LR studying cost to extend city services
Planners expecting review’s completion by September
Little Rock’s study of the fiscal impact of providing city services to areas that are outside its limits but under its zoning control is set to be complete by September.
A similar study to be commissioned by the Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority on the cost to extend sewer services to the extraterritorial jurisdiction areas is to be complete about the same time.
City Planning and Zoning Department staff members updated the Planning Commission about the scope of the study Thursday.
The city Board of Directors told staff members to look at the issue in an ordinance last year after bills had been filed in the state Legislature that would have mandated cities to extend sewer service to an area if a property owner requested it, paid for the infrastructure and signed a pre-annexation agreement with the city. That bill did not become law.
Little Rock’s extraterritorial jurisdiction consists of a 3-mile area outside the city’s western limits and another area on its southeastern border, in which the city exerts zoning authority in order to anticipate future growth and annexation.
The area receives no city services and is not connected to the sewage system. Occupants are not city residents.
The matter of what to do when approving developments in the area became contentious last year when builders submitted a request to put sewage treatment facilities — also known as package plants — at their developments to treat wastewater before it is released into a stream or creek.
After voting down a proposal to put such a treatment plant at a subdivision outside city limits, the city board then put a temporary ban on the development of any high-density subdivisions in the extraterritorial jurisdiction.
The moratorium is meant to give the city and the wastewater utility time to study the fiscal impact of extending city services beyond city limits in anticipation of any bills that may pass in the next legislative session.
Little Rock hired TischlerBise Inc. for $223,470 to complete its study. The Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority plans to award a contract for its study at a Feb. 21 meeting.
“We anticipate the study will take approximately six months and we will work with the city of Little Rock’s consultant to make sure we are using similar base-line information,” utility spokesman Kenetta Ridgell said.
The consultants for Little Rock are expected to come up with a fiscal model that will estimate the cost to the city if it were to provide police, fire, trash, road, animal and other services to the extraterritorial areas.
“Our study is looking at the 20-year horizon of what will probably happen within the next 20 years and what the impacts of that will be on the city,” said city Planning Manager Walter Malone.
“[The consultants] are going to give us some numbers we can use assuming similar bills come forth in another year in a [legislative] session, so that when we are talking to the legislators we can have real numbers about the impact,” Malone told the Planning Commission.
Consultants from the firms are in town this week talking to stakeholders and will return in the future to visit with the various city departments that provide resident services.
The first draft of the city study is expected by June. After a comment period and reworkings, the report with final findings and a presentation is set for September.
Malone told the commission that the report will just be the start of the conversation.
“After the report is done, I think there’s going to be a lot of work to do by this commission and the citizens. The report isn’t final. The final report isn’t: We are going to amend our planning boundary, amend our land use plan or change our zoning and here is what we are going to do. That’s going to come after the report. So, there’s going to be a lot of work to do. Don’t think of September as the end. September is just first base,” Malone said.
Right now, if property owners outside the city limits wanted to connect to the sewer system, the city would tell them they had to annex into Little Rock to do so.
Typically, a property owner requests to be annexed, but the city has authority to annex land on its own initiative.
Malone said one of the biggest policy questions that will have to be determined is if the city is forced to provide services to land outside of its limits, which will come at a cost, will the city then initiate annexation so it can recoup some of the cost by adding another taxpayer inside city limits.