After hearing united opposition from neighborhood residents Tuesday, the North Little Rock Planning Commission turned down a proposal to create a structure to store cremated remains on a residential street in the city's historic Park Hill area.
The columbarium, proposed to be placed on a vacant, hillside single-family lot at 1522 Skyline Drive, would have contained a series of walls with up to 5,000 niches for urns holding the ashes of deceased people and pets, property owner Andrew Darr told the commission. The charge for each niche would be $3,000, he said.
"A columbarium is a place of honor, with niche, or storage, space containing cremated remains," said Darr, referring to the plans as a "park" to be open to the public, and niches for urns "available to anybody." Six statues also would have been installed on the property, plans showed.
All six commissioners present voted against the proposed conditional-use permit after nine residents spoke in opposition. Chairman Norman Clifton even gave a plea during the middle of the comment session for anyone with "any different views" to come forward. No one spoke in favor, although a couple did commend Darr for braving a neighborhood association meeting last week.
Darr has the option to appeal to the City Council, if a city alderman or the mayor will sponsor the necessary legislation.
Neighbors who spoke said they were adamantly against Darr's proposal, citing concerns about their property values, setting a precedent for allowing commercial intrusion into the neighborhood, anticipated parking and traffic problems on a narrow, winding residential street and the general nature of the planned business.
"We want neighbors -- live neighbors who can enrich the integrity of our neighborhood," Skyline Drive resident Linda Sue Sanders told commissioners. "Not 5,000 dead ones."
Kevin Mitchell, also a Skyline Drive resident, told the commission: "I can't think of a single resident living in the Park Hill neighborhood who is for this."
John Gregan, president of the Park Hill Neighborhood Association, said the group opposed the columbarium being located between homes on "one of the most prominent, established residential streets in North Little Rock."
Tap Pace, president of the Lakewood Neighborhood Association, also said his group was against the proposal, "and we always will be against any tampering" with the city's zoning for single-family residences.
Metro on 08/12/2015