As readers know, the Disney Corporation is behind a referendum to repeal the general plan amendment approved by a 3-2 Anaheim City Council vote on April 24 to allow residential development on a 26-acre parcel on the periphery of the Anaheim Resort District, that's optioned by SunCal Companies. [Full disclosure: I'm a member of the consulting team for the SunCal project.]

In order to qualify the referendum, Disney needs a little more than 13,000 valid signatures from Anaheim voters, and they must be collected and turned in within 30 days of the council ordinance being put to referendum.

This signature-gathering process is different than circulating statewide ballot initiatives, or even the ballot-box zoning initiative Disney was collecting signatures for last month. In those cases, the petition is the initiative title and summary, with spaces below for giving one's signature.

Signature gatherers for Disney's referendum have a heavier task -- literally. Each circulator must be a registered Anaheim voter, or else have a registered Anaheim voter along with them as a witness. Because they're asking voters to put a specific ordinance to a referendum, each circulator must have the actual ordinance along with the referendum petition -- and in this case, the ordinance is a thick book, which presents its own set of problems.

For example, the Disney forces are planning a signature gathering walk this weekend. Hundreds were invited via e-mail. If they have a good turn-out of registered Anaheim voters, Disney has to equip each one with the thick book-size ordinance, and the circulators have to convince enough voters to sign a petition to put the thick book-size ordinance they haven't read to a referendum.

It's obviously not impossible for a huge corporation with Disney's resources to obtain the necessary 13,000 signatures. The trick is finding enough registered Anaheim voters to gather the signatures under more rigorous-than-ordinary circumstances.

10-days have already elapsed since the April 24 council vote, and I have yet to see a Disney circulator at an Anaheim shopping center. Apparently, they've have been out sporadically, but it's a stark contrast to their omnipresence when gathering signatures for Disney's mini-Greenlight initiative.