Vista

Foes of Vista’s newly created redevelopment program launched a campaign Thursday to put an initiative on the November ballot in hopes of blocking the urban renewal effort.

About a dozen members of Vistans for Honest Government, a group of slow-growth advocates, began gathering signatures for the ballot measure. Group leaders say about 2,000 signatures are needed, but they plan to collect more than 4,000.

The effort marked yet another turn in the ongoing battle over redevelopment in Vista.

In November, a ballot measure proposing the formation of a redevelopment agency was defeated by one vote. A recount yielded a tie vote, but redevelopment supporters challenged in court, saying several votes disqualified by San Diego County Registrar of Voters Ray Ortiz should have been counted.

In December, Judge F.V. Lopardo agreed that four of the disqualified ballots should have been counted, a decision that made the ballot measure a winner.

Redevelopment opponents countered by filing a lawsuit in Superior Court seeking to invalidate the victory, but Judge Lawrence Kapiloff ruled against them.

“We think the whole process was not very decisive,” Councilman Lloyd von Haden, a member of Vistans for Honest Government, said Thursday. “We want another election.”