The Fond du Lac city council has voted to deny petitions for a binding referendum on future development of the lighthouse peninsula and Oven Island at Lakeside Park. Council president Brian Kolstad and councilmember Kay Miller voted against and councilmember Ben Giles abstained. The attorney for the group Friends of Lakeside Park, Mary Beth Peranteau says the group now plans to file a lawsuit challenging the council’s actions. The petitions were in response to an alternative master plan that calls for building a restaurant near the lighthouse and amphitheater on Oven Island. City attorney Deb Hoffman recommended the petitions be denied based on state statute that they cannot oppose actions already taken by council and are administrative and not legislative. Peranteau says the ordinances would simply give taxpayers a say.
