Backers of a controversial property-rights initiative today filed petitions bearing 315,000 signatures in support of the measure, almost guaranteeing it will appear on the November ballot.

To qualify, Initiative 933 needs the signatures of 224,880 registered voters by tomorrow. While the Secretary of State's office still must verify the petition signatures, the property-rights measure appears to have a much larger cushion than what's usually needed.

Its success in reaching the ballot isn't a surprise. Initiative campaigns with the resources to employ paid signature-gatherers almost always qualify, and I-933's supporters, led by the Washington Farm Bureau, had enough money to start paying for signatures as soon as the petitions were printed.

The initiative, inspired by a similar measure Oregon voters approved in 2004, would require state and local governments either to compensate property owners when regulations lower property values, or to waive those rules.

It's retroactive: Owners would be entitled to waivers or compensation for restrictions imposed any time after 1995.

The campaigns for and against I-933 are likely to be among the most visible in the state this fall. Total fundraising by both sides already is approaching $1 million.

Farm Bureau spokesman Dean Boyer said I-933 is needed to protect property owners from increasingly intrusive rules that reduce property values. "Government land-use regulations have increased exponentially in the past 10 years," he said. "It's time to tell government to stop."

Opponents say I-933 is a "developer's initiative" that would gut zoning and other regulations that protect communities and the environment, imposing new bureaucratic burdens on local governments and fiscal burdens on taxpayers.

"It will remove a lot of the protections that people take for granted," said Barbara Seitle, president of the League of Women Voters of Washington.

The pro-933 Property Fairness Coalition consists mostly of farm and local property-rights groups. The most recent reports filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission indicate it has raised more than $500,000 in cash and in-kind contributions, and spent $352,000.

Americans for Limited Government, a national organization based in Chicago, has given $200,000. The group, whose leaders are associated with the term-limits movement and other conservative causes, is backing property-rights and spending-cap measures in a dozen states this year.

The state Farm Bureau has donated the equivalent of $151,000 in staff time, office support and other in-kind contributions, and has loaned the campaign another $69,000.

The lion's share of the pro-933 campaign spending — $240,000 through the end of May — has gone to Citizen Solutions, a Lacey paid-signature-gathering firm.

The opposition group, Citizens for Community Protection, is dominated by environmental, labor and Democratic organizations. It had raised $388,000 through the end of May and spent $184,000.

Its largest contributors included the anti-sprawl group FutureWise, $96,000; retired software entrepreneur Paul Brainerd, $50,000; The Nature Conservancy, $41,000; and the United Food and Commercial Workers District Council 17, $25,000.

It's been 11 years since Washington voters considered a property-rights proposal. In 1995 a Republican-dominated Legislature approved a law similar to I-933, but opponents collected enough signatures to put referendum on the ballot and voters repealed the law that November by a 60-to-40 ratio.

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com

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