Rezoning issue headed to voters

The City Council’s decision to allow for 7.61 acres north of Mike’s Pike to be rezoned has been successfully challenged allowing voters to have the final word.

City Clerk Suzy Wetzel said she received confirmation from the County Recorder’s Office last week that there were enough valid signatures on the petition to send ordinance 964 to a public vote.

Based on the approved election dates set by the state, the next available special election dates are September 13 and November 15. Wetzel said the exact date has not been set yet because there are a few issues she needs to bring to the Council’s attention.

Wetzel planned to propose that the Council ask the Navajo County Elections Department to operate the special election and do so through an all-mail ballot.

Wetzel said she was waiting to hear from the county about the cost of mailing ballots to the more than 4,700 registered voters in Winslow as of Friday, but she expects it could be about double the cost of running a polling site, which she said is about $6,500.

In March, Wetzel said the all-mail ballot would help curb miscounts and problems associated with Proposition 200’s identification requirements. She also said other cities that used all-mail ballots received higher voter turnout.

With the election moving forward, two lawsuits against the City of Winslow and Wetzel for denying two of three referendum petitions should be withdrawn. Two weeks ago, John Moshier, attorney for Maria Gamez, who filed the petitions, said he reached a tentative agreement with City Attorney Dale Patton to drop the lawsuits if at least one of the three petitions made it to a ballot.

On Monday, Gamez said she will not drop the suits until all parties agree to let the referendum move forward.

“Until Wal-Mart agrees we will not drop them becasue we want to make sure everyone’s on the same page,” she said.

The acreage in question is currently zoned for Manufactured Housing/Multi-family use. Leonard Graham purchased the land in 1981 with the intent of building a manufactured home subdivision on the property.

At that time, the only business north of the freeway was a service station. Now, Graham said there is too much traffic and noise to make the area appealing for residential use especially with the a truck stop adjacent to the property.

Graham received approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission to rezone the land for commercial use in December 2004 and the Council approved the rezoning on Feb. 22 with ordinance 964.

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