Pursuant to Council-Manager Charter Article VIII Sec. 3 Petition for enactment of ordinance, a citizens petition entitled Petition for Enactment of Cape Elizabeth Residential Pesticide Use Ordinance was filed with the Town Clerk on February 10, 2023. On February 13, 2023, the Town Council scheduled a Special Meeting to hold a public hearing, in accordance with the Charter, for March 1.  On February 28, the certification of signatures was completed by the Town Clerk with a sufficient number of signatures to move to public hearing. Within 30 days after the public hearing the council must schedule the referendum vote, unless prior to the referendum vote, such ordinance shall be enacted by the council. Scheduling the election date is at the discretion of the council.

On March 13 the Town Council voted 6-0 to send the Citizen Petition to a November 7, 2023 referendum.  In addition, the council voted 6-0 in favor of sending the citizen petition to the Ordinance Committee.  Chair Jeremy Gabrielson stated, "My hope is that the Ordinance Committee could look at two sets of revisions.  The first would be minor revisions to the ordinance, such as adding definitions.  The second would be to include other consensus recommendations by the Ordinance Committee on how to make this ordinance a better fit for the community [and including] applying the ordinance to municipal and residential properties."