News

By Steve Plunkett

    The City Council pushed a citizen initiative on the Wildflower site on to the Nov. 8 ballot despite impassioned pleas from the petition’s organizers to keep the property green space without waiting to hear from the voters.
    “You have an opportunity tonight … to address the public and say, ‘We’re in favor of the ordinance for this reason: It will allow us to create something really wonderful, something more than just a place of a particular restaurant,’ ” petition leader James Hendrey said.
    The council faced a choice Aug. 9 to either approve an ordinance to keep city-owned land on the Intracoastal only for “public recreation, public boating access, public streets and city stormwater uses” or pass a resolution putting the question on the ballot.
    Former council member Anthony Majhess said he clearly remembered the 2009 goal-setting session where he and his colleagues decided to buy the Wildflower property. “Never once did it come up that we were buying the property with the intention of putting a restaurant there,” he recalled.
    After a little more than an hour of public comments, council members weighed in.
    “I think the people of this community, all the people of this community, have a right to vote on this very important item,” Mayor Susan Haynie said.
    Council member Scott Singer disagreed. “I think we can do better than just a restaurant,” said Singer, who nevertheless joined a 5-0 majority to put the question on the ballot.