Nestled behind 73 acres of mostly woods on the eastern edge of North Little Rock's Burns Park is a neighborhood that its residents refer to as Pleasant View.
So a recent proposal by the city to rezone and change the land-use plan for that property to develop a lodge-type hotel has created a groundswell of opposition from residents who said they're afraid their quality of life would be adversely affected if the rezoning happens.
"If this goes through, it'll be Unpleasant View," said longtime resident Becky Scott. "It's not going to be good. This is going to ruin this neighborhood."
For now, the residents' voices have been heard.
North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith said Friday that he is having the rezoning proposal pulled until city officials can meet with neighborhood residents and the Amboy/Belwood Neighborhood Association. Belwood takes up the southernmost part of the area, and Amboy is to its immediate east.
"The neighbors just weren't aware of what we've been working on for the past seven years, and I understand that," Smith said Friday after he met with Scott and Sandra Prater, a former state representative whose family also lives in that area. "I'm in no hurry to make this happen."
The rezoning would allow the city to market the property for a North Little Rock Parks Commission concept of a lodge-type hotel with a restaurant and possibly other amenities. The lodge has been a concept in the city's parks master plan since 2006, though there are no developer or project plans in place.
The 73-acre tract is off Exit 150 of Interstate 40 and borders Charles H. Boyer Drive. It is a piece of Burns Park that was exchanged by the city in late 2013 to preserve the Big Rock Quarry as a city park.
The land swap was necessary before an indoor facility could be developed in Burns Park because the park was created using federal Outdoor Recreation Grant funds, which restrict the park for outdoor activities only. With the land swap, the 73 acres are technically no longer within Burns Park.
The North Little Rock Planning Commission tabled the proposal Tuesday until its next meeting March 10 to gather more information after 35 to 40 residents showed up in opposition. The issue now will wait until Smith gives the go-ahead.
"The biggest fear the residents said they had is they didn't know what was going to go in there," Smith said. "And we couldn't tell them, because we don't know."
Requests for proposals are still scheduled to be advertised in March or April for potential developers to put forth plans to the city, Smith said. That way the city can "find out if there is any interest out there, and if there is, we'll certainly let everybody know what's going on," he said.
If possible, Smith said, he wants to have the 73 acres rezoned portion by portion as developments come about, instead of rezoning the entire acreage, as is proposed, without knowing what will be built there.
"Then we can go to the City Council with something to show what's going there, instead of asking for a blanket rezone," he said.
Scott, who said her home on South Drive is "right in the middle" of what could be rezoned, said the property's proximity to I-40 makes it more than a neighborhood issue. While the trees provide a sight and noise buffer between neighborhood homes and I-40's traffic, the tree-filled property is very visible from the highway. "I believe there are enough people in the city who don't care about my neighborhood, but they do care about that exit," Scott said.
Speaking in support of the rezoning, North Little Rock Economic Development Executive Director Todd Larson told the Planning Commission last week that 80,000 vehicles pass the site daily.
City Alderman Steve Baxter not only represents the Ward 3 area affected, but said he grew up there.
"I get it. I lived up there," Baxter said. "My mom still does. I know about the noise. I traipsed all around those woods when I was a kid.
"It's obvious that they don't want that kind of rezone back there," Baxter said, adding that the concerns are increases in freeway noise, drainage issues and traffic. "I think they [the residents] are doing their due diligence and getting organized."
Parks Director Bob Rhoads said developing the property for shopping areas isn't the intention of the Parks Commission. The rezoning proposal included a change in the land-use plan that would allow "community shopping," which several residents expressed concern over to the Planning Commission.
A hotel with a meeting facility and restaurant is the need, Rhoads said, so that during baseball, softball, soccer and tennis tournaments in Burns Park, a portion of those participants would have a close facility to stay in, meet and eat, and the city could keep their business instead of possibly losing them and their spending to surrounding cities.
"My objective does not have anything to do with that other stuff. I want the hotel," Rhoads said. "What we want is a lodge concept for the hotel. Todd [Larson] has gotten my input. That's what I've told him. These are our needs.
"I want to save the trees, and I want it to still look like a park," Rhoads added. "The reason for the lodge concept is to try to make it fit into the park and to save as many trees as possible. You still want it to blend in with the park."
Metro on 02/15/2015