By the time this edition of The Record reaches local residents, Jan Gibson - assistant corporate officer in New Westminster's city clerk's office - and her staff will be busy counting the raw number of submitted forms from local residents who want an "alternative approval process" to oppose the city's proposed loan authorization bylaw.
The petition is only for people who oppose the city's borrowing of $59 million to complete the office tower at the proposed civic centre on Columbia Street.
Residents who support the bylaw don't have to do anything to show their support.
The deadline for residents to submit their forms was 4: 30 p.m. Tuesday (after Record deadlines), but Gibson talked to The Record about what the next steps in the process will be.
Gibson said staff will count the number of raw petitions received by 4: 30 p.m. yesterday, Aug. 7, starting on Wednesday morning and come up with an unconfirmed preliminary number.
Staff will then start going through the petitions to check if the forms are properly signed and whether the person signing the petition is an eligible voter in the city.
This is expected to take some time and once complete, Gibson and staff will produce a report to be presented to city council.
The important number is 4,528 or 10 per cent of the estimated number of electors in the city.
If there are sufficient verified petitions to oppose the loan authorization bylaw, the city would have to go to a referendum to get support from taxpayers to borrow the funds.
The verification of the petitions is a particularly important step, as people signing the petition have to be eligible voters in New Westminster.
Gibson said prior to the deadline that she is expecting an influx of petitions to be dropped off at city hall on Tuesday afternoon.
She added that there's no timeframe on when a report has to be presented to council, but staff will work as quickly and efficiently as they can to get a report done as soon as is feasible.
The borrowing of the money became an issue when the Uptown Property Group decided against building an office tower on top of the future civic centre on Columbia Street, and the city decided to proceed with construction of the office development on its own.
The city is proposing to borrow up to $59 million that would be put toward the $94 million project.
The $94-million total budget includes $41.5 million for the civic centre, $12.5 million for the parking structure (to be used by the office tower and the civic facility), and $40 million for the office development.
The city will use $43 million in casino money known as "development assistance compensation" for the project.
The Record had reporter Alfie Lau and photographer Jason Lang at city hall on Tuesday afternoon, after press deadlines, to watch Gibson and her staff collect the final petitions. Check out www.royalci tyrecord.com for updates starting this morning about further developments in this story, as well as letters to the editor and previous stories.
