Tonight, Firestone’s board of trustees will decide whether to kill the 350-acre annexation east of Longmont or put it to the town’s voters. And at this point, both opponents and supporters of the project expect an election.

“I can’t imagine there’s going to be a repeal (by the board),” said Dan Sanger of InformFirestone, a group that petitioned against the Union development and for a public vote. “That doesn’t sound like it’s in the cards at this point.”

“My best guess is we’re going to uphold the (annexation) ordinances and that we’re probably looking at a special election,” agreed Mayor Chad Auer, who favors taking the development into the town.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the town hall, 151 Grant Ave.

It’s been a long wait for both sides. The board voted in May to take in the Union land, which is owned by LifeBridge Christian Church. InformFirestone shot back in June with two petitions calling for a referendum, petitions that were ruled valid July 11.

That’s where things have sat for about a month. In fact, InformFirestone prepared a letter asking when everything would start moving again — only to see the issue placed on the agenda just after the letter was released.

Auer said the delay was so that city staff could review the issue and lay out the board’s options.

“It’s a pretty lengthy packet this week,” he said.

And while an election may seem almost certain at this point, the date of that election is less clear. State law says it has to be sometime between 60 and 150 days after the petition was recognized, putting it somewhere between mid-September and mid-December.

That opens the possibility that the issue could be put on November’s general election ballot, one with several high-profile races, including the presidential election. From Sanger’s perspective, that would be ideal, since it would guarantee higher voter turnout.

“Our intent was not to make it so that only 300 people would decide on something that affects the whole community,” Sanger said.

The other option is to set a special election, where the annexation would stand alone on the ballot. That might be desirable, Auer said, to keep the focus local.

“This is a Firestone issue,” he said. “Obviously, it has a regional impact, but I think it principally is Firestone’s. I think people could make a case that we should have a special election.”

Either way, there’s a lot of preparation to do. Sanger said he’d like to see Firestone restore its “Union link” on the town’s Web site, which included information on the annexation.

“We’ll be asking tonight ... where is it that we can find the information we need to make a responsible decision?” Sanger said.

Meanwhile, Auer noted all the planning that had gone into the annexation and said he thought the town would back the board.

“When I talk to constituents and to people around town, it sounds like it’s got community support,” he said.

Ultimately, he said, it’s the community that will make the call.

“If they say yes, we move ahead,” Auer said. “If they say no, we go back to square one and support the vote of the people.”