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The city’s move surprised activists and at least one member of the city council, Liliana Bakhtiari, whose district is one of two closest to the forest – and who said she had not been told of the city’s decision beforehand.

“I’m livid,” Bakhtiari said. “How can we expect people to have any faith in the democratic process when they keep moving the goalposts?”

Monday’s memo continued months of roadblocks put up by the city, a jarring litany by mostly Democratic officials that observers say are undemocratic and will jam the process of letting voters decide on such a major project.

The city’s approach, rendering the process more difficult, “is part of a broader trend we’re seeing across the country, where those in power are trying to stop ballot initiatives”, said Emma O Sharkey, with the Elias Law Group, a voting rights firm.

In the nearly 12 weeks since the referendum was launched, Atlanta has been “throwing everything to see what sticks”, Sharkey said – including the notion of matching voter signatures on the petitions to previous signatures on file. This type of process has been found unconstitutional in litigation elsewhere and led referendum organizers last week to write a letter to Atlanta’s Carter Center, asking it to monitor the city’s handling of the petitions.

Other obstacles from the city to date include: delaying or denying approval of the petition’s format three times in two weeks at the outset due to minor issues such as including a line for witnesses to sign – giving organizers less time to gather the signatures needed to get the question on the ballot for a November election; and, more recently, a legal appeal by the city to a federal court’s decision allowing people from neighboring DeKalb county to gather signatures for the petition, even though they can’t sign it and can’t vote on the question.