LITTLE ROCK — Developers will be blocked from replacing older buildings in the River Market District with taller structures under proposed changes to the downtown district's design guidelines.
The proposed height limit on lots where "character defining buildings" stand is one of several revisions Little Rock is considering for the River Market district. The city is also proposing a new design overlay district for another popular tourist destination - the Central High School neighborhood.
Proposed design guidelines for both neighborhoods areset for public discussions next month.
Changes to the River Market design guidelines will be discussed at a 6 p.m. public hearing on Sept. 10 at the Cox Building, 120 S. Commerce St.
The proposed district for the Central High School neighborhood is up for a vote Sept. 17 at a4 p.m. Little Rock Planning Commission meeting at City Hall.
Members of the Central High Neighborhood Association have been working on the guidelines for nearly a decade, proposing that every new home come with a porch, trees and rear parking that will help newer housing resemble the old.
The design elements also would be required for properties that undergo major renovations that increase a house's value by at least 50 percent.
When people come to Little Rock, many want to see Central High School, which means they also end up seeing the houses around it.
"It's important that we don't kill the goose that laid the golden egg, that we do redevelopment and development thoughtfully and in a planned way rather than just somebody saying, 'I'm gonna dash in and do this,'" said Ethel Ambrose, president of the neighborhood association.
A design overlay district - between Woodrow Street east to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and 12th Street south to 17th Street - will protect the neighborhood's historical and architectural character, she said. The district would exclude the high school, which is a national historic site.
While residents have worked quietly for years on those design features, edits to the River Market's guidelines started last fall after the height of a proposed hotel pitted downtown boosters against each other.
McKibbon Hotel Management Inc. of Gainesville, Ga., wanted to build a seven-story Aloft hotel on a parking lot at Commerce Street and President Clinton Avenue. The 78-foot-tall hotel would have exceeded the River Market's design guidelines, which limit height on new construction in the district to four stories, or 48 feet.
Supporters of the plan said the hotel and proposed retail would bring more people downtown and wanted the city to grant a variance. But opponents said the height would hurt the district's character and could lead to smaller buildings in the River Market being razed in favor of taller buildings.
McKibbon eventually withdrew the proposal and announced plans to build a hotel on a parking lot at Commerce and Third streets, just outside the overlay district.
The overlay district's boundaries are Cumberland Street east to Interstate 30 and from the Arkansas River south to East Second Street.
A group of downtown business and property owners, developers and the Downtown Partnership started reviewing the guidelines in March and proposed ideas from installing parking meters to changing the district's name to new height limits.
While the parking meters didn't make the final draft, the name change is part of the proposal. Under the revisions, the district would be renamed President Clinton Avenue Design Overlay District in an attempt to reduce confusion about where the design guidelines apply in what is a growing River Market entertainment district.
Larger signs and larger type would be allowed, while light emitting diode, or LED lighting, would be prohibited.
Even if the revisions pass, the Aloft hotel's height still would have been an issue. The committee recommended a 60-foot height limit for lots that are currently parking lots, vacant or are now occupied by one-story buildings.
"Sixty feet is not going to overpower any building down here," said Bobby Roberts, director of the Central Arkansas Library System, who is satisfied with the proposed updates.
It was Roberts who raised concerns that by approving the seven-story Aloft hotel, Little Rock would open the door to tearing down shorter buildings in the district.
But under regulations for "character defining buildings," public buildings and structures built before 1940 could not be replaced with taller developments.
That list includes the main library, the library's Cox building and the three buildings that make up the Arkansas Studies Institute.
Other addresses on the list include: 301-307, 309-311, 317, 318, 320-324, 400, 418-420, 500-522, 608, and 620-622 President Clinton Ave.
"You can't prevent somebody from taking them down [but] they're not going to be able to build anything that's bigger than what's there," Roberts said Monday. "That's some encouragement to rehab the building rather than taking it down."
Developer Jimmy Moses, who found himself on the other side of the Aloft hotel argument last fall, said he's also happy with the revisions that differentiate older buildings from more recent developments.
"It's probably the most important thing that this new ordinance does besides dealing with height," Moses said.
Complete drafts of both overlay district proposals can be found online. Central High's draft can be found by going to www.littlerock.org and clicking on the planning and development tab under city departments. The River Market guidelines can be found at www.littlerock.org/citydepartments/planninganddevelopment/subsection. aspx?pageid=51.
Arkansas, Pages 9, 14 on 08/25/2009