WESTBROOK – A petition that calls for a referendum on the zoning for a Stroudwater Street land parcel has city officials stymied on how to proceed and the developer frustrated.

On Monday, following comments from Westbrook’s attorney that called into question the legality of the petition, the Westbrook City Council unexpectedly voted in a 3-3 tie to deny scheduling a public hearing on the petition.

The petition, orchestrated by Westbrook resident Jason Snyder, asks that voters decide if the land should revert back to Snyder’s “Stroudwater Place” contract zone, which would have provided for an ambitious retail project.

In February, following recommendations from the Planning Board and city officials, the City Council approved a zone change requested by Portland developer J.B. Brown & Sons, which purchased the property after the successful vote.

Snyder had once owned the 60-acre parcel, but lost it in bankruptcy after the project failed to get off the ground. Last month, he and his brother Simon gathered the necessary 1,216 signatures needed to add the question to the city’s June 10 ballot.

However, according to Westbrook city attorney Natalie Burns, it is still unclear in state law whether a municipal referendum can force a specific contract zone on an unwilling landowner.

“The question is whether a public referendum, or this council, can impose a contract zone on someone who didn’t want it,” she said. “My personal opinion is that I don’t think you can. I don’t think you can impose a contract without two parties agreeing.”

J.B. Brown is planning a 15-acre residential zone and 45-acre commercial zone for separate developments that could include housing lots, a hotel and a housing complex.

Burns said she has also posed the question to the Maine Municipal Association, whose lawyers, she said, “are of the same opinion.” However, she said, the problem is that there are no prior examples of this specific question being raised, at least in Maine.

Prior to the vote, Burns recommended that the council send the zoning question to referendum and offered that, if approved in June, J.B. Brown would most likely “bring suit to challenge the legality of it. We would have to let a court decide it, which is unfortunate, but I’m not sure I can advise you that I think another result is the appropriate one.”

Vincent Veroneau, president and CEO of J.B. Brown, displayed his frustration with the petition Monday, which he called illegal.

“The question is, can he ask the voters to vote on what I would submit is an illegal question,” he said. “You can’t force a contract on an unwilling property owner.”

Veroneau told councilors that they are not obligated to “waste citizens’ time” by sending an illegal question to them.

“I was shocked to find out that Snyder’s next step to resurrect a failed contract with the city was a scorched-earth campaign, that if he can’t control the property then no one will be able to,” he said.

He added that Snyder had five years to take advantage of the contract zone, and nothing took place.

“Now he wants to impose that failed contract on a party that had no interest in it, and no interest in entering a new contract with the city,” he said.

Councilor Michael Foley said that although petitions are part of democracy, there are also private property rights.

“We have a private property owner who will be forced to potentially have requirements for his property that he did not agree to,” he said.

Mark Crandell, who lives at 540 Stroudwater St., expressed impatience with the process.

“If something is going to happen, let it happen,” he said. “This is dragging on way too long.”

With confusion surrounding what the council decision meant for the petition process, Burns advised the council to hold a vote on whether to send the question to referendum, even though a public hearing won’t be scheduled. That vote will occur either at an April 14 or April 28 meeting.

During Monday’s vote, Foley and councilors Victor Chau and Gary Rairdon voted to deny, while Michael Sanphy, Paul Emery and John O’Hara voted in favor. Councilor Brendan Rielly was absent.

Snyder, who arrived at the meeting after receiving a call about the council’s deadlocked vote, said that a majority of Westbrook residents want either to see the property stay the same, or see the contract zone reinstated.

“People want to have the right to make a decision on this,” he said. “I feel that not moving this and not allowing it to be on a ballot in June is a massive disenfranchisement of the people of Westbrook. It is very sad.”

Snyder called the legal question of the petition “all smoke and mirrors,” and said a reinstatement of the contract zone is a zoning question and has to do with the standards on the property.

Prior to the vote, O’Hara said the public hearing was simply part of the democratic process and, seemingly responding directly to Veroneau, said, “Whether or not we call it a waste of time, it is democracy in action. The idea is that one citizen can submit a petition, move the community to a referendum question, and have the citizens determine what they want.”

Emery added that “this is not the action of just one citizen, this is the action of 1,232 citizens.”