendment of general plans is irreconcilable with the initiative process, since the latter requires no planning agency review before submission to the voters.
Furthermore, section 65356 provides for enactment of a general plan by “resolution . . . adopted by the affirmative vote of not less than a majority of the total membership of the legislative body.” Plainly only a representative legislative body can adopt a law by “resolution.” Furthermore, the explicit statutory reference to a majority of the legislative body’s “membership” clearly suggests an assemblage composed of individual “members.” Thus, it is reasonably clear from the plain text that the Legislature specifically contemplated the city council or county board of supervisors when it provided for adoption and amendment of the general plan by the local “legislative body.”
*8032. The Procedural Requirements for Amendment of General Plans Are Irreconcilable With the Initiative Process
It is apparent that the Legislature not only specifically contemplated the local representative body to be the source of amending authority, but considered it to be the exclusive source of such authority. The text of the planning law offers substantial guidance here, as well. As explained below, the express statutory goals of the general plan—comprehensiveness and consistency—are integrally related to, and can only be fully accomplished by, the elaborate legislative process designed to achieve them. The legislative ends, in short, dictate the legislative means.
In determining legislative intent, it is well settled that courts may look to a variety of sources, including the overall statutory scheme of which the law is a part, the ostensible objects to be achieved, and, where available, the legislative history. (People v. Woodhead (1987) 43 Cal.3d 1002, 1009 [239 Cal.Rptr. 656, 741 P.2d 154].) Sections 65356 and 65358 are components of a larger, statutorily mandated legislative process, the ultimate object of which is the formulation of a “comprehensive, long-term, general plan for the physical development” of the community. (§ 65300.) In setting forth a broad statement of development policies and goals, every general plan must address a number of mandatory “elements," which currently consist of land use, circulation, conservation, housing, open space, noise and safety. (§ 65302.) It is not sufficient, moreover, to simply define land use, circulation, or housing policy. The planning law requires that each of the elements be carefully correlated with one another to “comprise an integrated, internally consistent and compatible statement of policies for the adopting agency.” (§ 65300.5; see Concerned Citizens of Calaveras County v. Board of Supervisors (1985) 166 Cal.App.3d 90, 97 [212 Cal.Rptr. 273].) Finally, to ensure the general plan’s authority as the fundamental “constitution” for the physical development of every city and county, the planning law provides that all zoning regulations, subdivisions approvals and specific plans must be consistent with the general plan. (§§ 65860; 65359; see Lesher, supra, 52 Cal.3d at pp. 540-541; Citizens of Goleta Valley v. Board of Supervisors (1990) 52 Cal.3d 553, 570-572 [276 Cal.Rptr. 410, 801 P.2d 1161]; deBottari v. City Council (1985) 171 Cal.App.3d 1204, 1213 [217 Cal.Rptr. 790].)
As noted earlier, the process of adopting or amending a general plan begins with the local planning agency. The latter is charged with the initial responsibility to prepare a plan. (§ 65103, subd. (a).) To ensure comprehensiveness, the planning agency may “enter upon any land and make examinations and surveys” (§ 65105), and must “[d]uring the preparation or amendment of the general plan . . . provide opportunities for the involvement of citizens, public agencies, public utility companies, and civic, education, and other community groups . . . .” (§65351.) Furthermore, to *804ensure internal consistency, the planning agency shall “periodically review, and revise, as necessary, the general plan.” (§65103, subd. (a), italics added.) The legislative body exercises the final authority to adopt by resolution the general plan formulated by the planning agency; however, any substantial modification proposed by the legislative body not previously considered by the planning agency must be referred to the latter for its review and recommendation. (§§ 65300, 65356.)
As the statutory provisions summarized above make clear, comprehensiveness and consistency represent the fundamental guiding principles of the general plan, and the elaborate planning process—with its emphasis on widespread public involvement during general plan preparation and periodic review and revision by the planning agency to maintain the general plan’s internal consistency—represent the essential means of achieving these goals. Thus understood, the conclusion logically and inescapably follows that the Legislature must have considered the local legislative body to be the exclusive means of general plan adoption and amendment. For the requirement of broad public input at the preparation stage, where competing interests may be balanced, demographic studies and surveys may be consulted, alternatives may be debated, and language may be modified and fine-tuned, can only be accomplished by the planning agency and the local legislative body acting through the traditional deliberative process.
The initiative offers many advantages as a legislative model, but it can not accommodate the planning law’s clear mandate for broad community input at the formulative stage of general plan development. An initiative measure may be conceived and drafted with the involvement of numerous community interests, or one. It may seek to balance competing development policies, or elevate one approach to the exclusion of all others. An initiative measure is offered to the public on a take-it-or-leave-it basis and cannot be altered, amended or fine-tuned. An initiative can not achieve, in short, the fundamental legislative goal of a comprehensive blueprint for physical development formulated through widespread community involvement.
What is the majority’s answer to the logical conundrum of reconciling the initiative process with the express statutory requirement of community involvement at the formulative stage? It declares the evidence to be “doubtful” and moves on, which is somewhat akin to declaring victory and abandoning the field.
Consistency represents the second major goal of the general plan, as explained in section 65300.5: “[T]he Legislature intends that the general plan and elements and parts thereof comprise an integrated, internally consistent and compatible statement of policies for the adopting agency.” (See *805Concerned Citizens of Calaveras County v. Board of Supervisors, supra, 166 Cal.App.3d at p. 97 [“If a general plan is to fulfill its function as a ‘constitution’ guiding ‘an effective planning process,’ a general plan must be reasonably consistent and integrated on its face.”].) The planning agency implements this principle by serving as the legislative clearinghouse of general plan amendments, ensuring that proposals are consistent with other general plan elements as well as with the agency’s long-term goals and policies. Nor is the agency purely reactive in this regard; it is required periodically to review and revise the general plan to ensure that its elements remain integrated and internally consistent. (§ 65103, subd. (a).)
If a general plan were subject to amendment by initiative rather than through the prescribed statutory process, the oversight function performed by the planning agency would be destroyed, and an ad hoc element introduced into a process that places the ultimate premium on comprehensiveness and consistency. Consistency, moreover, requires flexibility. As transportation conditions change, for example, noise, air quality, safety, and housing patterns are affected. If the general plan or some element thereof were subject to amendment solely by means of the initiative power because of the constraints of Elections Code sections 9125 and 9217, the planning agency’s statutory responsibility to periodically revise or update the general plan to correlate its parts (§ 65103, subd. (a); Citizens of Goleta Valley v. Board of Supervisors, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 572) and the legislative body’s authority to amend the general plan “at any time” that it deems necessary (subject to the limits of section 65358, subdivision (b)) would be effectively nullified. The initiative thus injects into the planning process an element of rigidity that defeats the statutory requirement of periodic review and revision to achieve the Legislature’s goal of an integrated, internally consistent general plan.
What is the majority’s response to the logical impossibility of reconciling the initiative process with the planning agency’s express statutory mandate to periodically review and revise, as necessary, the general plan? It declares that nothing in the statute “suggests that a general plan that has not been prepared or reviewed by a planning department is invalid,” but conspicuously omits any reference to the equally important requirement of revising, as necessary, the general plan to address changing conditions and to maintain internal consistency. Thus, the majority violates the cardinal principle that one must conform theory to facts, not arrange facts to fit theory.3
Finally, the majority opinion places substantial reliance on Associated Home Builders etc., Inc. v. City of Livermore (1976) 18 Cal.3d 582 [135 *806Cal.Rptr. 41, 557 P.2d 473] (Associated Home Builders). The issue there concerned the amenability of a zoning ordinance to the initiative power. One of the arguments raised by the plaintiff was that the initiative ordinance violated the state zoning law because it had been enacted without a noticed hearing. (Id. at pp. 591-592.) We rejected the contention—overturning in the process an earlier decision to the contrary (Hurst v. City of Burlingame (1929) 207 Cal. 134 [277 P. 308])—on the ground that “the Legislature never intended the notice and hearing requirements of the zoning law to apply to the enactment of zoning initiatives.” (18 Cal.3d at p. 594, italics added.)
The majority’s inference from Associated Home Builders, supra, 18 Cal.3d 582, that statutory procedural requirements are simply irrelevant to the question whether an ordinance is subject to initiative is breathtakingly inaccurate. The issue in that case concerned the zoning law, and the holding was based upon a dearth of evidence suggesting a legislative intent to apply the procedural requirements to zoning ordinances. There is nothing in the opinion to suggest that, in a different legislative context, statutorily imposed procedural requirements would not be highly relevant.
The present facts and circumstances are, indeed, wholly distinguishable from Associated Home Builders, supra, 18 Cal.3d 582. The statute at issue here is not the state zoning law but the planning law, and as to that statute the evidence strongly indicates the Legislature intended the local legislative body to be the exclusive means of enacting and amending a general plan. There was no evidence in Associated Home Builders of a similar intent with respect to local zoning ordinances; indeed, the evidence with respect to zoning is to the contrary. As explained in the part that follows, the general plan was conceived initially as an extraordinary form of legislation requiring careful study, broad community input, unprecedented breadth, durability and internal consistency. Zoning, in contrast, has been consistently treated in conventional terms as ordinary legislation designed to implement the land use provisions of the general plan. Indeed, the authors of the original Standard Planning Act were so intent upon impressing the states with the importance of the general plan that they removed it from the traditional legislative sphere altogether, whereas the same authors placed the zoning power directly in the hands of the local legislative body.
Enactment of a zoning ordinance, moreover, is a generally routine procedure, not the process-intensive exercise of the general plan. To be sure, *807zoning ordinances require a noticed public hearing before the local legislative body. (§ 65856.) But this is generally aimed at stimulating public interest in a largely finished product, drafted in circumstances wholly unconstrained by the web of procedures that contribute to the actual preparation of the general plan. The zoning law contains none of the requirements of the planning law relating to the formulative process itself, involving the matrix of statutorily mandated surveys and studies, community involvement, and the correlation with existing general plan elements and policies, that together comprise the heart of the planning process. The majority’s assertion that the procedural requirements relating to zoning and planning are largely equivalent, is thus fundamentally incorrect.
Furthermore, unlike the general plan which is regional in scope and thus a matter of statewide concern, zoning has been consistently characterized as a matter of local concern and hence a purely “municipal affair.” (COST, supra, 45 Cal.3d at p. 510.) For all of these reasons, therefore, the question of zoning’s amenability to the initiative power is wholly distinguishable from the issue of a general plan’s susceptibility to amendment by initiative. The holding in Associated Home Builders was correct on the question before it, but the issue here is entirely distinguishable and is not controlled by that case.
“The hallmarks of good land use planning are that decisions are well informed, [that] the planning process is flexible and responsive to changing circumstances and values, and that decisions reflect a comprehensive planning process and accommodate competing public interests.” (Curtin & Jacobson, Growth Control by the Ballot Box: California’s Experience (1991) 24 Loyola L.A. L.Rev. 1073, 1102.) These “hallmarks of good land use planning” represent, in fact, the fundamental principles and objectives of the general plan as expressly delineated by the Legislature in the planning law. The accomplishment of these objectives, as explained above, is dependent upon the legislative process mandated by the planning law, and thus excludes resort to the initiative power.
C. Legislative History
Although neither the parties nor the majority has mined the extensive history of the planning law for whatever light it might shed on the problem before us, a review of that history reveals certain broad themes which strongly support the inference of a legislative intent to vest exclusive authority over the adoption and amendment of general plans in the local legislative body.
