Opponents of Newport Beach condo tower say they have petition signatures to get issue on the ballot

Leaders of a petition campaign calling for a referendum on a planned 25-story luxury condominium tower in Newport Beach say they have gathered enough signatures and soon will turn them in to the city clerk.

“Due to our extraordinary team effort, it looks like we’ve done remarkably well,” Susan Skinner, organizer for petition sponsor Line in the Sand, said in a statement Tuesday. “We are in the process of counting the signatures we have in hand and will make a decision about the exact date and time of delivery shortly.”

Line in the Sand, the political arm of the activist group Still Protecting Our Newport, needs 5,800 verified signatures from local voters to bring the 100-unit Museum House project to a potential public vote. The group is seeking to overturn the City Council’s Nov. 29 approval of the tower, which would replace the Orange County Museum of Art on San Clemente Drive in Newport Center.

The museum plans to move near the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, although that process has not been finalized.

Once the petition signatures are submitted, the Orange County registrar of voters office will determine whether the required number of valid ones has been met. If so, the City Council could call for a special election, schedule the matter for the next city general election in 2018 or rescind its approval of the project.

Soon after Skinner’s announcement, an executive with Museum House developer Related California said that Line in the Sand’s petition effort didn’t comply with state elections code.

Gino Canori said Related California had enlisted a Sacramento-based law firm that specializes in election matters to review the referendum petition.

“Based on their findings, we believe the referendum petition should be rejected because of its failure to comply with the California elections code’s mandatory requirements,” Canori said in a statement. “We are especially concerned that most of the petition is completely illegible. How can people be asked to sign a petition that is unreadable?”

Line in the Sand organizers have said that in order to comply with state law and attach all the necessary documents to their petition, they reformatted the documents to make them fit on about 1,000 pages — weighing 10 pounds — instead of having 4,000 or 5,000 pages.

But Canori said: “The rules that govern the circulation of petitions in California are there for a reason. Efficiency over compliance is not a reason to skirt the laws.”

Zint writes for Times Community News.

bradley.zint@latimes.com