The entire Little Rock Board of Directors will decide the future striping design of a downtown portion of Chester Street rather than a single director having influence on the decision, the board decided Tuesday.
In question is how many lanes a stretch of Chester Street from Interstate 630 south to Roosevelt Road should have. A revised plan from last winter called for reducing the four-lane road to three lanes -- a single travel lane in each direction and a center turn lane.
City Director Erma Hendrix, whose Ward 1 includes that area, is against that proposal and recently requested the street be re-striped to its original four-lane layout, which had two travel lanes in each direction.
The road has already been repaved, and City Manager Bruce Moore has a contracted crew on hold waiting for the board's answer next week on how to stripe the roadway.
After hearing of Hendrix's request for the road to go back to four lanes, several people emailed city directors with complaints. Those who sent emails approved of the original three-lane proposal, contending it would make the street safer to walk to area schools, a library and community center.
At Tuesday's board agenda-setting meeting, Ward 4 Director Brad Cazort motioned to add a resolution to the agenda that would instruct staff members to move forward with the three-lane design for Chester Street. In general, the entire board -- not just one director -- should make decisions for major arterial streets, Cazort said.
Hendrix, who is black, responded and said this is a race issue. Cazort is white.
The city first presented the three-lane proposal to the public in a meeting in November. The majority of about 60 people who attended supported the traffic-calming design. Hendrix pointed out Tuesday, though, that three black business owners at that meeting were not supportive.
"The issue concerns people that live in that area and you people up here [are] going to do what concerns them, these few Caucasians emailing," Hendrix said Tuesday. "... These folks are running up to your face with some junk."
At the time of the November meeting, the plan included marked bike lanes on each side of Chester Street. Hendrix strongly opposed the bike lanes, and they were taken out of the proposal. The main goal of the redesign was to slow traffic, Moore said.
The same three-lane design that is being proposed for Chester Street has recently been put in place on Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive after repaving there.
"We have a group of youngsters who don't live on Daisy Bates, don't live on Chester, and want to change everything to suit themselves," Hendrix continued Tuesday. "In 1957, it was white flight. We live there."
Cazort said he would not "stoop to that level" to argue with Hendrix, but noted that he supported staff's recommendation on the matter.
"Director Hendrix, I believe, has said if staff is for it, she supports it. Are you not supporting staff in this instance?" Mayor Mark Stodola asked Hendrix with a grin, prompting laughter from several other board members.
In the emails sent to the board this week asking for the street to be restriped to three lanes, several people mentioned the "complete streets" policy adopted by the board last month that calls for roads to be built with all users in mind -- pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and public transportation users.
"The complete streets ordinance will have its first test in the striping of Chester Street. A complete streets approach, a safe street three-lane scheme, has been widely supported by Little Rock citizens, Ward 1 citizens, Chester Street residents and institutions along Chester Street," resident John Landosky wrote in an email to the board Tuesday.
Public Works Director Jon Honeywell confirmed that several institutions mentioned in emails to the board have written letters of support for the three-lane design. Those entities include Gibbs Magnet Elementary School, Dunbar Community Center, Dunbar Middle School, Dunbar Community Garden, Hearne Fine Art Gallery, Sue Cowan Williams Library, Philander Smith College and the Quapaw Quarter Association.
Landosky said the three-lane design would allow students to get to and from school more safely.
He also questioned Hendrix's influence in the decision to change the street design.
"Does a ward director have the authority to unilaterally circumvent Little Rock city ordinance due to personal preference? How can we, as citizens, ensure that Little Rock follows its own laws?" Landosky asked in his email.
Hendrix has often opposed bike lanes in her ward, which includes downtown. Her opposition to the Chester Street proposal when it was first mentioned late last year came after the city implemented changes to South Louisiana Street, reducing it to a single travel lane without having a public input meeting or giving notice.
After numerous complaints from people who worked in the area, some changes were made to the Louisiana Street configuration, but it remains a one-lane road with bike lanes.
Hendrix was quoted in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in November after the Chester Street meeting as saying she would "give the city manager hell" over the bike lanes.
The three-lane proposal for Chester -- and the one that was put in place recently on Daisy L. Gatson Bates -- still has road space on each side of the street outside of the travel lanes where bicyclists could ride, but the areas do not include markings designating them as bike lanes.
Next week's board meeting is at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.
Metro on 05/27/2015