*8081. The Standard Planning Act
Planning and zoning laws in the United States were among a number of reforms associated with the multifaceted movement known as Progressivism that arose during the first decades of this century. Like other Progressive reforms such as the commission form of government, at-large voting districts, health and sanitation measures, and the “city beautiful” movement, the impetus behind planning and zoning reflected a broader “search for order” and faith in the power of scientific planning to solve social ills.4
Although a subject of considerable academic interest, planning and zoning laws had been enacted in only a few states before the mid-1920’s. The pace of legislation increased dramatically, however, after an advisory committee to the United States Department of Commerce, under the leadership of then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, promulgated model legislation for zoning and planning titled, respectively, A Standard State Zoning Enabling Act (Advisory Com. on City Planning and Zoning, U.S. Dept, of Commerce (1926) and A Standard City Planning Enabling Act (Advisory Com. on City Planning and Zoning, U.S. Dept, of Commerce (1928) (Standard Planning Act or Act)). Both model acts exerted wide influence almost immediately; by the end of 1927, some 29 states had adopted zoning enabling legislation based largely on the standard zoning act (Haar, In Accordance With A Comprehensive Plan (1955) 68 Harv. L.Rev. 1154, 1155-1156); many states also adopted separate planning statutes, including California, which in 1927 adopted the state’s original planning law, modeled to a large extent on a draft of the Standard Planning Act. (Stats. 1927, ch. 874, p. 1899; Standard Planning Act, p. iv; see also Kent, The Urban General Plan (1964) pp. 13, 32-64; Perry, The Local “General Plan” in California (1971) 9 San Diego L.Rev. 1, 2-3.)5
The authors of the Standard Planning Act expressed their ideas and the purposes underlying the Act’s provisions in a series of explanatory footnotes appended to the original report to the Department of Commerce. These comments are remarkable in a number of respects, not least for their clarity *809and straightforward treatment of the authors’ intent. The authors of the Standard Planning Act believed that a “master plan”6 governing the growth and development of the physical environment was essential to protect the health and welfare of citizens living in urban communities.7 To this end, the Act provided for the creation of a “planning commission” whose function, inter alia, was to “prepare a general design of the city’s development, so that development may take place in a systematic, coordinated and intelligently controlled manner.” (Standard Planning Act, p. 13, fn. 31.)
The authors devoted considerable attention in their comments to the nature and functions of the planning commission, which in turn reflected their conception of the master plan itself. The latter was envisioned as a broad statement of development policies and goals for the city as a whole, “designed to cover a long period of future years.” (Standard Planning Act, pp. 7-8, fn. 10.) This distinguished the master plan from other planning devices, such as zoning and subdivision maps, which were seen as simply tools to implement short-term land-use decisions in a manner consistent with the master plan’s general scheme. (Kent, The Urban General Plan, supra, p. 35.) To ensure internal consistency within the plan itself, piecemeal drafting and frequent amendments were also discouraged: “The city plan is an organic whole, every part of which, whether considered territorially or as to subject matter, is organically interrelated with every other part.” (Standard Planning Act, p. 17, fn. 42.) The planning process itself was viewed as a highly specialized discipline requiring consultation with experts in city planning, architecture, engineering, and the like. (Id. at p. 12.)
The powers and functions of the planning commission reflected the master plan concept. Under the Standard Planning Act, the commission was vested with plenary authority over the promulgation and adoption of the master plan. “It shall be the function and duty of the commission to make and adopt a master plan for the physical development of the municipality, including any areas outside of its boundaries which, in the commission’s judgment, *810bear relation to the planning of such municipality.” (Standard Planning Act, § 6, pp. 13-14.) Consistent with the concept of the master plan as a general statement of development policies and goals, the authors cautioned that the “planning commission should view all . . . phases of a city’s development in a broad and comprehensive fashion and should not concern itself with detailed administrative duties which rightfully belong to other branches of government.” (Id. at p. 13, fn. 31.) Indeed, although a majority of the commission membership was appointed by the mayor or city council, the latter were largely excluded from the planning process. As perceived by the authors, “the planning function is quite different and distinct from the legislative function.” (Standard Planning Act, p. 7, fn. 10, italics added.) The comments explained: “Planning is intended to be a process whereby the larger lines and directions of future public and private development will be influenced and to some extent controlled. It should be designed to cover a long period of years, much longer than the term of office of any single city council, including the city council which is in office at the time of adoption of the plan or any part of it. Legislation is designed to meet pressing and immediate needs, whether it take the form of penal legislation controlling persons or property or whether it be fiscal legislation expending public funds. The two functions, planning and legislation, are important and essential to the efficient working of city government, but they are quite different from each other and involve differing considerations, differing points of view, and differing talents and interests. The two functions, therefore, need to be reposed in two separate bodies . . . .” (Standard Planning Act, pp. 18-19, fn. 44.)
Thus, the authors’ conception of the master plan as a comprehensive statement of long-term development policies, requiring the application and integration of multiple disciplines in fields as diverse and exacting as economics, engineering, geology, architecture and city planning, by definition disqualified the city council from direct participation; the local legislative body, in the authors’ view, was more properly concerned with short-term political and fiscal problems than long-term, technical planning issues. (See Kent, The Urban General Plan, supra, pp. 53-59.) Of course, this did not preclude the city council from participating in all land-use decisions. On the contrary, as earlier noted, the same advisory committee that created the Standard Planning Act promulgated a standard zoning law which expressly vested authority over zoning decisions in the local “legislative body.” (A Standard State Zoning Enabling Act, reprinted in Rathkopf, The Law of Zoning and Planning (1949) pp. 547-551.) The authors’ differing treatment of zoning and planning undoubtedly reflected their perception of zoning as basically one of several conventional means of implementing the master plan, and therefore properly subject to short-term political pressures and *811interests. (Haar, In Accordance With A Comprehensive Plan, supra, 68 Harv. L.Rev. at p. 1156.)
2. The Planning Act in California
As noted above, California adopted its first planning law in 1927 modeled, to a large extent, upon the Standard Planning Act. (Stats. 1927, ch. 874, pp. 1899-1913.) Consistent with the Act, the California law authorized cities and counties to create a planning commission composed of members appointed by the chief executive officer and the local legislative body. In terms nearly identical to the Act, the California law vested primary authority in the planning commission to “make and adopt a master plan for the physical development of the municipality, or county, and of any land outside its boundaries which, in the commission’s judgment, bears relation to the planning thereof.” (Stats. 1927, ch. 874, § 4, p. 1901.) Also in accordance with the Act, the California planning law charged the commission with the essential task of making “careful and comprehensive surveys and studies of present conditions and future growth of the municipality, or county, with due regard to its relation to neighboring territory,” for the ultimate “purpose of guiding and accomplishing a coordinated, adjusted, and harmonious development of the municipality, or county, and its environs . . . .” (Stats. 1927, ch. 874, § 5, pp. 1901-1902.) Also consistent with the Act, the California statute required the commission to hold at least one public hearing before adopting the master plan or any substantial revision thereof.
