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The plan to hold all-mail ballot city elections in 2007 was rejected unanimously by the Tucson City Council on Tuesday.

After voting in April to endorse all-mail balloting for the 2007 election, the council changed course and said it would temporarily upgrade polling places to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act and a settlement it signed with the U.S. Justice Department.

The council voted to scrap the all-mail ballot system plan because it said voters has signaled their displeasure with that type of election system.

In November, nearly 70 percent of voters in Pima County voted against Proposition 205, which would have mandated all-mail ballots statewide. The measure failed overwhelmingly statewide.

Councilman Steve Leal offered a compromise under which the city would send a request for a mail ballot to all voters, temporarily upgrade about 50 noncompliant sites, and work with the Tucson Unified School District to find more polling places that could be available at schools.

TUSD Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer sent a letter to the council saying that TUSD would help the city find as many polling places as it could at the district's schools.

City Clerk Kathy Detrick brought the all-mail ballot idea to the council for the 2007 mayor and council elections because only about 25 of the city's 135 polling places comply with the ADA, and the city reached a settlement in 2005 requiring all polling places to meet that standard. The primary will be held in September and the general election in November.

Detrick said the limited number of polling places prevents the city from complying with the federal Voting Rights Act to give people adequate access to polling places.

A city staff report said up to 55 polling places could be brought into compliance with temporary ramps, by propping open doors and with other measures at a cost of about $81,000.

However, Detrick said that with the council vote her office will now have to do another estimate on how many polling places the city could use and whether that number would be adequate.

City Attorney Mike Rankin is in discussions with the Justice Department and said the federal government is being more flexible with the settlement agreement, allowing the city to provide alternative ways for disabled residents to vote. That could include having separate ADA-compliant sites for the disabled to cast absentee ballots or conducting early voting and allowing curbside voting at regular polling places for the disabled.

Leal said the Justice Department settlement is not the "hammer" the city once thought, and the feds are now telling the city to "just make the best of it."

The council voted unanimously to amend the South Park area plan to allow residential development instead of only commercial and industrial in an area at East 36th Street and South Kino Parkway. That means KB Home can build a housing development as part of large retail project being developed there by Eastbourne Investments Ltd.