Portland plaza sale hinges on June ballot
Portland’s sale of Congress Square Plaza to an Ohio-based developer is up in the air after the Maine Supreme Judicial Court dismissed the city's appeal to block a citywide referendum on the matter.
The Portland Press Herald reported Portland voters will decide the future of Congress Square Plaza and more stringent rules for selling other public parks in a June 10 referendum. The referendum is being sought by the Friends of Congress Square Park, which has opposed the city's proposed sale of a two-thirds portion of the place to Rockbridge Capital for construction of single-story event center there.
The Friends of Congress Square submitted more than 4,000 signatures for the citywide referendum after the Portland City Council voted 6-3 last September to sell the parcel to Rockbridge. The city fought the referendum and lost its appeal efforts in Maine Superior Court and then in Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
The city argued the referendum would set a dangerous precedent by allowing citizens to weigh in on day-to-day operations of the city. But Justice Ellen Gorman in Supreme Judicial Court disagreed in her Tuesday ruling: “Here, nothing within the amendments proposed by [the] Friends would seriously impede the day-to-day operations of the city,” she wrote.
The proposal by Friends of Congress Square would give protected status to Congress Square Plaza and 34 properties under the city's Land Bank. It would require votes from eight of nine Portland City Councilors to sell any of the newly protected properties. If a smaller majority of councilors supported a sale, it would have to go to a citywide referendum for final approval.
The Portland City Council enacted a similar policy last month that excludes the proposed plaza sale. It would require seven of nine votes to sell a city property, but would not trigger a citywide referendum if a smaller majority of city councilors supported the measure.
If the citywide referendum is approved in June, city attorney Danielle West-Chuhta said a legal analysis would be done on the how the two new ordinances would interact with each other, meaning voters will not know the answer to that question until after they vote. “We have not finalized our review of that issue, and as I have repeatedly indicated we will be doing this after the election,” she said in an email to PPH.
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments