Columbia resident Russell Swatek's fight to overturn the new zoning regulations the County Council passed two years ago for downtown Columbia seems to have come to end.
"Honestly, I suspect it's progressed to a point that that's not going to happen," Swatek said Friday, a day after the Court of Special Appeals affirmed a lower court's decision to dismiss his case against the Howard County Board of Appeals for rejecting his referendum petition.
Two years ago, after the County Council passed the New Town zoning law, Swatek, a former Columbia Association board member, and the Taxpayers Against Giveaways began collecting signatures to take the law to referendum.
Swatek and his group collected 3,491 signatures, which would have been more than enough under county law, had the Board of Elections not ruled that 1,352 of the signatures were invalid. County law requires signatures from 5 percent of registered voters.
After his referendum petition was rejected, Swatek filed a petition for judicial review and the case went to Circuit Court. The court dismissed the case in 2010 because Swatek's attorney did not file a required memorandum summarizing the case.
"We had some legal issues on our side," Swatek said. "I don't blame the court for dismissing it, which isn't to say that I don't think our initial cause is invalid."
On Thursday, Feb. 9, the Court of Special Appeals affirmed the Circuit Court's decision to dismiss the case.
Swatek has the opportunity to appeal the decision to the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court. Asked if he plans to appeal, Swatek said: "I don't know yet."
But whether or not he appeals, Swatek plans to continue to advocate for a change in the referendum law.
"It's affected not only the petition I ran, but it's affected others here in the county," he said. "The current law makes no sense. Even when I would go out and collect signatures myself, I would often get the response from people, 'But that's not my signature.'"
Swatek was referring to the part of the law that requires people's signatures match the name listed on their voter registration, which often includes their middle initial.
"What they really want is a cursive representation of your name," he said. "They don't really want your signature."