The Arkansas Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a lower court's dismissal of Bethel Heights' lawsuit against Springdale over the rezoning of 86 acres of formerly Bethel Heights land in 2015.
The Court of Appeals also upheld a lower-court ruling in a companion case: a decision by Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren that Shelly Kendrick and the Gregory A. Kendrick Revocable Living Trust did not violate a contract with Bethel Heights in allowing Springdale to annex their land.
Springdale passed an ordinance in March 2015 annexing 86 acres from the Gregory A. Kendrick Revocable Living Trust and Shelley Kendrick. In April 2015, Bethel Heights sued, alleging a breach of contract by Kendrick and the trust because Bethel Heights had declined to authorize the sewer services requested by Kendrick and the trust that were required by agreement before annexation. Kendrick and the trust argued that letters exchanged did not constitute a contract and that they had never promised to agree on sewer services before annexation.
Karren, who presided over both lawsuits by Bethel Heights, found that no contract existed between the parties. The Court of Appeals, in a ruling written by Judge N. Mark Klappenbach, upheld those findings Wednesday, saying "there were no definite terms to form a contract" because of a vague counteroffer from the city related to sewer service and a lack of mutual agreement on whether the services needed to be provided before annexation.
In Bethel Heights' other case challenging Springdale's rezoning of the land from agricultural use to industrial use, Karren had found the city's decision to rezone the land was "not arbitrary, was not capricious, and did not lack a rational basis," according to court records.
Bethel Heights appealed, arguing that Karren should have waited for an evidentiary hearing to find whether Springdale's zoning decision had been arbitrary or capricious. In their exhibits presented over the issue, the Bethel Heights attorneys argued that the zoning decision had been made arbitrarily and capriciously because of the incompatibility of nearby properties, failures to comply with proper procedures and a property owner claiming the values of his property would decline, among other things. Springdale attorneys provided affidavits stating that industrial use was present in other nearby areas.
In his order Wednesday, Appeals Judge Phillip Whiteaker found that Bethel Heights' exhibits "did not meet proof with proof" on the issue of zoning compatibility and ruled in favor of Springdale.
Metro on 02/09/2017