Appeal puts water tank project on hold
An appeal filed in protest of the elevated water tank the city plans to locate in a residential area has put the project on hold until the next meeting of the Hot Springs Board of Directors.
The board removed the ordinance authorizing the city to purchase property for the water tank from Tuesday night’s agenda in view of the appeal of the conditional-use permit the Hot Springs Planning Commission granted for the water tank earlier this month.
The board will hear the appeal at its July 18 meeting.
Susan Batterton is appealing the location of the 170-foot-high tank at 103 Marquette Place, which she said is too close to her Marwinette Place residence and the homes of her neighbors. She appreciates the practicality of putting a water tank on the elevated 1-acre parcel off Pakis Street but said the city has other options.
“I understand the choice of the property,” she said Wednesday, explaining that the neighborhood is united in its opposition to the water tank. “It’s on a high spot, but I think something else could be worked out.”
Batterton said during the 44 years she’s lived at Marwinette Place the creep of development has disrupted the calm of her once-quiet neighborhood. The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department carved the right of way for the King Expressway through the wooded area to the north, and the arrival of the Cornerstone Market Place put a busy commercial area to the west.
“The complexion of the neighborhood has totally changed,” she said, noting the city never followed through on the 50-foot barrier of trees she said it promised to put between the neighborhood and shopping center. “We’ve been encroached on one by one.”
She said the planning commission’s action would make a structure equivalent in height to the 16-story Medical Arts Building downtown an unavoidable feature of the neighborhood scenery.
“It will have a big impact in a lot of ways,” she said. “One of my neighbors likes to sit on his deck with his friends after working hard all day. He’d be staring straight at (the water tank). It would be less than 100 feet away. There’s other people living below it who would have to stare at it from their patios. Nobody wants to have a house beside that.”
The neighborhood is zoned suburban residential. The city’s zoning code doesn’t list water tanks on its table of permitted uses, but Planning and Development Director Kathy Sellman said they fall under the water-treatment plant category. The planning commission can grant a conditional-use permit for a water-treatment plant in all residential and commercial zones.
City Attorney Brian Albright admonished city directors not to solicit information on the planning commission’s ruling ahead of next month’s hearing. He said case law prohibits the board from considering information offered outside the confines of the hearing.
“In your legislative functions you can be lobbied,” he told the board Tuesday night. “You can be called. You can be emailed. You can be visited. When it comes to judicial matters, ex-parte communication is prohibited. You’re sitting as a tribunal, not as a legislative body.
“You’ll make your decision based on what you hear in this chamber. The Arkansas Supreme Court has made that determination.”
The city has an agreement with the owner of 103 Marquette Place to purchase his property for $210,000. City Engineer Gary Carnahan told the board last week the location fits a specific set of criteria none of the other nine properties the city began scouting last year met.
Its proximity to the 20-inch transmission line paralleling the expressway, its elevation and location outside the flight path to the airport at Hot Springs Memorial Field recommended it, Carnahan said. According to property records, it has a $113,200 estimated market value as of last year.