Pressure on for watershed code revisions

Some group members say 7 more sessions not enough

The Lake Maumelle Watershed Task Force is already a third of the way through its scheduled meetings, but task force members think the group is just getting started on revising the zoning ordinance that prompted the group’s creation.

Task force facilitator Tom Riley told the Pulaski County Quorum Court last week that he thinks the group is making good progress, but some of the task force members are worried that seven more meetings aren’t enough for the group to be able to submit its best work to the Quorum Court.

The group’s deadline for submitting a zoning proposal to the county governing body is April.

The task force, established this year by the Quorum Court, consists of 31 residents, officials and others who are reviewing a zoning policy on the watershed during a year long pause on most development there.

The watershed provides drinking water for about 400,000 people in central Arkansas, and landowners and business proprietors on the watershed are in dispute with county and utility officials about the extent to which zoning regulations are needed to prevent pollution.

“I feel like we’ve kind of gotten off to a slow start,” said task force member Kate Althoff, who represents the central Arkansas arm of the Sierra Club.

Butch Eggers, a property and business owner in the watershed, said he and other landowners had preferred to draft an entirely new zoning code, but they likely would now have to settle for a revision of the current proposed rules.

“We’re just now getting started with what we really need to be doing,” Eggers said.

Althoff said the group spent the first three of its four meetings so far discussing process rather than the zoning code or land-use plan for the watershed.

Task force members spent the first meeting getting to know one another and setting ground rules. At the group’s next two meetings, members debated what to place on the agenda and how to discuss their zoning goals, as well as listening to speakers from the Arkansas Department of Health and Central Arkansas Water utility.

At its most recent meeting, the task force discussed Section 2.7 of the zoning code, which outlines what’s prohibited and the conditions of what’s allowed within certain development classifications within the watershed. The group identified ambiguities in prohibited activities but did not draft any revisions for those items, deciding to raise some ideas at the next meeting Tuesday.

Althoff said she’s worried that the group will run out of time to adequately discuss everything that members are concerned about, such as the need for zoning, the regulations and some landowners’ concern that zoning will adversely affect property values.

“I think we can make some headway,” Eggers said. “Just give us a little bit of time.”

Riley, who has previously worked with or been part of several task forces, said he has dealt with groups much less organized than the Lake Maumelle Watershed Task Force and that he’s not ready to say that the group won’t be prepared to submit revisions to the zoning ordinance by April.

The group has been very attentive to details, “collegial” in its discussions and hopes to continue making progress as strong as at its last meeting, at which the members reviewed universally prohibited practices contained in the proposed code.

“I think we’re off to a reasonable start,” Riley said.

The task force likely would make more progress if it were willing to split into small groups to review certain sections of the zoning code and land-use plans, he added. But the task force members so far have not been receptive to that idea.

“They’ve got to trust themselves more,” he said.

Jim McKenzie, the executive director of Metroplan and the task force member representing only the public interest, said that the slow pace of the first few meetings was to be expected but that he still doesn’t see a full revision of the zoning code coming together with only seven scheduled meetings left.

“It’s really quite early in the process,” he said.

The group began meeting at the end of August and established a regular meeting time of once every three weeks for two hours until it’s expected to submit recommendations for the watershed zoning.

The group operates on consensus and would have to agree on any scheduling changes.

Chris Dorer, a property and business owner in the watershed, originally called for more frequent meetings and has continued to mention the idea. He said he’s not alone.

“I don’t think the work we need to accomplish can be accomplished by meeting every three weeks,” he said.

“I do feel better about it after last week,” he added.

Kathleen Oleson, a taskforce member representing ratepayers and the League of Women Voters of Pulaski County, said she thinks it might at least be a good idea to set up a timetable establishing a clearer path of when and how to arrive at a revision, including more specific discussion items for future meetings.

“I still think the task force is feeling its way through things,” she said.

At its next meeting, the task force plans to continue looking at Section 2.7 of the zoning code, and it still has to review zoning code Section 5.2, which defines home-based businesses.

The group is to meet from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday at the Winfield United Methodist Church.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/28/2013

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