Supporters of Save the Yard, a group of citizens trying to turn the Beede Lumber Yard into a town square, are vowing to start a new petition and place the initiative on a future ballot.
The move comes after the advocates collected more than 5,100 signatures, more than 700 more required, but did not potentially qualify for the November ballot because a number of the signatures collected were deemed insufficient.
In response, the Save the Yard supporters blasted city clerk Arne Simonsen in a letter released last week saying he intentionally tried to keep the initiative off the November Ballot while providing proponents with the wrong information–he also refused to accept nearly 50 voter registration affidavits.
They have since started an online petition through Change.org which has 346 signatures as of Wednesday morning.
The group says in their letter that the “fight has only just begun” and a new petition will be circulated in the near future. They are seeking a special election if the city council does not change their mind on the Beede Lumber Yard.
The following letter was sent out last week by Save the Yard which was approved by Joy Motts:
A group of Antioch residents are seriously testing the adage that “you can’t fight city hall.” Ground zero is the historical Beede Lumberyard site, a 1.25 acre parcel situated between “D” Street and West 3 rd Street, in old downtown Antioch (sometimes called “Rivertown”).
Overlooking the San Joaquin River, this currently vacant Rivertown parcel was utilized as a lumberyard for decades.
Since the early 1990’s, citizens have advanced various park-like proposals for this parcel, the most current envisioning a town square suitable for 4 th of July celebrations, car shows, summer concerts in the park, farmer’s markets, holiday de-lites, Rivertown jamborees, movie nights, dog shows, and other community events including farm-to- fork, wine tasting, and multicultural affairs.
In February of 2015, Rivertown residents looked forward to meeting with the new city manager, Steve Duran, to share their vision for this parcel. To their shock and surprise, Mr. Duran having listened for only a short time, responded that this parcel would never be used as a park. He explained that instead, it would be utilized as high density housing, notwithstanding there are already 840 residences within ¼ mile of the Rivertown business center, that the city’s own consulting firm said the proposed residential project was infeasible, and there is precious little space for community events. People in attendance were stunned.
Since that meeting, interested citizens have attempted to meet with city officials to explore options, to no avail. When these overtures fell on ‘deaf ears’ and Antioch City officials began meeting with City Ventures (a development group) to discuss construction of high density housing, the “Save Our Yard” movement was borne. This movement eventually spawned the
Town Square Initiative which is a proposed ballot measure intended to allow the citizens of Antioch to determine how this site will be used. However, the Town Square Initiative has met with unprecedented opposition by city officials.
In fact, Antioch city clerk and elections official Arne Simonsen, a vocal critic of the Town Square Initiative, has created one obstacle after another in his apparent attempt to keep this initiative off of the ballot. First, he rejected the petition itself because the language of the city attorney’s summary was modified at the proponents’ request, even though the city attorney had agreed to the modifications. Second, he gave the proponents the wrong information concerning when the initiative had to be turned in. Third, he refused to accept forty or fifty voter registration affidavits from initiative proponents on behalf of people who had signed their petition, effectively nullifying these otherwise valid signatures.
Even though this initiative appears to have been kept off the November ballot, proponents say “The fight has only just begun!” A new petition will be circulated shortly; a special election will be sought; and in the meantime, proponents will be tracking the legality of each step the city takes. In short, the verdict may be out concerning whether one can really fight city hall, but in this case, every effort is being made to do exactly that.
For more information, go to: savetheyard.com.
