Whitehall City Council has approved placing three measures related to tax breaks for a controversial development on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Whitehall citizens who opposed the tax breaks collected enough valid signatures to place a referendum on the measures before voters.
In April the city approved three ordinances creating tax abatements for the Fairway Cliffs development.
The development would be just less than 50 houses off Fairway Boulevard along with a seven-acre community park.
Residents were frustrated with the tax incentives, including a 15-year exemption from property taxes.
City council on Tuesday voted to place the issues on the ballots. On June 17 city council will reconsider the tax breaks.
At Whitehall's May 7 meeting, lawyer Mike Shannon, speaking on behalf of developer JDS Companies, asked the city council to reconsider the ordinances granting the tax breaks.
Reconsidering the ordinances does not impact the referendums. But if city council members accept a new proposal, that could derail the referendum effort.
Holly Stein, who led the referendum effort, wrote city council members and City Attorney Brad Nicodemus, asking them to rescind the reconsideration motions of the tax breaks. She said they violated council's procedural rules.
"This whole action by the council, we don't think this is acceptable," Stein said.
Nicodemus told WOSU that he did not attend the May 7 meeting, but said city council suspended its rules so it can reconsider the tax break measures.
"This while thing is a novel thing. There's not a lot of case law on it," he said.
