The Neighborhood Integrity Initiative hasn’t yet qualified for the March 2017 ballot in Los Angeles and it’s already having a chilling effect on development.

The proposal, now in the signature-gathering stage, is backed by the Coalition to Preserve L.A. and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which have appropriated the campaign season rhetoric of “rigged” systems as they appeal to a nativist strain that wants to freeze a dynamic, growing Los Angeles where it is.

The initiative would, in the words of its backers, “institute a protective 2-year timeout that stops the Los Angeles City Council from its current practice of spot zoning,” a practice they claim bends rules to allow “mega-projects and inappropriate development that destroys neighborhood character and displaces longtime residents and businesses.”

But the details – an exemption is carved out for 100 percent affordable housing – are unrealistic, the limits onerous. Zoning variances are a necessity for a city developing in as exciting a way as is Los Angeles. From the conversion of industrial buildings downtown to ground-up high-rises in Hollywood (particularly vexing to AHF, as one would obstruct its pristine view of the hills), much of what is dynamic in the area would not be happening if we were limited to by-right development.

That alternative is unimaginative and not particularly appealing.

In our quarterly real estate report this week, reporter Daina Solomon finds that fear of the measure has developers in Los Angeles either rushing to jam through entitlements or foregoing development in the city until after the status of the initiative is clarified. Neither is healthy for the city.

What’s more, despite the rhetoric from supporters, the freeze would affect sorely needed affordable housing just as much as it would projects designed to accommodate expanding businesses and, yes, luxury high-rises.

Reckless planning is bad, but the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative won’t address that problem and may in the meantime do harm.