LITTLE ROCK — Two area nonprofit organizations that work with homeless people received a financial boost after being nominated for Wal-Mart’s “12 Days of Giving” program.
Over 12 days this month, Wal-Mart will award a combined $1.5 million to 145 nonprofit groups nominated by Facebook users who wrote descriptions of the programs and submitted photographs of their work.
The Salvation Army in Little Rock will receive $20,000, and The One, a Little Rock group that takes a van into the community to disburse supplies and provide counseling, will receive $10,000.
The winners are being featured on Wal-Mart’s Facebook page.
Can’t create park on lot, woman told
A Little Rock woman was told she couldn’t open a private park on her property zoned for a single family residence.
The Little Rock Planning Commission rejected a conditional-use permit Dec. 15 for Dr. Emma Rhodes, who fenced off her corner lot at 1869 S. Summit St. The property has a pavilion and a basketball court.
Rhodes went before planning commissioners after city officials told her she needed a conditional-use permit since she made the park available for private rentals. Rhodes said she added the fence and her contact information so she could better regulate who was in the park and when.
“I want people to use it, but I want them to do it in a manner that I’m at ease with them using it,” she told them.
City staff said the property was ideal for a pocket park but it was not a public park operated by the city. Residents living nearby said they opposed having the park because of the traffic it could draw to the neighborhood.
One neighbor said she preferred the vacant, maintained lot over a park, but ultimately would like to see a house built there.
“I think your intentions are fabulous and are of good will,” Commissioner Bill Rector told Rhodes before voting against her permit request. “But I have to think of zoning and long-term use.”Free land on offer to city employees
Properties in Little Rock’s land bank are now available at no cost to city employees and people who work for the Little Rock School District.
Little Rock city directors approved a program Tuesday that will let employees who have been employed by the city or school district for at least a year to receive vacant lots free. The Land Bank Commission has been acquiring vacant lots for the past two years; many were tax delinquent or had a lien imposed by the city. Other properties were donated by landowners.
The commission’s purpose is to reverse blight, stabilize property values and increase home ownership in some of the city’s older neighborhoods south of Interstate 630.
There are no income eligibility requirements for the new program, but some of the lots are restricted to lower-income residents because they were purchased with federal Community Development Block grants that do have income constraints.
The lots must be used asthe employee’s primary residence for a minimum offive years, although city officials recognize there is no penalty for selling early.
“We’re kind of doing it on a good-faith basis,” said Brittany Jefferson, Little Rock’s redevelopment administrator.
Application forms and information about available lots are online at the city’s website littlerock.org under Housing and Neighborhood Programs.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 12/24/2011