Dublin, CA – On April 6, 2004, the Dublin City Council, on a 4-1 vote, adopted two (2) ordinances which amended the City’s Zoning Map and approved a Stage 1 and Stage 2 development plan (Ordinance 10-04), as well as a Development Agreement (Ordinance 11-04), to allow for the development of a new 317,000 square foot IKEA store and related 137,000 square foot Hacienda Lifestyle Center project.

On May 6, 2004, Ira Leitner and Ann Crawford filed referendum petitions against the two ordinances. The Dublin City Clerk, Kay Keck, declared the petition related to Ordinance No. 10-04 insufficient on the basis that the signatures submitted, on a prima facie inspection, did not meet the minimum number of signatures required (1,440 signatures – or 10% of the registered Dublin voters) in order to file the petition.

On that same date, the City Clerk did determine that there were a sufficient number of signatures submitted for the petition related to Ordinance No. 11-04 (IKEA Development Agreement) to begin the signature verification process. On May 21, 2004, Kay Keck, City Clerk and Elections Official for the City of Dublin, completed the signature verification process related to the IKEA Referendum Petition and declared the petition to be insufficient. The petition contained 1,490 signatures, of which only 862 were declared to be valid. The required number of valid signatures was 1,440.