Petitions to Amend Traverse City Building Height Charter Rejected

Petitions asking for voters to amend a Traverse City charter that requires the vote of an electorate before the City approves a building taller than 60 feet or more have been rejected.

The petitions, which were turned in on July 1, were required to have 658 valid signatures. Of the 697 turned in, only 623 were found to be valid, leading to their rejection.

The petitions are additionally being rejected because they “…do not comply with provisions of the Home Rule City Act and Michigan Election Law.”

Specifically, the petitions do not state what body, organization or person who is interested in or responsible for the circulation of the petition and are not addressed to the City Clerk, which is a mandatory requirement, according to Traverse City City Clerk Benjamin Marentette.

“We respect and appreciate the work from the citizenry that has gone into this effort. Regardless of the subject, when any petition is filed with our office, and we must rejected, we respect that it is disappointing to many involved in the effort to ask voters to weigh in on an issue,” says Marentette.