Sand firm again seeks Maumelle's OK for site

Jeffrey Sand Co. is asking to locate a sand storage and distribution operation on 22 vacant acres just inside Maumelle's city limits, possibly renewing a fight with nearby homeowners and city officials over the property's use.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A map showing the Jeffrey Sand Co. property.

The company, with its headquarters at 2200 E. Lincoln Ave. in North Little Rock, applied Thursday afternoon for a conditional-use permit to locate a wholesale sales and storage business on the Crystal Hill Road property that the company has owned since late 2000. The acreage is within a Service Commercial Zone, or C-3, that abuts a planned residential district, Maumelle Planning Director Jim Narey said.

The conditional-use request will be heard at the next Maumelle Planning Commission meeting July 23 at Maumelle City Hall. The Planning Commission's recommendation would then go to the Maumelle City Council for a final decision.

In 2007, the Maumelle City Council -- with all different aldermen at that time -- unanimously voted against amending city zoning regulations that would have allowed Jeffrey Sand Co. to locate on the property. In 2003, the state Supreme Court ruled in Maumelle's favor on the city's appeal of a lower court's decision that would have allowed the property to detach from Maumelle and be annexed into North Little Rock in order for the company to obtain a favorable zoning for the site.

The property is on the banks of the Arkansas River on the border between Maumelle and North Little Rock.

"This is completely different, a totally different approach," Narey said about the new proposal. "Of course, the product they are going to store is sand."

Company President Clay McGeorge said Friday that the property would be a "satellite location" for the business that also has operations in Pine Bluff; Conway; Nashville, Tenn.; and Clarksville, Tenn.

"It will basically be a distribution site out there," McGeorge said. "We were trying to do it years ago. That didn't work out that well."

McGeorge has set a public forum for Wednesday at American Pie Pizza, 9709 Maumelle Blvd., North Little Rock, to let Maumelle residents hear about the company's plans. Other public meetings will be held this month, he said.

"We've been encouraged by business leaders over there, and we're ready to partner with Maumelle and work with the city," McGeorge said. "We want to be in Maumelle, and we want Maumelle to want us there."

Whether that's the case with city residents is unknown. A number of residents who opposed the zoning changes, mainly from the Crystal Hill Road area on the city's outskirts, filled the City Council chambers for the 2007 vote that went against the company, according to news articles about the meeting.

"I don't know how residents will react again," Mayor Mike Watson said.

Janet Watkins, whose home for more than 40 years is about 300 yards from the Jeffrey Sand property, said Thursday that she wants city residents, especially newer ones, to be aware of the proposal. Opposition arguments in the past centered on the increase in truck traffic for hauling away sand, plus the addition of sand dust in the air.

"I don't know if I can find all the materials I had when we fought the fight before," Watkins said. "The thing I'm concerned about is Maumelle has kind of turned over, where people have moved out and everything changes every four to five years. Everything in Maumelle has changed since they tried to do this before.

"But I knew this probably was not a dead issue."

McGeorge countered that Jeffrey Sand has been a North Little Rock business for 102 years and gives back to the communities it locates in through academic scholarships for local high school students.

"I'm the fourth generation in our family business," McGeorge said. "We're going to be good business partners. You don't stay in business for 102 years and operate in the wrong. If we do something wrong, we're going to make it right."

Metro on 07/04/2015

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