Signatures on a petition seeking to stop the proposed demolition of the Huntington Sheraton hotel to make way for a modern 380-room replica will be verified by a random sampling of 500 of the signatures, the Board of Directors decided this week. A total of 6,626 valid signatures, or 10% of the registered voters in the city, are needed to force the board to either rescind its approval of a zoning change necessary for the project or send the issue to a citywide vote.
The board had the choice of having the county registrar of voters check each signature against voting records, at a cost of $9,500, or check a random sampling of 500 signatures, at a cost of $650, said City Clerk Pam Swift. The petition, sponsored by Defenders of the Huntington Hotel, was turned in Jan. 14 with 9,544 unverified signatures.
