Clearwater Council Reconsiders Garden Avenue Closure for Scientology Hall After Residents' Petition Forces a New Vote

The Clearwater City Council is scheduled to take up a residents' petition Thursday night that forces it to reconsider its June decision to hand a block of South Garden Avenue to the Church of Scientology for a planned L. Ron Hubbard Hall. Under the city charter, the council can either repeal the ordinance or let it go to the city's voters in a special election.

The vote follows a months-long signature drive by the grassroots group Save the Garden, whose petition was certified as sufficient on Oct. 13. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall, 200 S. Myrtle Ave., where the agenda lists "Action by City Council on Referendum Petition 26-01," FOX 13 reported. A legal question hangs over the outcome: the city has asked Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier whether state law allows this kind of ordinance to be challenged by referendum at all, and as of the city's agenda memo, no opinion had arrived.

What the council approved in June

The ordinance conditionally vacates the public right-of-way along one block of South Garden Avenue so the church's Flag Service Organization can connect its properties and build L. Ron Hubbard Hall, an auditorium and plaza next to the former Fort Harrison Hotel, the organization's headquarters. The council approved it 3-2 on first reading in early June and gave it final approval by the same margin on June 18.

The main condition is a deadline: the church must build the hall within six years, or the street reverts to the city. Opponents warned that the public could lose the legal right to drive, walk or travel on the road. Council member Lina Teixeira, who voted no, cited concerns from city engineers about transit access and future stormwater infrastructure. "The privatization of streets within an urban core runs fundamentally counter to the principles," she said, according to WUSF.

The deal changed shape along the way. In March, the council had agreed to vacate the street for $1.375 million, WUSF reported. That price was dropped after Uthmeier weighed in with a view that the church essentially owned the land under the road and did not need to pay a fair market price. Church attorney Robert Potter has said the hall will be open to the public and will "provide a lot of green space to downtown Clearwater." A church spokeswoman told WUSF the road carries about 611 vehicles a day, 68% of them church-related.

The Church of Scientology has kept its international spiritual headquarters in Clearwater for decades, and its Flag Service Organization owns more than 200 downtown properties, according to a church spokeswoman. Garden Avenue was once a hub of Clearwater's Black business community, WUSF noted.

How the petition got here

Save the Garden's first effort did not succeed. That petition sought a charter change limiting the city's ability to give up downtown rights-of-way, but the city clerk ruled it fell short of the required signatures, and the council backed her. The group sued, then withdrew its challenge after a federal judge denied its request for a preliminary injunction, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

The second petition took a narrower route, asking the council to repeal the Garden Avenue ordinance itself. The group turned in about 10,812 signatures in September. On Sept. 17, the council voted unanimously to have the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections, rather than the city clerk, verify them, with the group paying for the review.

Here is how the petition moved forward:

"For the last year we've been warning the City Council that they're coming for our streets," Save the Garden organizer Brooks Gibbs told FOX 13. "It's not just Garden Avenue."

The council's options

The charter gives the council two paths once a referendum petition is certified, according to FOX 13:

• Repeal the Garden Avenue ordinance, which would end the street vacation.
• Decline to repeal it, which under the charter sends the question to a special election to be held within 90 to 150 days.

The unresolved question is whether state law allows a referendum here. At the Sept. 17 meeting, City Attorney Owen Kohler said outside counsel believes the petitions could violate Florida's Community Planning Act, which includes a provision barring referendum petitions against development orders. He said overturning the June vote could interfere with the development agreement tied to the street vacation, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Kohler laid out several ways the dispute could be settled: the church could sue the city and the group, the city could ask a judge for a declaratory judgment, Save the Garden could sue the city, or the council could seek the attorney general's opinion, WFLA reported. Council member Mike Mannino favored the attorney general route. "I find the most comfort with taking this out of our hands, putting it into the attorney general's hands," he said. Teixeira opposed it. "The residents followed the charter. They gathered the signatures. They spoke. Twice," she said.

Kohler has said Uthmeier is not obligated to respond and any opinion would not be binding. The attorney general has already intervened twice in the Garden Avenue matter, once on his own and once at the request of a single council member, according to the Times.

The other street closures: EVO Entertainment Center

The Garden Avenue fight is not the only one. In September, the council voted 3-2 on first reading to vacate Grove Street, portions of Laura Street and a 15-foot alley between them for a proposed $50 million EVO Entertainment Center at Cleveland Street and Myrtle Avenue. Council members David Allbritton, Ryan Cotton and Mike Mannino voted yes; Mayor Bruce Rector and Teixeira voted no. The council later gave final approval in early October, according to Spectrum News.

The 83,000-square-foot complex would include seven movie theaters, bowling, laser tag, dining and an arcade, with roughly 400 surface parking spaces. The request came from Myrtle Development LLC, which WUSF described as tied to the Church of Scientology. EVO Entertainment CEO Mitch Roberts told the council the company "unequivocally" could not have a public street separating its parking lot from the venue, and developers say the closures let families move between parking and the complex without crossing active roads.

Mannino called the vacations an economic development tool. "I don't view this as the City of Clearwater giving away a street," he said. Rector questioned whether permanent closure was needed, arguing a parking garage could work. The EVO ordinance is not part of Thursday's petition action.

Tension over who gets to speak

Recent meetings on the street vacations have drawn large crowds of church members, and residents have complained that Scientology supporters arrive early and fill the chamber. At an October meeting, Clearwater resident Jill Gibbs accused supporters of taking up places in line and limiting opponents' ability to get in and speak, FOX 13 reported. Church spokeswoman Erin Banks disputed that the church directs members to attend. "Are these people we see right now being told by the church that they have to be here? No, that's ridiculous," she said.

Rector said the crowds do not change votes but can crowd out other speakers. "The citizens of the city of Clearwater own that street," he told FOX 13. "It's not anyone's to bargain or negotiate with. It's their street."

What's next

If the council repeals the ordinance Thursday, the Garden Avenue vacation is undone and the block remains a public street. If the council declines to repeal it, the charter calls for a special election within 90 to 150 days, which would put the question before Clearwater voters sometime between early February and early April 2027. Either result could land in court, depending on whether the attorney general or a judge concludes that state law bars a referendum on the ordinance. The Florida Press will update this story after the council acts.