In a departure from the Standard Planning Act, the California law provided for referral of the master plan adopted by the planning commission to the local “legislative body.” (Stats. 1927, ch. 874, § 7, p. 1902.) The latter, following notice and a hearing, was empowered to adopt the plan wholesale. However, any changes or additions by the legislative body had to be referred to the planning commission for study and approval. In the event of the commission’s disapproval, the legislative body was authorized to override the commission, but only by a “two-thirds vote of the entire membership of the legislative body . . . .” (Ibid.) Thus, although the planning commission retained primary authority over the drafting and implementation of the master plan, California’s enabling act provided for some participation by the local legislative body.
The planning law was amended in 1929. New provisions were added requiring that the general plan contain specific elements addressing traffic, transportation, transit and parks systems. (Stats. 1929, ch. 838, § 4, p. 1808.) The powers of the planning commission were further enhanced by authorizing the commission to contract with architects, city planners, engineers, *812and other consultants for such services as they required. In addition, the two-thirds legislative override was modified to allow the legislative body to overrule the commission by a simple “majority vote of the entire membership of the legislative body . . . .” (Id., § 6, p. 1809.)
A comprehensive revision of the planning law in 1947 authorized additional elements covering conservation of natural resources, as well as land use, recreation, streets and highways, public services and buildings, community design and housing. (Stats. 1947, ch. 807, §§ 38-46, pp. 1914-1915.) The law continued to place primary responsibility for the drafting and implementation of the master plan on the planning commission, and continued to require the commission to “promote the public interest in and understanding of the master plan and of official plans and regulations relating thereto.” {Id., § 50, p. 1915.) The law further charged the commission with the affirmative duty to “consult and advise with public officials and agencies, public utility companies, civic, educational, professional and other organizations, and with citizens generally with relation to the carrying out of such plans.” {Ibid.) The commission, and its members, were also authorized “in the performance of their functions, [to] enter upon any land and make examinations and surveys,” and were broadly vested with “such power as may be necessary to enable [them] to fulfill [their] functions and carry out the purposes of this act.” {Ibid.) However, while the law continued to require that any revisions suggested by the legislative body be referred to the commission for review and comment, it no longer required a legislative override of those changes disapproved by the commission, leaving the final decision in the hands of the legislative body.
Legislative amendments to the planning law in 1951 (Stats. 1951, ch. 334, p. 675), 1953 (Stats. 1953, ch. 1355, p. 2913), 1955 (Stats. 1955, ch. 1644, p. 2967), 1965 (Stats. 1965, ch. 1880, p. 4334) and 1971 (Stats. 1971, ch. 1446, p. 2852) gradually expanded the substantive content and enhanced the relative status of the master plan as the fundamental constitution of local development, but left largely intact the respective roles of the planning commission and the local legislative body in the adoption and amendment process.8 The current planning law mandates that every city and county shall have a “planning agency” which may consist of a combination of entities including a planning department, planning commission or the legislative *813body itself. (§ 65100.) As under the original law, the planning agency is required to “Prepare, periodically review, and revise, as necessary, the general plan” (§ 65103, subd. (a)), and the local legislative body is required to “adopt or amend a general plan by resolution.” (§ 65356; see also §§ 65300, 65358.) Extensive consultation with outside agencies, expert consultants, and interest groups also continues to be a necessary part of the process. “During the preparation or amendment of the general plan, the planning agency shall provide opportunities for the involvement of citizens, public agencies, public utility companies, and civic, education, and other community groups, through public hearings and any other means the city or county deems appropriate.” (§ 65351.)
3. Legislative Intentions
Although the history of the planning law summarized above yields no direct evidence bearing on the role, if any, of the initiative power, it reveals some very relevant themes. Foremost among these is the principle that the legislative process established by the planning law is integral to the achievement of its goals, and that reliance on the initiative power would effectively thwart these goals.
Clearly the authors of the Standard Planning Act did not consider the initiative to be a viable means of enacting or amending the master plan. Indeed, by defining the planning process itself to be a unique and highly specialized function, largely outside the scope and competence of the local legislative body, the Act virtually insulated the master plan from the power of the initiative and referendum. For it was, and is, generally understood that the initiative and referendum extend only to matters that are legislative in nature. (Hopping v. Council of City of Richmond (1915) 170 Cal. 605, 611 [150 P. 977]; Dwyer v. City Council (1927) 200 Cal. 505, 511 [253 P. 932]; Yost v. nomas (1984) 36 Cal.3d 561, 569-570 [205 Cal.Rptr. 801, 685 P.2d 1152].) Thus, the authors’ characterization of the planning function as distinct from the legislative process effectively removed the master plan from the direct influence of the electorate acting through the initiative power.
California, as noted, never erected the solid wall between the planning commission and the legislative body contemplated by the Standard Planning Act. Although the planning commission retained primary responsibility for the drafting and implementation of the master plan, the local “legislative body” was empowered to review and ultimately approve or disapprove it. *814(Stats. 1927, ch. 874, § 7, p. 1902.) Hence, California recognized from the outset that the master plan was essentially “legislative” in nature. (See Yost v. Thomas, supra, 36 Cal.3d 561.) However, it is clear that the “legislative body” referred to in the original planning law was the local city council or board of supervisors, and their responsibility—as originally conceived—was limited. This is readily apparent from the provision that any legislative changes or additions to the master plan must be approved by the commission, and the requirement of a “two-thirds vote of the entire membership of the legislative body” to enact any change disapproved by the commission. (Stats. 1927, ch. 874, § 7, p. 1902.) The requirement of a two-thirds vote of the “membership” of the legislative body plainly implies action by a finite group or collectivity of individuals, i.e., a representative body. Although the legislative override was later reduced to a “majority vote of the entire membership of the legislative body” (Stats. 1929, ch. 838, § 6, p. 1809) and ultimately eliminated altogether, there is no evidence that the original understanding of “legislative body” as signifying the local representative body was ever modified. Indeed, as discussed earlier, the current law continues to require approval by “resolution . . . adopted by the affirmative vote of not less than a majority of the total membership of the legislative body.” (§ 65356.)
