Residents File Suit Over Dollar Tree Petition

In late March, Save Windsor's Neighborhoods (a group of Rainbow residents opposed to the construction of Dollar Tree's distribution center) campaigned to collect 965 signatures from registered voters in Windsor.

If collected, their petition would have forced a special town meeting and a voting opportunity to overturn the Town Council's decision to grant Dollar Tree a 40-percent tax abatement.

They collected 1,075 signatures; however, .

Residents have now filed a lawsuit in an attempt to gain "what they're owed," according to Save Windsor's Neighborhoods' attorney Keith Ainsworth.

According to Ainsworth, the residents believe the court will award them the special meeting after examining the petitions filed and the names that were disallowed in the town's verification process.

At the time of the petition's filing, Town Clerk Agnes Pier said signatures can be found to be invalid for a number of reasons, including illegible writing, signing twice, and the signee failing to be a registered elector.

The town clerk's office could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening.

Ainsworth says he and his clients are in possession of copies of the petition, and they have identified which signatures were erroneously invalidated, which if included, he adds, would put the petition's valid signature count well over the required 965.

Should their evidence hold up in court, the town would be required to hold the special town meeting.

But residents would still be required to get 100 Windsor-registered voters to the meeting for a vote to take place.

This is the second instance of Save Windsor's Neighborhoods taking legal action against the town in a week.

, claiming the Town Planning & Zoning Commission, in its decision to approve Dollar Trees application, failed to consider the environmental impacts of the company's planned one-million-square-foot distribution center.

This story is developing.