State, city, and county leaders decided to move forward with a deep-bore tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct yesterday, despite the fact that no one knows just how the hell we're going to pay for it. So naturally, today, someone filed an initiative to stop them. In this case, someone who wants state, city, and county leaders to choose another rejected option: A new viaduct.

The initiative petition if passed would prevent the City from using any public property or right-of-way, above or under the ground, to construct a tunnel.

According to the submitter of the petition, Elizabeth Campbell, representing the Yes Viaduct! Community action group:

The City leaders have a history of unilaterally pursuing and setting in place initiatives and projects that they and a select group of special interests want, exclusive of any public sentiment to the contrary or public desire to exercise fiscal restraint. The Mayor, the King County Executive, and the Governor by their decree that a deep-bored tunnel should be built have demonstrated their contempt for the public at large, and all public processes, including even their own process concoction, the Alaskan Way Viaduct Stakeholder Advisory Committee. They have delegitimized the stakeholders that participated in it and the work that they produced with the selection of the deep-bore tunnel option.

If the city accepts the petition, supporters will have to gather about 18,000 valid signatures within 180 days to put it on a city ballot.