Overview
- The council voted 3-2 on Thursday, June 18, to vacate a 0.65-acre stretch of South Garden Avenue between Franklin and Court and clear the way for the church to control the parcel.
- Save The Garden and allied groups filed a lawsuit hours after the vote arguing the city owns the land under the street, so practical control and future use will now be decided by the courts.
- Hundreds of residents weighed in at meetings and opponents collected more than 9,000 signatures while raising specific safety concerns that the closure would reduce access for fire trucks, garbage trucks and buses.
- Church representatives say the parcel will be used to build L. Ron Hubbard Hall, a plaza and event hall they say will provide green, pedestrian-friendly space that is open to the public and usable by other groups.
- The move follows a withdrawn purchase attempt by the church last year and highlights a long-running tension in Clearwater over the religious group's large downtown property holdings and how the city manages transfers of public right-of-way.