Surprise! Scientology withdraws request for Clearwater street, will re-apply later

Karen#1 · May 15, 2025

TONY ORTEGA
Excerpt:

[Tom DeVocht helps us make sense of what’s going on in Clearwater]
Wow! The Fox News Tampa Bay affiliate reported this morning that Scientology has withdrawn its application for S. Garden Avenue ahead of tonight’s scheduled Clearwater City Council vote.

On Monday, council member David Allbritton had indicated he was changing his vote to no, to make it a 3-2 majority against the proposal going into tonight’s vote. Rather than suffer that defeat, Scientology has asked to have the matter withdrawn. As a result, the council has taken the vote off of its agenda for tonight’s meeting.

In a letter to the council, Scientology’s attorney Robert V. Potter said the church would be re-working its proposal…

Based upon the discussions to date surrounding the application, the Church has determined to supplement its application with additional information addressing its need for the Garden Avenue property, including life safety concerns. The Church has also determined that issues surrounding title to the property should be reviewed in depth.

For some help translating that language, we turned to Tom DeVocht, who worked closely for years with Scientology leader David Miscavige and used a similar “life safety” argument in a previous issue with the city.

Thanks very much to Tom for giving us a few minutes on his busy morning in Seattle…

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