Equally evident from the foregoing history is the fact that from its inception the California planning law embraced the model act’s vision of the master plan as a complex end product requiring a special commission to undertake “careful and comprehensive surveys and studies of present conditions and future growth,” to consult with experts and other interested civic groups and public agencies, to conduct public hearings, and to balance all of these interests in the pursuit of “accomplishing a coordinated, adjusted and harmonious development. . . .” (Stats. 1927, ch. 874, § 5, p. 1901; see also id., §§ 3, 4, p. 1901.)
What the California law mandated, in short, was a particularized process the final outcome of which would serve as the community master plan. The latter constituted a new and unique form of municipal legislation; it was not merely a mundane ordinance dealing with transitory political or fiscal issues, but a comprehensive statement of long-term development policy, the complex culmination of a statutorily mandated process involving demographic surveys, economic studies, expert analyses and consultations, referrals to outside agencies, and public hearings. True to the spirit of the original Standard Planning Act, in sum, the California Legislature enacted a genuine “planning" statute; it mandates not merely a local “plan” but a plan of action, a particularized process or methodology designed ultimately to yield a long-term, comprehensive and harmonious blueprint for future growth.
*815The implications of these historical and abiding legislative ends with respect to the means of achieving them are clear. From its inception, the general plan was conceived to be an “organic whole.” That essential concept endures through the statutory requirement that each of its elements be carefully correlated and harmonized by the planning agency so that it “comprise[s] an integrated, internally consistent and compatible statement of policies for the adopting agency.” (§ 65300.5.) Amendments to the plan were originally discouraged and are currently limited to four per calendar year (§ 65358, subd. (b)) precisely in order to preserve internal consistency, comprehensiveness, and the long-term character of the plan. (See Lesher, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 541; deBottari v. City Council, supra, 171 Cal.App.3d at p. 1212.) Planning by initiative would defeat these historic and enduring legislative goals by circumventing the statutorily mandated requirements of broad community involvement in the preparation of the general plan, and periodic review and revision by the planning agency to ensure internal consistency.
Thus, the history of the planning law strongly supports the conclusion that amendment of the general plan by the local legislative body represents a necessary and critical component in the achievement of the Legislature’s essential goals.
D. Statewide Concern
As the majority correctly notes, an “important factor” (COST, supra, 45 Cal.3d at p. 505) in determining whether the Legislature intended to vest exclusive authority in the local “legislative body” is whether the statute deals with a matter of statewide concern rather than a purely municipal affair. “[A]n intent to exclude ballot measures is more readily inferred if the statute addresses a matter of statewide concern rather than a purely municipal affair.” (Id. at p. 501, italics added.) Unfortunately, the majority ignores the evidence most relevant to this issue, and distorts the critical fact that charter cities must—by statute—adopt general plans with all of the mandatory elements included—a sure indicator of the Legislature’s belief that the general plan constitutes a matter of fundamental statewide importance.
Although the distinction can be elusive, this court has made it clear that the term “ ‘statewide’ refers to all matters of more than local concern” (COST, supra, 45 Cal.3d at p. 505), and encompasses subjects which contain a “dimension demonstrably transcending identifiable municipal interests . . . .” (California Fed. Savings & Loan Assn. v. City of Los Angeles (1991) 54 Cal.3d 1, 17 [283 Cal.Rptr. 569, 812 P.2d 916].) A finding of statewide concern does not “necessarily rest on the conclusion that the subject matter *816... is not appropriate for municipal regulation” (id. at p. 18), but rather that it exhibits genuine “extramunicipal concerns.” (Ibid.) Although the ultimate determination rests with the courts, the legislative goals and the factors which influenced the Legislature to enact the law in question are entitled to substantial weight. (Bishop v. City of San Jose (1969) 1 Cal.3d 56, 62-63 [81 Cal.Rptr. 465, 460 P.2d 137].)
That land-use planning in general, and the formulation and implementation of the general plan in particular, constitute matters of manifest statewide importance, becomes evident from an examination of the text and the purposes of the planning law as a whole. Although the law ensures that most land-use decisions remain within local control, it also recognizes that those decisions may have profound ramifications for neighboring entities, the region and the state, and therefore requires that each planning agency be guided by and implement certain fundamental state policies and goals. In a prefatory statement of policy and intent, the Legislature has broadly identified those critical state concerns as follows: “The Legislature finds and declares that California’s land is an exhaustible resource, not just a commodity, and is essential to the economy, environment and general well-being of the people of California. It is the policy of the state and the intent of the Legislature to protect California’s land resource, to insure its preservation and use in ways which are economically and socially desirable in an attempt to improve the quality of life in California.” (§ 65030.)
The Legislature has further declared that land-use planning, and the general plan in particular, represent the basic means of ensuring orderly growth throughout the state. Thus, the Legislature has decreed that all “decisions involving the future growth of the state,” while generally subject to local control, must be “guided by an effective planning process, including the local general plan, and should proceed within the framework of officially approved statewide goals and policies directed to land use, population growth and distribution, development, open space, resource preservation and utilization, air and water quality, and other related physical, social and economic development factors.” (§ 65030.1, italics added.) The Legislature has further evidenced its conviction that the general plan and its implementation constitute matters of fundamental statewide interest by requiring that charter cities adopt general plans containing all of the mandatory elements set forth in the act. (§ 65700.)
This court has also recognized the important statewide interest in ensuring effective land-use planning and controlled growth at the local level. As we have observed: “The deleterious consequences of haphazard community growth in this state and the need to prevent further random development are *817evident to even the most casual observer. The Legislature has attempted to alleviate the problem by authorizing the adoption of long-range plans for orderly progress.” (Selby Realty Co. v. City of Buenaventura (1973) 10 Cal.3d 110, 120 [109 Cal.Rptr. 799, 514 P.2d 111].)
