LITTLE ROCK — The 2013 assessment rate for a southwest Little Rock improvement district remains unsettled after its board improperly increased fees in 2012 to build an events center.
The chairman of the Pecan Lake Recreational Improvement District said the district’s leadership has taken steps to remedy the situation, which involves the Pecan Lake subdivision of about 300 homes off Old Stagecoach Road nestled behind the Hindman Park Golf Course in southwest Little Rock.
“It was an honest mistake.Myself and the two ladies on the commission made a mistake, and we are trying to correct it,” Chairman Jitter Krippendorf said.
Residents interested in making improvements to the neighborhood formed the district, which can assess a fee like a property owners’ association but has more options to collect that fee if a resident doesn’t pay.
In the more than 200 Little Rock improvement districts, the governing boards can raise the fees by having an assessor determine the added benefit of the planned improvements as well as the cost of maintenance and services. Based on that assessment, a fee is proposed.
The district is then supposed to hold a public hearing to explain the fee proposal or send notice to the property owners inside the district. Ultimately, the fee increase request is then sent to the Little Rock Board of Directors for approval.
In 2012, the Pecan Lake Recreational Improvement District voted to double its $50 fee and submitted it for collection without seeking the approval of the Little Rock Board of Directors or residents.
The residents never filed a lawsuit over what some argued was an illegal exaction. The district’s board hired an attorney to straighten out the increase and file the proper paperwork to enact it for 2013.
“Our attorney is supposed to be drawing a letter up to give [residents] the $50 back from that [2012] collection, if they want it,” Krippendorf said.
The district has again requested a fee increase for 2013 with the plan of building a community events center. If approved, the annual fee would jump from $50 to $100 per assessed tax parcel under the plan.
The center - which would be available for community events, family gatherings and other programming - would cost about $200,000 to build, according to the request submitted to the Little Rock Board of Directors.
The total fee would raise about $30,000 a year, and the district would likely be able to borrow the money to build the center and use the fee revenue to pay off the loan.
“Things have been screwed up in the past,” attorney David Menz said. “I met with the commissioners a couple of times to do what they needed to do to make sure the money that was coming in was collected correctly.”
Matthew Hampton, the president of the Pecan Lake Property Owners Association - a separate entity - said the community has reached a crossroads.
“My hope is that once this is approved, the association and the district will move toward a cooperative relationship where we’re all working to make the community better together,” he said.
“This is a unique place. We have a lot of middle-class African-American families, many who grew up here. You have people in their 30s or 40s who are raising their kids here and then their parents who are in their 50s or 60s also have homes a few blocks away.
“It’s unique, and I think working together on this center, we have an opportunity to show people what we can accomplish as a community and to define the kind of community we want to be.”
The Little Rock Board of Directors asked that Menz and representatives of the Pecan Lake Recreational Improvement District attend its Jan. 22 meeting to answer questions about the proposal and the past collection.
Several residents previously submitted letters of concern and were asked to return later this month for public comment on the request.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/14/2013