Sign outside of the Portage County Courthouse and Stevens Point's City Hall. Image courtesy: WAOW TV
STEVENS POINT, WI (WSAU) — A petition drive to put the Business 51 redesign project in Stevens Point to a ballot referendum has been submitted to the City Clerk, who is now verifying the signatures.
Mayor Mike Wiza says it’s now up to the city clerk to certify the petition, and if it’s successful the proposal to require a public vote on all public works projects valued at more than $1 million will go before the city council for consideration.
“Council has 60 days to act on it,” said Wiza. “They could say ‘you collected enough signatures, we agree with you, and we are going to make it a law. If the council chooses to deny that, which is what I suspect will happen, then it will go on the next election ballot.”
That election would be the November general election. Petitioners missed the deadline to put the issue on the April 5th spring election ballot.
Wiza says the petition will require just over 1,800 signatures from Stevens Point residents to be successful. Petitioners turned in over 2,500 signatures, but some of those have already been disallowed because they came from residents who live outside the city limits. He expects the Clerk will complete her work on the document by the middle of next week, and if successful he plans to have the item on the February City Council agenda.
If the vote is successful voters in Stevens Point would head to the polls annually on the first Tuesday in November to vote yes or no on any planned street project worth more than $1 million. Wiza says in the last few years, that would have meant between one and three questions each year.
“We approve our Capital budget in October, which has all of those road projects on it. [If this passes the voters] that would have to wait until after the November election,” said Wiza.
He adds it could also put the city in a tight spot with developers, who may be willing to bring a multi-million dollar project to town. But, if that project requires an infrastructure investment of more than $1 million, the city would have to wait before saying yes to the proposal. “From a developers standpoint, that’s a lot of hassle. If it were me, I’d go to the next city over who doesn’t have quite as much red tape.”
RELATED: Referendum for Business 51 Project Shot Down by Stevens Point City Council
The petition drive began after the City Council voted against putting the matter on the April ballot, leading residents to organize the drive. Many, especially those who owned businesses in the area, are unhappy with plans to narrow the street in some areas while also installing a roundabout and shared left-turn lanes. They feel doing so would snarl traffic along the street to the point where drivers would find alternate routes on side streets or cut through parking lots to avoid congestion.
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