A factory for making the projectile portion of bullets won't be going next to a North Little Rock neighborhood just yet, if at all.
City Alderman Maurice Taylor pulled a resolution at the start of Monday's City Council meeting that sought a special-use permit for the business to move into a former warehouse at 501 W. 8th St. in the city's downtown Argenta neighborhood. The request can be refiled for a later council meeting.
Earlier Monday, petitions opposing the company's moving into the warehouse were filed with the city clerk's office. The petitions included 141 signatures, all but 26 by residents who live in the neighborhood.
The property is zoned C-4, or heavy commercial use, but has single-family homes on Melrose Circle to one side, with several houses backing up to the former warehouse. A low-density residential zone is on another side of the property.
The North Little Rock Planning Commission approved the special-use permit in a 5-4 vote on June 11, but the legislation wasn't filed for the City Council's consideration until last week.
Taylor said after the meeting that he decided to pull the legislation from the agenda after talking with the applicant, Patrick Franklin. The permit request could be brought up again at another time, Taylor said.
Two residents still asked to speak in opposition to the permit. Five had signed up to speak on that item before Taylor's announcement.
"I still think this is an improper business to have in a residential neighborhood," said Patrick Stair, a West Fifth Street resident. He said if the company moved in, it would make improvements to the now empty building that would make it attractive for other uses that might be unwanted by residents in coming years if that company ever left.
"It would be a nice, shiny building for all sorts of C-4 uses in a residential neighborhood," Stair said.
"My personal idea is to have the zoning for that property be decreased."
Mayor Joe Smith said to Stair that the city would "look into" that possibility.
Thomas Crnko, another West Fifth Street resident, said that he and his neighbors have kept fighting "against industry coming into our neighborhood and which ... do nothing good for the neighborhood."
Crnko asked the City Council to provide notification to the residents "in a timely manner" whenever the request for the special permit is back on the agenda.
The legislation said that the site would be used for "the manufacture of the projectile portion of ammunition," without any explosive components involved. The business, which Franklin has identified as Precision Brass and Bullet, would include an indoor testing range for the ammunition but would add noise abatement features to the building.
Metro on 07/29/2014