Clearwater Voters Force Garden Avenue Back Before City Council Thursday

By David Happe | Editor, Tidings Media

CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Clearwater City Council takes up the Save the Garden referendum petition Thursday night, about five months after it voted 3-2 to give a block of South Garden Avenue to the Church of Scientology. Save the Garden says that once a petition is certified, the city charter gives the Council two options, either repeal the ordinance or put it to voters in a special election.[1] A third option has been discussed at City Hall since September. The Council could find that state law bars the petition, leave the ordinance in place and keep the question off the ballot.

The Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections checked the 10,812 signatures the group turned in and found 7,577 from registered Clearwater voters.[2] The charter required 7,067, which is 10 percent of the city's registered voters at the last regular election.[2] The county did the count because Save the Garden asked for it, and the Council approved that request unanimously in September.[3] The group had reason to ask. Its first petition, which would have required voter approval before the city gave away downtown streets, was thrown out after the city clerk ruled more than half its signatures invalid, and the Council upheld her finding in May.[4]

The petition is agenda item 6.14 at Thursday's meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 200 S. Myrtle Ave. Save the Garden is asking people who signed to attend.  As they have in the past, Scientology is likely to flood the meeting with it's own members to try and crowd out opposition and create the impression of community support for it's own initiatives.  

The ordinance and the proposed repeal

Ordinance 9907-26 vacates the roughly 470-foot block of South Garden Avenue between Court and Franklin streets. The Church plans to use it for an entry plaza connecting its buildings on either side and for its long-planned L. Ron Hubbard Hall.[5] City staff records list 0.65 acres of right-of-way, with 22 paid public parking spaces, stormwater lines including a 48-inch gravity-fed pipe, sanitary sewer and other utility interests under the street.[6] The city once discussed charging about $1.4 million for the land. It dropped the price after Attorney General James Uthmeier, answering a request from Council member David Allbritton, wrote that the Church most likely owns the land beneath the road.[5] Uthmeier had earlier sent the city an unsolicited letter warning it against religious discrimination.[7]

The City Attorney's office has drafted a repeal, Ordinance 9942-26, and posted it with the meeting materials.[8] Save the Garden says the draft states the street was never vacated and that the City keeps its rights to it. If the Council does not adopt the repeal, the charter sends the ordinance to voters, according to the City.[9]

The Church's argument

The Church calls the petition unlawful. Spokesperson Sarah Heller has said the vacation was lawfully approved and recorded, that construction has started, and that "a petition cannot override Florida law."[10] Council member Ryan Cotton, who voted for the vacation, has said public safety was his reason.[11]

The Church's legal case rests on Section 163.3167(8)(a) of Florida's Community Planning Act, which prohibits initiative and referendum proceedings on development orders.[12] In the Church's view, the street vacation is tied to its approved development, so a referendum on the ordinance amounts to a referendum on a development order. Heller wrote after the petition was filed that no number of signatures could fix that problem.[13]

A third option for the Council

City Attorney Owen Kohler raised the same statute with the Council in September and said the petition could violate it.[3] Three Council members then backed asking Uthmeier for an advisory opinion.[14] In October, Kohler said the city's outside counsel believed both Save the Garden petitions could conflict with the law.[2] As of Oct. 20 the city had not heard back from the Attorney General, and any opinion he issues would be advisory.[2][14]

That gives the Council room to reject both of the choices Save the Garden has described. A majority could vote Thursday that the petition is legally insufficient and take no further action on the ordinance. The Council could also ask a court to decide. Kohler told members in September the city could file for a declaratory judgment, asking a judge to rule on whether the petition violates state law.[3] He also said Save the Garden could sue the city, and that the Church could take legal action against the city and the group.[3]

Save the Garden campaign director Brooks Gibbs says the charter does not allow for that.[1] He has said he expects the Church to sue whichever way the Council votes.[15] Mark Bunker, a Council candidate and longtime critic of the Church, wrote in October that he expected the city to look for a way to dismiss the petition.[16] More information on the petition is available at SaveTheGarden.org.

Tidings Media's position

Tidings Media urges the Clearwater City Council to send the Garden Avenue ordinance to the voters. The county elections office confirmed that 7,577 registered Clearwater voters signed the petition, more than the charter requires, and they followed the process the charter lays out. The state-law question deserves an answer from a court, and a court will likely hear it no matter what the Council decides Thursday. If the Council declares the petition void on its own, it will have given away a public street on a 3-2 vote and then ruled that residents have no say in the matter. Repealing the ordinance would end the fight for now, though the Church could come back and ask for the street again, as it did after withdrawing its first request in 2025. A special election would let Clearwater residents decide whether to give up this block of Garden Avenue, and the Council should leave that decision to them.

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Footnotes

[1] Tony Ortega, The Underground Bunker, "Scientology official spells out the church's expectations that Save the Garden will fail," Oct. 22, 2026.

[2] Tampa Bay Times, "Clearwater council to discuss Save the Garden petition," Oct. 20, 2026.

[3] WFLA, "Clearwater council discusses referendum petition over South Garden Avenue," Sept. 18, 2026.

[4] Tampa Bay Times, "ACLU sues Clearwater over Garden Avenue petition," May 22, 2026.

[5] FOX 13, "Clearwater group submits 9,000+ signatures seeking to overturn Scientology's Garden Avenue deal," September 2026.

[6] City of Clearwater, Legistar File 9812-25, staff agenda item for South Garden Avenue right-of-way vacation.

[7] Axios Tampa Bay, "What to know about Clearwater's fight over Scientology land deal," Aug. 3, 2026.

[8] City of Clearwater, draft Ordinance 9942-26, Legistar: https://clearwater.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=16100128&GUID=8E4CC7DD…

[9] City of Clearwater, statement to Tampa Bay 28, July 2026.

[10] Tampa Bay 28, "S. Garden Ave. vacation decision set to head back to Clearwater City Council for discussion," October 2026.

[11] Tampa Bay 28, "Clearwater group surpasses signature threshold to challenge City Council's South Garden Avenue decision," September 2026.

[12] Florida Statutes, Section 163.3167(8)(a).

[13] Tampa Bay Times, "Clearwater's Save the Garden group submits second petition to city," Sept. 16, 2026.

[14] Tampa Bay Times, "Clearwater seeking AG opinion on resident Garden Avenue petition," Sept. 18, 2026.

[15] Tony Ortega, The Underground Bunker, "Litigation looms as the people of Clearwater fight back against Scientology's street takeover," September 2026.

[16] Tony Ortega, The Underground Bunker, "Mark Bunker on the Save the Garden victory and Scientology's next move in Clearwater," October 2026.