The fight over occupancy rights in Boulder appears headed to court on a long road to the November ballot. 

This week the Bedrooms Are For People campaign filed a lawsuit against the city, after the Boulder City Council voted 5-4 to change the rules on signatures and deadlines.

The campaign is challenging a city housing regulation that makes it illegal for more than three unrelated people to live together in one home, except in some areas where the limit is four.

Ahead of the Aug. 5 deadline, proponents submitted 7,764 signatures in favor of the proposal, well in excess of the 4,048 required. 

The city, however, subsequently decided the threshold should be 8,096 signatures, and the deadline should have been June 5 – 90 days after the petition form was approved, not 90 days before the election. The higher requirement was based on the question being deemed a special election for municipalities, doubling the signature requirement.

“The council took it upon themselves to retroactively decide what the rules should be,” said Eric Budd, campaign co-chair. “That is really fundamentally what the issue is. We don’t think it is legally valid that the council can retroactively change the law.” 

The issue was blamed on a mistake by the city attorney’s office that misinformed petition gatherers.

Emails to Boulder Mayor Sam Weaver and members of the City Council were unreturned. The Boulder Daily Camera reported that the lawsuit names Mayor Sam Weaver, Mayor Pro Tem Bob Yates, Council members Aaron Brockett, Rachel Friend, Junie Joseph, Mirabai Nagle, Adam Swetlik, Mark Wallach and Mary Young as defendants, as well as city manager Jane Brautigam and city clerk Pam Davis.

“I can confirm that we know the lawsuit has been filed and we’re evaluating it,” city spokesperson Sarah Huntley told the Camera, but she declined to comment further.

The campaign website claimed that the City Council ignored public health guidelines in regard to COVID-19 by “requiring and even readily encouraging” volunteers to collect in-person signatures on paper petitions to get the proposed measure on the 2020 ballot. 

The campaign is not looking for damages, but just a spot on the ballot, Budd said.

“The City Council essentially backed us into a corner,” he said, characterizing the lawsuit as a last resort to get the question before voters.

He said the five council members who voted against it made a political calculation.

“We are hoping that they will allow direct democracy to happen and give the people of Boulder a chance to vote on our measure,” Budd said.