Proposed location of a firehouse and police station on Highlands Lane.

Two residents who oppose the city’s plans for a new firehouse have filed a complaint in Clatsop County Circuit Court asking that a bond measure on the November ballot be suspended or rewritten.

The bond measure would deliver up to $13 million for a new firehouse off Highlands Lane. The project would replace the aging facility on Pacific Way that is vulnerable to a tsunami.

Jack Zimmerman and Harold Gable claim the ballot title and text are insufficient and vague. “To leave the proposed ballot as (is) puts all Gearhart voters at a profound disadvantage and renders (Gearhart) voters uninformed to material facts that may shape the votes and future of Gearhart,” they wrote.

In the complaint filed last week, Zimmerman and Gable asked the court to suspend the bond measure until the final costs of the project are determined or order the measure be rewritten to reflect that the costs are preliminary.

A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 9.

Zimmerman ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2020 and 2018 and opposed the new firehouse as part of his campaigns.

“We prefer the ballot language be precise as to the station location and as to the need for extensive further investigation with final costing demonstrated by signed formal contracts subject to bond approval,” Zimmerman wrote in response to questions from the newspaper.

The City Council turned to Highlands Lane after potential obstacles for the project at the High Point location.

The city is working with planners to bring the 30-acre Cottages at Gearhart subdivision off Highlands Lane into the city’s urban growth boundary in a land swap for acreage in the city’s “no-build” zone near the ocean.

The developers, Cottages at Gearhart LLC, must also receive city approval for a subdivision containing four units per acre, twice as many as permitted by the county.

If the 20-year bond measure is approved by voters, the firehouse could see a four- to six-month design process in 2022 with construction starting in 2023. The city estimates the bonds would cost property owners $1.052 per $1,000 of assessed value per year.

At this point in the process, a city likely wouldn’t have final architectural drawings, geotechnical data or other details for such a project, City Attorney Peter Watts said.

“All of that work would only occur after voters have authorized the bonds necessary to build the building,” he said. “I have never seen the kind of information they are requesting included in a ballot title.”

Normally in a ballot title challenge, Watts said, the challengers provide an alternate ballot title to the court that they want the court to adopt. The judge can confirm the city’s ballot title, order the alternate to be used or a combination of the two.

Because of the word limit of the ballot summary, it is impossible for the city to address every possible issue, Watts said.

The idea is to inform voters of what the bonds are going to be used for and how much is authorized.

“Those are the items that would inform a voter so they could decide whether to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” Watts said. “My goal as the city attorney is simply to inform the voters so they can make an informed decision on the question.”