"Save the Garden' sues City of Clearwater

News tonight at 10, the battle over a street in downtown Clearwater is headed to court tonight. A grassroots group is suing the city. This comes after council members voted against a petition which would have let residents vote on whether or not to hand over South Garden Avenue to the Church of Scientology. Our Fox 13's Blake Devine has been following this one for a while now, joins us live in downtown Clearwater. So Blake, why is the group taking legal action now? Allie, this fight has been going on for many months at this point in time. Save the Garden is running out of options, which is why they have sued the City of Clearwater. Now back in June, Clearwater City Council voted three to two deciding to hand over a 470 foot stretch of South Garden Ave to the Church of Scientology since then. Save the Garden collected over 10,000 signatures from residents opposed to that kind of contract. controversial decision. In October, more than 7,500 signatures were verified by the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections. That's enough to call for a special election which would let residents vote on the street's future. However, during a heated city council meeting late last week, local leaders once again voted 3-2 against moving forward with the petition citing state law. This week, Save the Garden filed that lawsuit against the city. Tonight, we talked to Brooks Gibbs. He's the leader of Save the Garden, he says their fight is less about Scientology and more about protecting public streets. All of our efforts is not for the hatred of Scientologists or Scientology. It is truly for the love of Clearwater. We want to keep the streets open for the public. Meanwhile, construction already underway along South Garden Ave as L. Ron Hubbard Hall begins to take shape. It's a massive $250 million project which will feature an auditorium. Plaza and broadcast venue for the Church of Scientology and following last week's Clearwater City Council vote, the church released a statement which read in part, quote, the Church of Scientology welcomes the city council's decision to reject the Save the Garden petition as unlawful. It went on to say the law has prevailed. L. Ron Hubbard Hall is officially moving forward. Meanwhile, time ticking for Save the Garden. They hope for a quick court ruling so that they can put up a special election on this street handover by mid-March. Allie. All right, Blake. Is there a deadline for that special election? Yes, so because of the current city charter, they have within 150 days of when that petition was officially certified. So again, they are hoping to get this legal proceeding going so that they can put this up for a ballot for Clearwater voters to ultimately decide on what to do with this stretch of street behind me. Okay, Blake Divine live for us in Clearwater. Blake, thank you.