City explains tower’s location
The city earlier this week told owners of property in the residential area where it wants to put an elevated water tank that the proposed location meets all the necessary criteria.
The 20-inch transmission line connecting to a main distribution line from the Ouachita Plant on upper Lake Hamilton runs in front of the 1-acre property at 103 Marquette Place. At an elevation of 540 feet, the property is high enough for the 170-foot tall tank to gravity feed the 20-inch line and reduce pumping
that puts a strain on aging lines in a sprawling distribution system that sends water to more than 35,000 meters throughout Garland County.
Located east of Central Avenue, behind Cornerstone Market Place, it’s also outside the flight path to the airport at Hot Springs Memorial Field, and city streets fronting the property to the north and east make it easily accessible.
The location fits a specific set of criteria, but area residents told city officials Thursday night that the calculus used in selecting the site didn’t account for the affect on their property values or how a water tank would change the character of the neighborhood.
City Engineer Gary Carnahan said those considerations were unnecessary, telling residents at Thursday night’s informational meeting at New Life Church that a water tank won’t detract from the value of their homes. The presentation Matt Dunn of Crist Engineers, the city’s water system consultant, showed the audience included slides of water tanks located in residential areas of Malvern, Arkadelphia, Bryant and Dallas.
“We don’t believe building a water tank will ruin your property values,” Carnahan said. “You saw all these photos of people with water tanks in their neighborhoods. It doesn’t lower your property values. Engineering studies don’t take that into account, because we don’t believe it’s a negative impact on the property values.”
The informational meeting was held in advance of the Hot Springs Board of Directors’ July 18 hearing on the appeal of the planning commission’s vote last month to grant a conditional-use permit for the water tank.
An ordinance authorizing the city to purchase the Marquette Place property for
$210,000 was pulled from the board’s June
20 agenda after neighborhood resident Susan Batterton challenged the planning commission’s decision. The property is appraised at $113,000.
The city’s zoning code doesn’t list water tanks on its table of uses, but the city has said they fall under the water-treatment plant category. According to the zoning code, the planning commission can grant a conditional-use permit for water-treatment plants in all residential and commercial zones.
Deputy City Manager Bill Burrough told residents the site provides the most cost-effective means of adding storage capacity. The Arkansas Department of Health’s sanitary survey of the water system last year said the city’s 6.8 million gallons of usable storage could satisfy 10.84 hours of average demand and fewer than nine hours of maximum demand. Average demand last year was 15.12 million gallons a day. Maximum demand reached 20.11 mgd.
Burrough said the 2 to 3 million gallon tank would put the city closer to the 24 hours of storage the state requires.
“Nine hours isn’t a long time if we have a problem at the (Ouachita Plant),” he said. “If we have a fire during that time, it’s going to go in just a few hours. We are severely deficient in our system for storage.”
Burrough said the eight other sites the city scouted would require a large diameter line to connect the tank to the 20-inch line, and the construction of a road to access the tank. Both are likely too cost prohibitive to recommend to the board, he told residents, explaining that all of the system’s rate payers would see the cost on their water bills.
“Our job is to recommend what we feel is the best location,” he said. “In this case, the city means 90,000 users. Our fiduciary responsibility is to bring a recommendation that protects the rates of everybody within the system.”
Five of the nine prospective locations were submitted for Federal Aviation Administration approval. City officials said Thursday night the FAA decided the location west of Higdon Ferry Road and behind the Lakeview Assembly of God Church would interfere with the flight path to the airport. The location behind the post office on Section Line Road is also in the way.
The Marquette Place location, a wooded area between Lowe’s Home Center and the Timbercrest RV and Mobile Home Park and the area behind Westminster Presbyterian Church all received FAA clearance.
Dunn told neighborhood residents it became apparent after the FAA responded to the first submissions that locations west of Central Avenue wouldn’t be approved.
“We didn’t submit all the sites,” he said. “It takes about three months to get a response. You just don’t call and ask. It goes through a whole process. We kind of got a feel from the feedback we’d been getting from the first two or three as to what was going to be approved and not approved.”
The city has an agreement to purchase the Marquette Place property and wouldn’t have to use the condemnation process to acquire it. Carnahan told the residents the location south of Lowe’s and north of the mobile home park doesn’t have a willing seller. It’s owned by Southpark Inc., the corporate filing for which lists Ira Kleinman as president.
Carnahan said it’s also too far from the
20-inch line and inaccessible by public right of way.
“Mr. Kleinman’s property goes out to Central Avenue,” he said. “We’d have to build a road all the way from Central Avenue to the back of his property or get access through the Lowe’s property. We’d have to buy or obtain commercial property. That’s all commercial, high-dollar property all the way from Pakis Road to the backside of Lowe’s.”
Burrough told the audience the Westminster Presbyterian Church property at
3819 Central Ave. could be a plausible alternative. The backside of the property is close to the 20-inch line, which veers behind the Outback Steakhouse and On the Border Mexican Grill and Cantina restaurants before turning northeast around the Belk department store and proceeding down Marquette Place.
It ends at the Pines Nursing and Rehab Center on Carpenter Dam Road.
“It’s not as good as (103 Marquette Place), but it could be close,” he said. “We’re going to run those numbers. We don’t even know if they want to sell.”
Burrough said the parking lot of New Life Church at 300 Pakis St. is also a possibility.
“I truly believe this water tank is going to be somewhere in this area,” he said. “We’re going to try and find more than one option to deliver to the board. Right now, our recommendation is 103 Marquette Place.”