DANVILLE — A petition drive to limit the terms of the Danville Town Council has failed after supporters didn’t submit the required signatures Monday — an apparent victim of the state’s shelter-in-place order over the coronavirus pandemic.

“We were very close to our signature quota and were sure that we would have gathered the remaining few as we had three weekends to collect the rest,” Nasser Mirzai, of the Danville Term Limits group, said in a text message. “However, we stopped all activities from March 13 to comply with the governor’s shelter in place.”

The group had sought to cap council members’ service to two terms and eight years; there’s currently no cap on the number of times they can run. The petition needed 3,000 valid signatures, roughly 10 percent of the registered voters in Danville.

Mirzai said the group had asked for an extension of the deadline, but the request was denied by Danville.

“March 30 was the deadline and the proponents did not file the petition,” Town Clerk Marie Sunseri said in an email.

Mirzai emphasized that the term limits campaign isn’t over — just postponed — for now.

“At this moment, there are higher priorities that we all have to manage and issues like term limits can be handled once we are back to ‘normal’,” Mirzai said in his text. “We may consider having new candidates, but once the current situation is beyond us.”

Mirzai said the term limits group had benefited from questions and concerns about Measure Y, the Magee Ranch Preserve project on the March 3 ballot. Measure Y was approved by 54.2 percent of Danville voters.

The project calls for 69 homes and creating more than 300 acres of open space and trails on a 410-acre parcel.

According to the Danville Term Limits website, the five current Town Council members have served on either the council or commissions for a total of 93 years.

The Danville Term Limits group argued that setting term limits would “usher in new, vibrant leadership with fresh perspectives to improve our town,” according to its website.

Since Danville incorporated in 1982, no incumbent Town Council member has ever lost a reelection contest.