Area B annexation now ‘final,’ city says

The city said the annexation of 621 acres between the corporate limits and Lake Hamilton’s north shore can finally proceed, allowing it to absorb the area at the center of a more than two-year legal controversy.

The Arkansas Supreme Court issued a May 24 order denying the petition for review property owners in the territory known as Enclave Study Area B filed with the high court March 30, clearing the way for an annexation that was initially scheduled to go into effect April 1, 2016.

The property owners, represented by lead plaintiffs Rex L. Houston Jr., Kelton R. Brown Jr., John G. Homatas and Jim West, sued the city in February 2016, claiming they had been disenfranchised by the statute the Hot Springs Board of Directors used to annex the area, and that the city did not follow procedure prescribed by the state’s annexation code.

“That means the challenge of annexation is over,” City Attorney Brian Albright, explaining the significance of the Supreme Court order, told the board Tuesday. “The annexation is now final, and we will begin providing services. Under the law, we have three years, but our schedule will be much sooner than that.”

City Clerk/Assistant City Manager Lance Spicer said department heads met Wednesday afternoon to discuss the timetable for extending city services to Area B, which includes about 1,200 address points and, according to the 2010 Census, about 500 permanent residents in the

area comprising Lakeland and Lake Hamilton drives and Buena Vista Road.

“Staff are still expecting the 30-day timeline for most of the services we have direct control over, but there are a few outside partners we will need to coordinate with as well,” Spicer said.

The plaintiffs petitioned the Supreme Court to review the state Court of Appeals ruling affirming Division 1 Circuit Judge John Homer Wright’s January 2017 dismissal of their lawsuit. The Appeals Court denied the plaintiffs’ request for a rehearing last month.

The opinion affirming the lower court ruling deferred to the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in George Pritchett vs. City of Hot Springs on the question of disenfranchisement. The high court upheld a lower court’s dismissal of the challenge Pritchett brought against the Area B annexation, with Justice Rhonda K. Wood decreeing the Constitution did not entitle Area B residents to vote on the annexation.

The city board annexed the area by ordinance in January 2016 after the Legislature amended the enclave provision of the annexation code during the 2015 regular session. The new language broadened enclaves to include land bound by corporate limits on three sides and a lake or a river on a fourth.

A city can annex an enclave by a majority vote of its governing body.