Dozens of residents from the Stone Links neighborhood filled the North Little Rock City Council chambers Monday night to try to prevent farmland or cattle to be allowed adjacent to their backyards.
The City Council postponed for two weeks any action on legislation presented Monday that would restrict small farming and ranch plots and also limit the number of cattle to 10, legislation that 10 homeowners who spoke at the meeting favored.
The community's 18-hole Stone Links Golf Course was sold at an auction Dec. 11, property that included about 300 acres of farmland. North Little Rock currently allows one cow per acre.
"Now next to my prized home, my backyard, there now could be a cattle farm or a pig farm," said Bill Brooks, whose said his home backs up to the former golf course's 14th hole.
Elizabeth Atkins, whose home borders the No. 6 hole, said "I would not like to see farm animals in our backyard. I do not want to see cows on the other side of our fence."
City Attorney Jason Carter and Deputy City Attorney Matt Fleming each told council members that "ambiguity and conflict" exists in city code that needed to be clarified before the legislation went forward.
Alderman Maurice Taylor, who sponsored the legislation, agreed to wait two weeks before asking for a vote, but only with assurance from Mayor Joe Smith that some time before that he doesn't find out that "there are TV cameras on the good folks from Stone Links who now have cows in their backyard."
Taylor told the crowd that "I don't want chickens, goats or cows in the city. To me, a chicken belongs on a farm or in a frying pan."
Smith told the crowd that they wouldn't want the City Council to "pass something with no teeth in it. That's what would have happened."
"There is a way to fix this, there really is," he said.
Carter later explained that the city's zoning ordinance contains "an apparent conflict in the regulation of farms." The conflict is a "broad statement that farms are allowed in all zones, subject to other regulations," while another part of the zoning ordinance states that "farms are only authorized in industrial and conservation zones."
"These rules are in conflict," Carter said. "The City Council needs to adopt a rule that resolves this conflict in such a manner that also clarifies the appropriate use of the former Stone Links Golf Course."
Those speaking for the residents in attendance were unanimous that they didn't want their neighborhood on the eastern side of the city to turn into a farming community.
"It's a great area to live in," said Willie Thomas. "I would not like to see cows or farmland to hurt our growth out there. I hope you all hear us and you all take care of us."
Shannon Armand, president of the Stone Links Homeowners Association, agreed with another speaker that "sometimes we feel like we're a little forgotten about out there," with no fire station in that area and being outside of the North Little Rock School District. She added that if the neighborhood is allowed to go from what had been a golfing community to a farming community that such change would "be a hindrance to us."
Metro on 01/27/2015