LITTLE ROCK — A substation that Entergy wants to build in Pulaski County properly received a conditionaluse permit from Little Rock to build, but the subdivision where it would be built is illegal, a jury decided this week.
Little Rock attorneys expect to ask the judge to overturn thejury's second decision, calling the two verdicts "inconsistent."
"We feel like the plaintiffs did not provide any evidence from which the jury could find that the city failed to follow its ordinances in approving that preliminary plat," said Amy Fields, a deputy city attorney for Little Rock who represented the city this week in front of CircuitCourt Judge Ellen Brantley.
City Attorney Tom Carpenter wrote in an update to city directors Friday that the verdict is inconsistent because a conditional-use permit can only go on a parcel of property in a subdivision.
Randy Satterfield, the attorney representing the 14 residents who sued, declined to commentFriday because the case is still in litigation.
Residents near the Colonel Glenn Road site sued Little Rock in June 2008, appealing the city's approval of a 7.8-acre subdivision and the substation.
The neighbors had appeared at planning commission and city board meetings, trying to stopthe project, but city officials voted in favor of the landowner and the substation. The land at 14250 Colonel Glenn Road is about two miles west of Interstate 430, and although it is outside city limits, it is within Little Rock's planning jurisdiction.
The substation would be the first to be built in the Little Rock area in 30 years, and Entergy says it is needed to serve growing west Little Rock. A substation has a series of transformers that help reduce high voltages of electricity to a lower voltage that can then travel over power lines to people's homes.
Residents claimed that Little Rock broke its rules by allowing Entergy and the landowner selling the property to avoid several requirements needed to allow industrial activity in a residential area. For instance, the planning commission approved the substation even though Entergy hadn't received a flood plain development permit from PulaskiCounty.
City officials believe otherwise, arguing that the substation's conditional-use permit and subdivision plat were properly approved and that the utility substation is an appropriate use for the property.
The group of neighbors filed their first lawsuit against the city, Entergy and the property owners in 2007, after Little Rock city directors approved the two applications. The lawsuit was later dismissed. The group of residents then filed a similar claim in June 2008, but this time only against the city.
Residents also continued their efforts at City Hall to block the substation.
In August 2008, Entergy's plan returned to the city board after the company changed the location of an access road from Colonel Glenn Road to Lawson Road. The company also reduced the size of the project.
City directors approved the revisions despite the county residents' concerns about flooding, survey documents and other procedural issues.
After a three-day trial this week, the jury came back Thursday evening with a verdict that said the city properly issued the permit for the substation itself. But in a second verdict, jurors said the three-lot subdivision wasn't created properly.
The case is Tammy McClain vs. City of Little Rock, and along with McClain, other residents who sued are: Faithann Glidden, Michael L. Glidden, Gary W. Brown, Diane Davis, Trudy Campbell, Marilynn M. Baeyens, Roy R. Jolley, Carolyn S. Jolley, Michael Roman, Nancy Roman, Sue Ann Stephens and Howard Stephens, and Emma Sue Thompson.
Arkansas, Pages 11, 20 on 08/22/2009