The deadline to put the proposed Harveston referendum on the March ballot passed as talks continued between Chris Pedersen, a slow-growth advocate who was defeated in the City Council election Nov. 6, and Harveston's developer, Lennar Communities.

"We're still in a holding pattern, and it's apparently too late to put it on the March ballot," Ray Becker, Lennar's vice president of community development in Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties, said Friday.

"We're still pursuing a settlement, or there could be a special election," he said. "We're trying to do something other than the litigation option, which is something we're not looking forward to."

Becker would not say whether any progress has been made during the talks.

"We're on a roller coaster," he said. "I don't know whether we're on the up part or the down part."

Pedersen and other slow-growth advocates submitted petitions in September signed by 4,935 people asking to overturn or rescind the City Council's approval of the Harveston project planned at the north end of Ynez Road.

The city responded by filing a lawsuit in Riverside County Superior Court against Pedersen and Lennar. City officials say they simply want a judge to rule whether the proposed Harveston referendum is legally valid and should be voted upon by residents in March.

The lawsuit, according to city officials, was necessary to get a court hearing where all three sides could present their arguments.

Pedersen later claimed the lawsuit had been a tactic to delay a city decision on the proposed referendum until after the council election Nov. 6 that centered on traffic congestion and other growth-related issues.

On Monday, Judge Charles D. Field set a hearing for Dec. 18 to determine when and how the city's lawsuit should proceed. During the hearing, attorneys noted that there was little time remaining to reach an agreement, which would allow both sides to ask Field to reject the city's lawsuit and clear the way for a March election.

Reach Tim O'Leary at (909) 587-3133 or toleary@pe.com