From the City's FAQ (At the end you'll see this particular issue turns on whether or not the State has explicitly assigned the power in question to the Council... My flat "No" actually fudged the issue a little, because maybe the isthmus isn't a "site-specific rezone," but I think that maybe the lawyers who drafted the initiative didn't want to have the work of gathering 4,000 signatures rest on testing that theory.

What statutory limitations are placed on the right of referendum in the City of Olympia?

RCW 35A11.090 contains a list of types of ordinances that are not subject to the power of referendum in the City of Olympia. This list includes emergency ordinances, ordinances providing for local improvement districts, ordinances appropriating money, ordinances providing for collective bargaining, ordinances for compensation or other working conditions of City employees, and ordinances authorizing or repealing the levy of taxes.

What other limitations are placed on the exercise of the powers of initiative and referendum?

The courts in Washington have imposed two tests to determine if a specific ordinance is subject to the powers of initiative and referendum. The first test is whether the underlying action is administrative or legislative. Only legislative actions are subject to initiative and referendum; administrative actions are not. The second test is to determine if the power is one that has been granted to the City Council or whether that power has been granted to the corporate entity (voters) as a whole. If it is a power that has been granted to the City Council specifically, then it is not subject to initiative and referendum.

What is an administrative action and what is a legislative action for purposes of determining if an action is subject to initiative and referendum?

The courts have established two tests to determine this. Actions relating to subjects of a permanent and general character are usually regarded as legislative in nature, and actions relating to subjects of a temporary and special character are usually regarded as administrative in nature. Secondly, the power to be exercised is legislative in nature if it prescribes a new policy or plan, while it is administrative in nature if it merely pursues a policy or plan already adopted by the City Council.

Is a rezone ordinance subject to the referendum process in the City of Olympia?

No. This specific issue was the subject of a court case, Leornard v. Bothell, 87 Wn.2d 847 (1976). Although the court considered a site-specific rezone to be an administrative action, it held that the authority to adopt and modify the zoning code in a code city had been given by the state legislature to the City Council and so a site-specific rezone is not subject to the power of referendum.

Best,
Thad