Mayor Christina Shea Moves to Counter Petition-Led Initiative Seeking to Preserve Veterans Cemetery At ARDA Site

City Council Meeting – Tuesday, May 12, 2020, 4:00PM
Agenda
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Staff Report for Item 5.2

Mayor Christina Shea’s competing initiative aims to subvert the wishes of 14,531 residents who signed the citizen-led Veterans Cemetery Initiative Petition (“Initiative”) Tuesday night, that would place the cemetery at the ARDA site. The Initiative obtained more than the requisite number of signatures which were verified by the Registrar.

Here are the details of the ARDA Initiative from the staff report:

The City Council Has 3 Options on How To Proceed:

  1. Adopt the Initiative ordinance as is.
  2. Submit the Initiative, without alteration, to the voters at the November 3, 2020 General Municipal Election. If the City Council recommends this action, the cost to add this ballot measure to the November 3, 2020 General Municipal Election would be $8,500.
  3. Request a staff report on the effect the zoning change would have on municipal operations. The staff report would have to be submitted to the City Council no later than the June 9, 2020 City Council meeting for further action and review.

In addition, under Mayor Christina Shea’s direction, there will be a discussion that the City-Council sponsor a competing initiative on the November 3, 2020 ballot. Per the memo below from Mayor Shea, “I therefore request that the May 12, 2020 agenda include an item requesting the preparation of a City-Council sponsored initiative measure to confirm the Golf Course Site as the location for the Veterans Cemetery and to confirm that only small scale retail, park and open space uses will occur on the ARDA site.”

 

A City-Council sponsored initiative does not require 12,888 signatures. It simply requires 3 votes from the Council.