In a 10-1 vote on Thursday afternoon, the Little Rock Planning Commission denied an application submitted by developer Rick Ferguson to build a private sewage treatment plant in west Pulaski County along a tributary to the Little Maumelle River.
The decision put a halt to Ferguson's plans to construct a subdivision of more than 100 lots in a rural area of the county approximately 2 miles beyond the Little Rock city limits -- an area where the city still has zoning authority but does not extend sewage lines.
Ferguson plans to appeal the Planning Commission's decision to the city's Board of Directors, Ferguson's attorney, Philip Kaplan, said after the meeting.
The vote came after Kaplan, neighborhood group members, an environmental consultant and the project's engineer testified.
City staff members had recommended that the commission deny Ferguson's application, calling it a "classic case of urban sprawl."
"The proposed development is located over 2 miles from the city limits ... essentially leapfrogging over 2 miles of rural development and undeveloped lands to construct an urban residential development," said Dana Carney, the city's zoning and subdivision manager.
"Such a development is better suited for construction within the city limits, or at the very least adjacent to the city limits where annexation is a reasonable expectation," Carney said.
But the project's engineer, Joe White, said the proposed development, known as the Mountain Valley Subdivision, follows a typical pattern of development and urban growth.
"That's how growth occurs: Something jumps out in front and the city fills in behind it," he told the board. "We could never have imagined a Wal-Mart at Chenal Parkway and [Arkansas] 10 when I was growing up, and yet there it is.
"If we shut this down then we are going to stymie growth," he added.
It was standing-room only in the Little Rock City Council chambers as dozens of members of the Citizens of West Pulaski County and the Nowlin Creek Neighborhood Association -- which, between them, have approximately 500 members -- packed the room to oppose the application.
Drew Kelso, president of the Citizens of West Pulaski County, highlighted one of the group's primary concerns: How the sewage treatment plant's discharge, which developers said would be approximately 30,000 gallons per day, would negatively affect Nowlin Creek. The creek is one of several in the area that meander through the rural landscape of western Pulaski County and feed into the Little Maumelle River.
Another subdivision development and sewage plant known as The Trails is being proposed by developer Wayne Richie and would discharge its treated wastewater into Fletcher Creek.
"On Fletcher Creek, The Trails was scheduled for 63,000 gallons [of discharge] a day," Kelso said. "We pass those two, we pass another two the next year, another two the next year. You do that for a decade, now you have a million gallons of treated sewage water running into the Little Maumelle right through Pinnacle Mountain State Park. So if you had 20 plants in that watershed, it's all going to consolidate about 300 yards upstream from the Pinnacle Mountain State Park."
Both proposals for wastewater treatment plants require approval from the Arkansas Department of Health and a permit from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. According to Kaplan, both departments gave Ferguson's project preliminary approval contingent upon the city's zoning approval.
"So what's the big elephant in the room here? It's that folks want Highway 10 to remain as it is, with no density," Kaplan said. "I've been here over the years with the Highway 10 overlay plan and everybody wanted it to be green, and it ain't green anymore."
Planning Commissioner Troy Laha agreed, and gave the developers their only vote of approval.
"I think you people out there in that area are a little bit selfish," Laha said, directing his remarks to the audience of west Pulaski County residents. "You don't want anyone else coming out there. You moved out there and you had all this open space forever and these people are absolutely correct that development is going to occur, whether you want it to or not."
Metro on 07/15/2016