UPDATE: AZ Supreme Court Will Decide Whether Referendum On A $1.8B Tempe Town Lake Development Will Be On Ballot (READ Decision)

The Arizona Supreme Court will hear Tempe's appeal to keep a referendum on the proposed $1.8 billion South Pier project from going to a future ballot. The decision (below) was made public last night.

Both Tempe and the group which collected the petition signatures, "Workers for Responsible Development", had asked the Supreme Court to reconsider different aspects of last month's Court of Appeals decision. The intermediate court had decided it should go to the ballot.

The Justices are treating this as an expedited elections case, and all briefing will be completed before April 3. The case will then be set for oral argument.

Tempe claims that the referendum petitions should not be accepted because the form reversed the order of the small print above the signatures, and because the city's decision to move the deal forward was "administrative" and not subject to referendum rules

The Justices indicated that they will consider both issues, plus whether the referendum statute's requiring them to use strict scrutiny in these cases is constitutional.

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