Upon receiving a petition signed by persons who are both freeholders and electors in the county, equal in number to at least 15 per cent of the vote cast for the office of Governor at the last preceding election at which a Governor was elected, proposing that the matter of the improvement, development, protection and maintenance of one or more such harbors, naming them, be submitted to the electors of the county, the board of supervisors may appoint a harbor commission for the county in accordance with the provisions of Article 1 of this chapter, which provisions are incorporated herein to the extent that they are not inconsistent herewith.