diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/commands/utility_hook.c b/src/backend/distributed/commands/utility_hook.c
index 10faf3db8..976f24cb7 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/commands/utility_hook.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/commands/utility_hook.c
@@ -684,16 +684,27 @@ ExecuteDistributedDDLJob(DDLJob *ddlJob)
 
 	EnsureCoordinator();
 
-	if (ddlJob->targetRelationId != InvalidOid)
+	Oid targetRelationId = ddlJob->targetRelationId;
+
+	if (OidIsValid(targetRelationId))
 	{
 		/*
-		 * Only for ddlJobs that are targetting a relation (table) we want to sync its
-		 * metadata and verify some properties around the table.
+		 * Only for ddlJobs that are targetting a relation (table) we want to sync
+		 * its metadata and verify some properties around the table.
 		 */
-		shouldSyncMetadata = ShouldSyncTableMetadata(ddlJob->targetRelationId);
-		EnsurePartitionTableNotReplicated(ddlJob->targetRelationId);
+		shouldSyncMetadata = ShouldSyncTableMetadata(targetRelationId);
+		EnsurePartitionTableNotReplicated(targetRelationId);
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * If it is a local placement of a distributed table or a reference table,
+	 * then execute the DDL command locally.
+	 * Here we set localExecutionSupported to true regardless of whether the
+	 * DDL command is run for/on a distributed table as
+	 * ExecuteUtilityTaskListWithoutResults would already identify those
+	 * DDL tasks not accessing any of the local placements.
+	 */
+	bool localExecutionSupported = true;
 
 	if (!ddlJob->concurrentIndexCmd)
 	{
@@ -715,9 +726,6 @@ ExecuteDistributedDDLJob(DDLJob *ddlJob)
 			SendCommandToWorkersWithMetadata((char *) ddlJob->commandString);
 		}
 
-		/* local execution is not implemented for this code path */
-		bool tryLocalExecution = false;
-
 		ExecuteUtilityTaskListWithoutResults(ddlJob->taskList, localExecutionSupported);
 	}
 	else
@@ -729,9 +737,6 @@ ExecuteDistributedDDLJob(DDLJob *ddlJob)
 
 		PG_TRY();
 		{
-			/* local execution is not implemented for this code path */
-			bool tryLocalExecution = false;
-
 			ExecuteUtilityTaskListWithoutResults(ddlJob->taskList,
 												 localExecutionSupported);