Citizens Oak Ridge
Media Coverage - The Oak RidgerCrestpointe petitioners deliver 'final' tally of 3,632By: John Huotari | john.huotari@oakridger.com The final tally of Crestpointe petition signatures: 3,632. That's according to members of Citizens Oak Ridge, the group leading the petition drive which could force a special election on whether the city should borrow money related to the construction of a proposed $65 million retail center on Pine Ridge. Late Tuesday afternoon, Citizens Oak Ridge members turned in the second installment of petition sheets which included, they said, 460 new signatures. On Monday, they had turned in the first installment, which included 3,172 signatures, said Bill Schramm, Citizens Oak Ridge president. They collected almost twice as many signatures as they needed. The group is seeking a possible June 5 referendum on whether the city should borrow up to $6 million in general obligation bonds to help cover Crestpointe site-preparation and infrastructure costs. They needed 1,953 signatures of registered Oak Ridge voters in order to call the election, so the referendum appears likely. However, some petition signatures could be declared ineligible. Oak Ridge City Clerk Jackie Bernard said she plans to deliver the petition signatures to the Anderson County Election Commission today. The election commission will have 15 days to certify them. Though some have suggested a speedy election be held, Jo Ann Garrett, Anderson County Election Commission administrator, said her preference is to hold the referendum along with the June 5 Oak Ridge municipal election. There are several timelines that need to be met and steps that need to be taken in order to call the election. Should it occur separately, the cost of a referendum election would be about $16,000, Garrett said. "I don't feel any pressure to speed it up," she told The Oak Ridger on Tuesday. The timeline is an issue because Crestpointe's proposed developer, GBT Realty Corp., of Brentwood, has said it has an April deadline to close a deal with SuperTarget, the project's proposed anchor. At a Citizens Oak Ridge open house on Monday, a few volunteers and attendees briefly debated whether they should ask for a referendum election as quickly as possible — possibly before the developer's April deadline. There was a suggestion that Citizens Oak Ridge might be blamed for "killing the project." "We, as a group, are not here to kill the project," said Raj Jain, one of the group's volunteers and a prominent Crestpointe skeptic. But others said they were not interested in "saving the project" or calling for a speedy election. They said a lack of time to evaluate project information and other development proposals was part of the problem. "If you do it real quick," said petition volunteer Tim Holt, referring to the election, "you're not going to change that." The Oak Ridger attempted to contact a GBT executive to find out if the company still plans to develop Crestpointe, given the likelihood of a referendum. But Craig Cole, GBT's vice president of development services, did not return a phone call seeking comment. John Huotari can be contacted at (865) 220-5533. |
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