The “extramunicipal” dimension of the general plan is further evidenced by the nature of its mandatory elements and the process of its formulation. Comprehensive planning necessarily requires consideration and balancing of numerous interrelated social, geographic and economic issues, denominated under the planning law as mandatory “elements”; these currently consist of land use, circulation, housing, conservation, open space, noise and safety. (§ 65302.) The planning law requires that local planning agencies “Promote the coordination of local plans and programs with the plans and programs of other public agencies.” (§ 65103, subd. (f).) To this end, it requires that proposed general plans or amendments thereto must, prior to adoption, be referred for review and comments to abutting cities and counties, the local agency formation commission, and any affected special districts, areawide planning agency, school districts and water suppliers. (§ 65352.)
The planning law also explicitly requires, with respect to certain of the mandatory elements, that the planning agency take into account regional concerns and consult with pertinent regional or state agencies. Safety elements or amendments thereto must be submitted to the Division of Mines and Geology of the State Department of Conservation. (§ 65585, subd. (b).) The housing element must expressly identify and analyze the locality’s housing stock and set forth goals, policies and quantified objectives in relation to the locality’s share of the regional housing needs (§§ 65583, subd. (a)(1), 65584); the local planning agency must submit a draft housing element or draft amendment to the State Department of Housing and Community Development for review and comments. (§ 65585, subd. (b).)
The housing element may be the most obvious, but is far from the only mandatory element with significant regional ramifications. As the General Plan Guidelines formulated by the Office of Planning and Research observe, it is increasingly important for planning agencies “to view the local general plan in its regional context. Traditionally, the concept of ‘community’ encompassed only a local entity—the city or county. With increasing urbanization and the growing interdependence of local governments, particularly in metropolitan areas, the concept has developed a regional perspective. Each local planning agency carries a responsibility to coordinate its general plan with regional planning efforts as much as possible. ...[¶] Issues of regional importance may include transportation, housing, schools, commerce, employment, growth management, public utility service, communications, infrastructure, solid and hazardous waste management, water and air quality, *818open space, and coordination of emergency services.” (Off. of Planning and Research, General Plan Guidelines (1987) ch.1, pp. 7-8, italics added (General Plan Guidelines).)
The regional perspective mandated by the planning law has been recognized by the courts as well. As we observed in Scott v. City of Indian Wells (1972) 6 Cal.3d 541 [99 Cal.Rptr. 745, 492 P.2d 1137] (upholding the right of nonresident landowners to notice of a proposed development within the city’s borders): “In today’s sprawling metropolitan complexes . . . municipal boundary lines rarely indicate where urban development ceases. We have come to recognize that local zoning may have even a regional impact. [Citation.]” {Id. at p. 548.) This change from a local to a regional and statewide perspective in land use planning found clear expression in Associated Home Builders, supra, 18 Cal.3d 582, where we observed: “In past cases ... we have been content to assume that the [land-use] ordinance need only reasonably relate to the welfare of the enacting municipality and its residents. But municipalities are not isolated islands remote from the needs and problems of the area in which they are located . . . .” (Id. at p. 607.) Hence we held that the constitutional test of the reasonableness of a land use ordinance must be judged by its impact on the region which it affects. (Ibid.)
Notwithstanding the evidence summarized above, the majority concludes that the general plan cannot be deemed to be a matter of statewide concern. The flaws in the majority’s reasoning are self-evident. First, it confuses local control with local interest, erroneously concluding that because land-use decisions remain primarily within the control of local entities the general plan must be a matter of purely municipal concern. The retention of local control is not dispositive, however. Indeed, this court rejected a similar argument in COST, supra, 45 Cal.3d 491, where it was urged that because the statutory scheme at issue left the decision to impose a transportation development fee within the discretion of the affected cities, the matter could not be considered one of statewide concern. “[I]n seeking to achieve objectives of statewide concern,” we explained, “the Legislature is not limited to means which are mandatory or coercive but can also employ means reasonably calculated to facilitate or encourage appropriate action by local entities . . . .” (Id. at p. 507.)
The Legislature has made it clear that each local entity must implement the provisions of the planning act “in ways that accommodate local conditions and circumstances, while meeting its minimum [statutory] requirements.” (§ 65300.7, italics added.) Local decisions, including the general plan, must “proceed within the framework of officially approved statewide *819goals and policies . . . (§ 65030.1.) Thus, although local cities and counties retain ultimate control over specific land use decisions, the Legislature has left no doubt that those decisions affect fundamental statewide interests and must be made in accordance with state policies.
An additional fallacy underlying the majority’s conclusion lies in its failure to appreciate the fundamental general plan principles of comprehensiveness and consistency. For example, the circulation element is not simply an internal transportation plan; it has “direct relationships with the housing, open space, noise and safety elements” (General Plan Guidelines, supra, ch. 3, p. 91), and must be specifically correlated with the land use element, as well. (§ 65302, subd. (b).) Transportation routes affect human and physical settlement patterns throughout the region, which in turn have a major impact on air quality, plant and animal habitats, and noise, as well as a significant influence on the regional economy in terms of delivery of materials, products, and workers. (Ibid., see Twain Harte Homeowners Assn. v. County of Tuolumne (1982) 138 Cal.App.3d 664, 700-702 [188 Cal.Rptr. 233]; Concerned Citizens of Calaveras County v. Board of Supervisors, supra, 166 Cal.App.3d at p. 97.)
