A citizen-led petition drive is closing in on the signatures needed to force Clearwater City Hall to reconsider a decision that handed over a public street to the Church of Scientology, with organizers arguing residents were cut out of a call that should have been theirs to make.
The Clearwater City Council voted 3-2 on June 18 to vacate a section of South Garden Avenue, transferring the roadway to the Church as part of its $250 million L. Ron Hubbard Hall project. The Church’s Flag Service Organization says the block sits landlocked inside roughly fifteen acres it already owns and was never a functioning thoroughfare. Legal director Sarah Heller told FOX 13 the transfer followed “an extensive public process,” and that ground has already broken on the new 286,000-square-foot hall, complete with an auditorium and public plaza.
But a narrow council margin and a done deal haven’t settled the matter for the group calling itself Save the Garden. Campaign manager Brooks Gibbs said volunteers mobilized the moment the vote went through. “When they gave the street away, we immediately went to work,” he said, describing a grassroots effort that has since expanded to paid canvassers going door to door.
The group needs more than 7,000 valid signatures by September 16 to force the council to revisit its own decision — and, if members refuse to reverse course, to send the question directly to Clearwater voters in a special election. It’s a mechanism built precisely for moments like this: when residents believe elected officials got it wrong and shouldn’t get the last word.
“It’s the citizens saying, you guys made a really bad decision,” Gibbs said. “We can’t trust you with this particular issue. So, we’ll bypass you and then ask the public to make the decision.”
Organizers say the pushback isn’t about religion but about who gets to decide what happens to public property. Volunteer Kelly Myer, staffing a petition booth near early voting sites this week, framed it as a test of whether residents still have a voice once a vote is cast. “This is about what thousands of people in Clearwater want, and we don’t want to let them down,” she said.
Save the Garden has collected more than 3,500 signatures so far — roughly halfway to its goal with about five weeks left on the clock.
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