Clearwater group wants voter approval for public road sales

CLEARWATER, Fla.  — A community coalition with the goal of stopping the Church of Scientology from purchasing public roadways says they’re reaching a critical deadline.

The group Save the Garden has been working to collect signatures for a ballot initiative that would keep the City of Clearwater from vacating a public street without putting it to voters through a referendum.

“The Save the Garden initiative will put something on the ballot that would say voter approval is required for the vacation of downtown right of ways,” explained Brooks Gibbs, one of the group’s leaders. “That means if anybody wants to buy a street or takeover a street… the people have to decide at the ballot box.”

This started after the Church of Scientology submitted an application to the city earlier this year to buy part of South Garden Avenue. The stretch of road is located directly in ront of the church’s flagship building. Plans include making the road into a walkable space with a large park and performance hall.

Save the Garden has been canvassing door-to-door with a group of 90 volunteers as well as collecting signatures outside of St. Petersburg College Library’s Clearwater Location. To date, the group has collected roughly 5,000 signatures.

Gibbs says in order to make it on the next ballot, 7,100 valid signatures need to be collected by the end of day on Tuesday. That would equal the necessary 10% of registered voters needed for the initiative to make the March 11 ballot.

Joelle Castelli, spokesperson for the City of Clearwater, says as of Tuesday there is nothing scheduled to be on the March 2026 ballot.

If there is no March election or the group doesn’t gather the necessary signatures needed by end of day Tuesday, they will aim for the following election.

“I think it’s important for the Church of Scientology – which is a welcome member of our community – to know that they’re not the only member of our community,” Gibbs said. “If they try to have an imbalanced domination of our land… they’re going to see resistance from the people.”

In May, Sarah Heller with the Church of Scientology made a rare appearance at a City of Clearwater workshop when the vacation of South Garden Avenue was discussed.

When pressed by council members, she stated that the church was looking to buy the roadway and couldn’t move forward with plans without it.

“It is a large single project, and you would not have a road go through the middle of it,” Heller said. “Just with the amount of people going in and out of the hall, it wouldn’t be safe.”

Shortly after the May meeting, the Church of Scientology pulled their application. They plan to resubmit.

Castelli says as of Monday afternoon, the city is not aware of any new application submissions regarding South Garden Avenue.