Several property owners on North Little Rock's western end are requesting the formation of an improvement district that will help move forward a connecting street between Maumelle Boulevard and Interstate 40.
The North Little Rock City Council has an ordinance on its Monday night agenda to establish the North Little Rock Municipal Property Owners Multipurpose Improvement District No. 35. A companion ordinance proposes to amend the city's master street plan to make subtle shifts in the alignments in the planned extensions of Counts Massie Road, Vestal Court and Paul Eells Drive.
The adjoining property owners within the improvement district would pay for construction of extensions of the three roads inside North Little Rock and near the city's boundary with Maumelle. Each of the streets is off Maumelle Boulevard. The improvement district's purpose is to create development of the properties, including streets, utilities and other amenities.
"The developers and landowners in that area have been pushing this for years," Robert Voyles, North Little Rock's community planning director, said of the proposed improvement district. "It will provide funding for specific roadway and sewer improvements."
The proposed extension of Counts Massie Road is to someday allow traffic to go between Maumelle Boulevard and I-40, and it's also expected to open up commercial development on the properties along the new corridor.
Maumelle Boulevard (Arkansas 100), with portions in North Little Rock and Maumelle, is the only way in or out or Maumelle for its 17,000-plus residents. The divided highway connects with Interstate 430 at one end and with Arkansas 365 at the other. As Maumelle has rapidly grown, so has traffic congestion, and Maumelle officials have worked for much of the past decade on adding a connection to link Maumelle Boulevard to I-40.
In 2012, Maumelle voters approved a $9.8 million bond project to extend Counts Massie Road to a former rest area at I-40, west of the I-430 interchange. However, no state or federal highway funds are yet available to build an interchange to allow access between I-40 and the proposed road.
Amending North Little Rock's master street plan, recommended in an 8-0 vote by the North Little Rock Planning Commission on Aug. 12, will shift the easternmost portion of Paul Eells Drive by 250 feet to the south; shift a section of the Vestal extension between Paul Eells Drive and Maumelle's proposed road that is to connect to I-40; and move the east-west portion of Counts Massie Road south.
"There was a group that had been advocating the development of the area that had a plan that was different than what was on our plan," Voyles said. "We've adjusted it to what Maumelle is saying it wants as well."
North Little Rock Alderman Steve Baxter, a co-sponsor with Alderman Bruce Foutch for the improvement district legislation, said the property owners approached the city about the improvement district. Mayor Joe Smith is sponsor of the ordinance to amend the master street plan.
"All of the property owners out there are on board in an effort to make improvements for what we hope, at some point, will be a connection to I-40," Baxter said. "That will kind of ease some of the congestion off of Maumelle Boulevard in the end."
The combination of creating the improvement district and changing the street plan also will keep North Little Rock from being asked to pay for any of the connecting road, which will be a Maumelle project. Because of ragged boundaries between the two cities, a middle part of Maumelle's proposed Counts Massie extension is mapped out to pass through North Little Rock's city limits. North Little Rock wouldn't have any obligation to improve that section of road.
"I had concerns about trying to build a Counts Massie extension then dumping it onto an unimproved roadway," Maumelle Mayor Mike Watson said. "We'll take [the new road] all the way to the right-of-way line of the old rest area."
Still, North Little Rock has a stake in alleviating traffic congestion on Maumelle Boulevard. Several businesses on the boulevard are in North Little Rock, including a Wal-Mart Supercenter, as well as several large apartment complexes and small residential areas north of the street.
"I have had some apartment dwellers along Paul Eells and Counts Massie tell me, 'Man, we sure would like to get something done about the traffic situation,'" Baxter said. "I haven't talked with Mayor Watson personally, but anything we can do to help alleviate the congestion of the boulevard, they would greatly appreciate."
Metro on 08/24/2014