Similar interrelationships and regional interests are inherent in every element of the general plan. Indeed, the initiative measure in this case provides a classic illustration of the profound regional ramifications of amending simply one element—the land-use element—of the general plan. The provisions of Measure J, classifying substantial portions of county land as agricultural, open space or watershed, obviously affect population density and building intensify, which in turn influence transportation and other infrastructure needs, as well as environmental, safety, and aesthetic interests. The statement of “findings and purpose” in Measure J explicitly recognized the interrelated regional interests at stake, observing: “Uncontrolled urban encroachment into agricultural and watershed areas will impair agriculture and threaten the public ... by causing increased traffic congestion, associated air pollution, and potentially serious water problems. . . . Such urban encroachment, or ‘leap-frog development,’ would eventually result in both the unnecessary, expensive extension of public services and facilities and inevitable conflicts between urban and agricultural areas.” The impact on the county’s current and future housing stock, its ability to meet its regional share of housing for all economic segments, was equally plain. As the ballot argument in favor of Measure J pointedly observed: “Napa County is under tremendous pressure to grow from the same forces that produced mushrooming urban sprawl in Contra Costa and Solano Counties. Napa County is a desirable place to live within commuting distance to Bay area jobs, putting it in danger of going the way of other Bay area counties.” Thus, the provisions *820of Measure J were clearly intended to limit and redirect the county’s future development of housing stock, with a view to influencing metropolitan growth patterns throughout the region.
The majority’s reliance on case law is equally flawed. It is noted that several dated Court of Appeal decisions held that the general plan concerns matters of purely local rather than statewide interest. (See Duran v. Cassidy (1972) 28 Cal.App.3d 574, 583 [104 Cal.Rptr. 793]; O’Loane v. O’Rourke (1965) 231 Cal.App.2d 774, 783 [42 Cal.Rptr. 283]; Fletcher v. Porter (1962) 203 Cal.App.2d 313, 318-319 [21 Cal.Rptr. 452].) As this court has observed, however, the definition of a municipal affair “ ‘is not a fixed or static quantity . . . [but one that] changes with the changing conditions upon which it is to operate’ . . . .” (California Fed. Saving & Loan Assn. v. City of Los Angeles, supra, 54 Cal.3d at p. 18, quoting Pac. Tel & Tel. Co. v. City and County of S.F. (1959) 51 Cal.2d 766, 771 [336 P.2d 514].) Dramatic increases in population and physical development over the last two decades have resulted in a major reemphasis on regional and statewide interests in planning. (See Mandelker, The Role of the Local Comprehensive Plan in Land Use Regulation (1976) 74 Mich. L.Rev. 899, 900.) This heightened awareness of the hazards of uncoordinated local planning elicited an unequivocal legislative response. In 1976 the Legislature decreed that all decisions involving the future growth of the state, although subject to local control, must “proceed within the framework of officially approved statewide goals and policies directed to land use, population growth and distribution, development, open space, resource preservation and utilization, air and water quality, and other related physical, social and economic development factors.” (§ 65030.1, italics added.) The General Plan Guidelines, originally promulgated in 1980, underscore the importance of a regional approach to the development and implementation of all facets of the general plan. (General Plan Guidelines, supra, pp. 7-8.) And the legislative determination in 1971 to extend the mandatory provisions of the general plan to charter cities lends further proof to the strong state interests in the formulation and implementation of the general plan. The judiciary has also kept pace in this regard, consistently holding that planning must reflect local, regional and statewide interests. (See Scott v. City of Indian Wells, supra, 6 Cal.3d at p. 548; Selby Realty Co. v. City of Buenaventura, supra, 10 Cal.3d at p. 120; Associated Home Builders, supra, 18 Cal.3d at p. 607; City of Los Angeles v. State of California (1982) 138 Cal.App.3d 526, 553 [187 Cal.Rptr. 893]; *821Buena Vista Gardens Apartment Assn. v. City of San Diego Planning Dept. (1985) 175 Cal.App.3d 289, 306-307 [220 Cal.Rptr. 732].)9
Finally, the majority’s assertion that the Legislature’s decision to apply the general plan requirement to charter cities somehow undermines the finding of statewide interests can only be described as astonishing, and cannot be taken at face value. As noted, the fact that the Legislature has required the adoption of general plans by charter cities means, by definition, that the Legislature considers the general plan to be a subject of statewide importance. (Bishop v. City of San Jose, supra, 1 Cal.3d 51, 61; COST, supra, 48 Cal.3d at p. 505.) The majority attempts to invert this conclusion by noting that the statute (§ 65700, subd. (a)) requiring the adoption of general plans by charter cities makes no reference to the elaborate statutory scheme for the amendment of general plans, and thus the majority infers a legislative “declaration] that the process of plan amendment was not a matter of statewide concern.”
Although certainly deserving of full marks for inventiveness, the argument is nonetheless entirely specious. This court has decided on numerous prior occasions that a matter was of sufficient statewide importance that the legislative decision to vest power in the local representative body implied an exclusion of the local electorate. (See, e.g., Riedman v. Brison (1933) 217 Cal. 383 [18 P.2d 947]; Simpson v. Hite (1950) 36 Cal.2d 125 [222 P.2d 225]; Geiger v. Board of Supervisors (1957) 48 Cal.2d 832 [313 P.2d 545]; COST, supra, 45 Cal.3d 491.) In none of these cases was the court concerned with the hypertechnical question whether the statute referred to “adoption” or “amendment.” The issue, rather, was whether the statute dealt with a subject matter of broad statewide significance. In COST, for example, we concluded that the “construction of major highways has effects beyond municipal boundaries” and thus held that a statute authorizing the local financing of transportation corridors vested exclusive decisionmaking authority in the local representative bodies. (45 Cal.3d at p. 506.) The question, here, by analogy, is whether the general plan has “effects beyond municipal boundaries,” and the answer, as outlined above, is plainly yes.
In a long and reputable series of cases, culminating most recently with Voters for Responsible Retirement v. Board of Supervisors (1995) 8 Cal.4th *822765 [35 Cal.Rptr.2d 814, 884 P.2d 645] (Voters), this court has consistently recognized the Legislature’s power to preempt the local initiative and referendum “as part of the exercise of its plenary power to legislate in matters of statewide concern.” (Id. at p. 779.) In Voters, this court found a legislative intent to preempt a local referendum on a county ordinance adopting a memorandum of understanding (MOU) relating to the participation of local employees in the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS). We inferred such a preemptive intent from a statute providing that ordinances of the kind in question shall go into effect immediately, reasoning that a referendum would conflict with this legislative mandate. (Id. at p. 776.) Moreover, while acknowledging that nothing on its face suggested a statutory scheme “from which a statewide purpose can be inferred” (id. at p. 779), we nevertheless discerned such a purpose from certain mandatory procedures in the Meyers- Milias-Brown Act relating to collective bargaining. As we observed, “If the bargaining process and ultimate ratification of the fruits of this dispute resolution procedure by the governing agency is to have its purpose fulfilled, then the decision of the governing body to approve the MOU must be binding and not subject to the uncertainty of referendum.” (Id. at p. 782.)
