East Grand Rapids residents organized a ballot question committee called Gaslight Village Responsible Development and submitted 1,482 signatures for a referendum seeking to allow a public vote on the controversial Gaslight Village development plan after city officials rejected their initial protest petition.
The committee was formed on October 9, following city leaders’ approval of the concept plan for the planned unit development in Gaslight Village on October 6. Residents had also submitted a protest petition on October 6, but the city’s attorney determined the decision was not subject to a protest petition because the process was administrative, not legislative.
“It was a real kick in the stomach, because I knew that the only choice we had was to go through what we went through and spend 30 days of a lot of walking, a lot of scrambling,” said David Decker, an East Grand Rapids resident involved with the committee…