Opponents to the Walmart proposed for the Arvada Plaza have until 5 p.m. Aug. 22 to turn in petitions to force a citywide vote in November on the project’s public incentives.
Stop Arvada Walmart has been collecting signatures since late July in hopes of stopping Ordinance 4369, which authorizes $5.8 million in public money for Industrial Realty Group, the owner and developer of the Arvada Plaza.
The Arvada City Council approved the redevelopment incentives and Walmart-anchored plan July 16 following a marathon public hearing in which opponents greatly outnumbered supporters.
Rob Hoge, spokesman for Stop Arvada Walmart, declined to comment Aug. 19 on the status of the petition effort.
To trigger a referendum, SAW must collect at least 7,243 signatures from registered Arvada voters.
City spokeswoman Wendy Forbes said if opponents are able to meet the deadline, it will be up to the city clerk’s office to go through each petition page, signature by signature, to determine their validity.
“It’s going to take about a week to 10 days to verify all the signatures,” Forbes said. “We won’t know immediately whether they have enough signatures.”
If the petition is found to be valid, the city council must meet and first reconsider the ordinance, Forbes said. If the council elects not to repeal its previous approval, a citywide vote will be set to coincide with the Nov. 5 municipal election.
As approved, plans call for the demolition of the Arvada Plaza shopping center to make way for a 138,000-square-foot Walmart store and 26,000 square feet in additional commercial space at the southeast corner of Ralston Road and Independence Street.
The public incentives for IRG come in the form of a 3-percent public improvement fee assessed on purchases at the new retailers, as well as across the street at the Independence Center, a small commercial area already owned by the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority on the northeast corner of Ralston and Independence.
The PIF would be charged in lieu of the city’s 3-percent sales tax, with IRG and AURA splitting the revenue for up to 12 years. IRG’s share would go to defray the cost of $9.1 million in public infrastructure improvements related to the redevelopment.
Opponents had just 30 days to gather the required signatures after filing referendum paperwork with the city clerk July 22.
The group’s Facebook page, Stop Arvada Walmart is active but has offered little indication as to the overall progress of the drive.
On Aug. 15, a week before the deadline, a post written by Hoge sought 70 people to commit to obtaining two full petition sections, or 56 signatures.
That’s a total of 3,920 signatures.
Emilie Rusch: 303-954-2457, erusch@denverpost.com or