Our analysis and conclusion in Voters, supra, 8 Cal.4th 765, are irreconcilable with the majority’s holding herein. The conflicts that appear on their face between the initiative power and the planning law’s provisions for community involvement in the preparation and amendment of the general plan, and the local legislative body’s mandate to review and revise, as necessary, the general plan, are, if anything, far more compelling and persuasive than the apparent conflict between the referendum power and the urgency provision in Voters. Nor does the asserted statewide interest in collective bargaining over local wages and hours even approach in importance the fundamental, indeed transcendent statewide interests in land use, housing, and transportation patterns throughout a multicounty region of the state. Finally, there is no sound basis to conclude that a governing agency’s procedures and decision relating to a local collective bargaining agreement “must be binding and not subject to the uncertainty of referendum” (id. at p. 782), and yet hold that an even more elaborate set of procedures for the adoption and amendment of a general plan are merely optional, and that the local agency’s decisions may be completely undermined by the voters acting through the initiative power. No principled distinction differentiates Voters from the case at bar other than the fact that one deals with the arcana of the public retirement system, while the other deals with land use and development, a subject of broad public interest. This is not, in my view, a legitimate distinction.
*823Conclusion
I fully agree with the proposition that courts must, whenever reasonably possible, construe an initiative measure to ensure its validity. (Lesher, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 543.) “Basic to all statutory construction, however, is ascertaining and implementing the [legislative] intent . . . .” {Ibid.) In the state planning law the Legislature has expressly articulated the state’s vital interest in comprehensive planning, and has meticulously prescribed the process whereby the local “legislative body” of each city and county shall adopt and amend its general plan. A review of the legislative text, history and objectives leads me to conclude that the Legislature intended the authority thus delegated to be exercised by the local legislative bodies specifically and exclusively, to the exclusion of the electorate acting through the initiative power.
Accordingly, I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
Baxter, J., concurred.

 All further statutory references are to the Government Code unless otherwise noted.

 Although the term “legislative body” is not expressly defined in the planning law, section 34000 in title 4, pertaining to “Government of Cities,” states that it “means board of trustees, city council, or other governing body of a city.”

 The majority observes in a footnote that the planning agency’s statutory mandate to revise the general plan remains subject to final approval by the local legislative body. (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 792-793, fn. 10.) This obvious statement underscores my point, since the planning *806law expressly provides that “an amendment [to the general plan] may be made at any time, as determined by the legislative body.” (§ 65358, subd. (a), italics added.) The majority’s holding obliterates the plenary power statutorily reposed in the local “legislative body” to amend the general plan “at any time,” since that power will reside exclusively with the electorate whenever any general plan provision has been previously adopted or amended by initiative. (Elec. Code, §§ 9125, 9217.)

 On Progressivism as an effort by a new class of professionals to achieve order and efficiency through techniques of scientific and administrative control, see the seminal work by Wiebe, The Search for Order 1877-1920 (1967); see also Hawley, The Great War and a Search for a New Order 1919-1933 (1979); Chambers, The Tyranny of Change: America in the Progressive Era, 1900-1917 (1980); and Haber, Efficiency and Uplift: Scientific Management in the Progressive Era, 1890-1920 (1964).

 Although California’s original zoning law was adopted several years before the promulgation of the Standard State Zoning Enabling Act (Stats. 1917, ch. 734, p. 1419), it contains remarkably similar provisions. (See Comment, The Initiative and Referendum’s Use in Zoning (1976) 64 Cal.L.Rev. 74, 79.)

 Although the term “general plan” eventually displaced “master plan” in the statutory scheme, they refer to the same document and are used interchangeably herein.

 The authors of the Standard Planning Act explained why a general plan is necessary in terms that apply as well today as when they were written over 60 years ago: “The plan shall be made with the general purpose of guiding and accomplishing a coordinated, adjusted and harmonious development of the municipality and its environs which will, in accordance with present and future needs, best promote health, safety, morals, order, convenience, prosperity, and general welfare, as well as efficiency and economy in the process of development; including, among other things, adequate provision for traffic, the promotion of safety from fire and other dangers, adequate provision of light and air, the promotion of healthful and convenient distribution of population, the promotion of good civic design and arrangement, wise and efficient expenditure of public funds, and the adequate provision of public utilities and other public requirements.” (Standard Planning Act, p. 17, fn. 41.)

 Although originally discretionary, general plans were eventually made mandatory for all cities and counties. (See Curtin, California Land Use and Planning Law (14th ed. 1994) p. 7.) Perhaps the most significant amendment, however, occurred in 1971, when the Legislature explicitly provided that zoning regulations and subdivision approvals must be consistent with the general plan. (§ 65860, added by Stats. 1971, ch. 1446, p. 2858.) This express requirement solidified the general plan as the fundamental “constitution” for all land use development in the city or county. (Lesher, supra, 52 Cal.3d at pp. 540-541; Citizens of Goleta Valley v. Board *813of Supervisors, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 570; deBottari v. City Council, supra, 171 Cal.App.3d at p. 1213.)

 The only recent judicial statement even arguably to the contrary is contained in COST, supra, 45 Cal.3d at page 504, where we listed Yost v. Thomas, supra, 36 Cal.3d 561 (which upheld a referendum on a general plan amendment) among a series of cases that we characterized as dealing with “purely local concern.” Nothing in Yost v. Thomas, supra, 36 Cal.3d 561 however, supports this statement, which was dictum in the context of COST, was neither explored nor developed, and in retrospect was plainly ill-considered.