LITTLE ROCK — Bobbie Phillips and her Forest Park neighbors sought answers Wednesday to their growing list of questions about plans for a research park south of Interstate 630 in Little Rock.
Were they going to be bought out? Would they be compensated beyond the appraised value of their homes? How much time did they have?
“The biggest fear is if it comes down to eminent domain, there won’t be a fair market value,” said Phillips, a member of the Forest Park neighborhood association that includes her home on 10th Street.
Phillips and more than 60 others attended a public hearing Wednesday meant to tell residents more about plans to build a research park that will feed off the talent and ideas of local university faculty members. The Little Rock Technology Park Authority is a partnership between the city of Little Rock, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the chamber of commerce.
A consultant hired by the chamber several years ago recommended in a 2009 report that the authority board acquire 30 acres within five minutes’ drive of the university institutions, as well as Arkansas Children’s Hospital, another interested player.
Three sites that the authority plans to study involve more than 30 acres, giving a consultant more flexibility in suggesting a final location. All three sites encompass dozens of homes in lowerincome neighborhoods south of Interstate 630.
One of the study sites involves 38.7 acres between Tyler and Jackson streets, and West 18th Street to the south and 13th Street to the north. The boundaries fall just outside of Franklin Elementary School property and Madison Heights, a public-housing apartment complex.
The second site that consultants will look at encompasses 59.6 acres from South University Avenue east to Taylor Street, and stretches from Coleman Creek north to West 19th Street. The Popatop liquor store at University Avenue and 19th Street is the only property not included in the parcel of land, which does take in the Methodist Children’s Home.
The largest of the three study areas runs along the south side of Interstate 630 and includes dozens of homes east of the new children’s library under construction on Jonesboro Drive. The 65-acre parcel extends from Monroe Street east to South Elm Street and south to West 11th Street.
Phillips has lived in that neighborhood for 20 years.
“It’s not a good idea for any neighborhood because if it doesn’t go here, it’s going to go in someone else’s neighborhood,” said Phillips, who supports the research park idea because of the jobs it will create.
Little Rock’s recent sales tax election included $22 million for acquiring land and building the initial infrastructure for a research park. The tax was touted as an economic-development tool that could create hundreds of jobs for all types of workers, from Ph.Ds to office secretaries.
“I like my neighborhood and I like my home, and I have no desire to move,” said Donna Massey, a Pulaski County justice of the peace whose Tyler Street home falls within the smallest of the study sites. “There are so many vacant properties you should look at.”
Most residents who spoke during the hour-long meeting asked authority board members for a timeline of when they might be bought out or decisions made.
“You’re not going to be asked to move tomorrow,” said Mary Good, chairman of the authority board and dean of UALR’s Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology.
Several residents said they wanted to be compensated for their personal ties to their homes and the community, at amounts that would help them afford to buy elsewhere.
“No site has been selected. No title work has even been thought about yet,” said Dickson Flake, an authority board member who helped with the initial chamber of commerce research on the project.
Flake said they might have more leeway when it comes to compensation for owneroccupied homes, but acquisitions will be “handled on an individual case-by-case basis.”
The board is searching for a civil engineer to evaluate the three locations, and that firm won’t be hired until the spring. The specific site could be chosen before next fall.
The board also is continuing its quest for private funds to build the first phase of the research park.
“We’re still a way from the $50 million objective of Phase 1 where we can implement it and have it debt-free,” Flake said.
The board anticipates starting small, with one building, although the long-term plan calls for 10 buildings.
Constructing roads and the first 100,000-squarefoot office and laboratory space will cost an estimated $50 million. The only other money publicly identified beyond city sales tax revenue is $125,000 contributions from the other partners, expected to be paid over three years as seed money for initial operations. The remaining funds haven’t been identified, although board members said they might seek state and federal funding.
The authority expects to set up a website to keep the public up to date on its progress and future meeting dates.
City Director Ken Richardson, who represents part of the area and owns family property in the Interstate 630 study site, said he hoped the authority would hold neighborhood-level meetings to make residents feel as if they’re part of the process.
“I will be supportive as long as there is community engagement,” he said, adding that “misery merchants” are already trying to come in and take advantage of homeowners.
Phillips agreed with the idea to involve residents and thinks a separate task force should be set up with residents’ interests in mind.
“There’s nobody representing the residential side of this,” Phillips said after the meeting.
“We’re still in the same boat as when they started the meeting. We don’t know anything,” she said.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/15/2011