County looks to rein in unplanned rural developments

The growth of unplanned developments in rural Garland County threatens public health and safety and needs to be checked, the county said Monday.

Developers have sold real property through unrecorded contracts to people living on the properties in campers and tents with no access to water, sanitary sewage disposal or roads capable of supporting emergency vehicles, the county said. An ordinance the Garland County Quorum Court Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee advanced Monday conditions receipt of a 911 address on applicants complying with county and state regulations.

The Department of Emergency Management’s addressing office currently has no authority to withhold the issuing of an address. The ordinance advanced Monday to the full quorum court requires compliance with all county ordinances and coordination with the county’s floodplain and stormwater offices and any volunteer fire departments serving the area before an address will be issued and included in the 911 address database.

Applicants installing septic tanks would have to prove they have notified the state Health Department. The ordinance includes an emergency clause that would put it into effect upon adoption by the quorum court.

“We have some areas in the county individuals are trying to develop in a manner that’s not consistent with public safety, so we need our ordinance to spell out what you have to do to get an address,” County Judge Darryl Mahoney told the committee. “We’ve got an area where the guy is describing the lots as recreational, so he’s allowing the people to put up tiny houses and campers in there with no septic tank. Supposedly they’re carrying sewage out and dumping it somewhere else. We know that’s not happening.”

The county said the owner of an unplanned development in the Wildcat Road area applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit sanctioning the crossing he’s built over a Bull Bayou tributary. His application for the after-the-fact permit includes a plan to reinforce with a concrete slab the storage container that currently serves as a makeshift crossing, the county said, noting that it plans to weigh in on the developer’s

application before the comment period expires later this week.

“The biggest problem is access to it,” Mahoney told the committee. “There’s absolutely no way we can get in there with a fire truck or ambulance. We need the ability to withhold an address to where they can’t get power or anything else until they at least meet public safety requirements.

“If you don’t have an address, theoretically you can’t get power, and you can’t get your mail. It’s a way to slow them down. It’s no different than putting up a fence for a burglar. It’s a way to slow the growth down.”

The county’s environmental inspections office said residents have to drive across Bull Bayou to enter and exit the development, creating turbidity that alters the creek’s flow.

Applicants seeking an address are told they have to comply with county and state regulations, the county said, but some don’t follow through. The 911 addressing office said its inability to withhold addresses has led to mobile homes being placed in floodplains.

The ordinance would amend the addressing ordinance the quorum court updated in 2016 to require address names and numbers for properties with docks be posted on the lake side of the dock. Entergy Arkansas Inc. asked for the update, telling the quorum court docks set adrift during high water events would be easier to trace back to owners if the owner’s address were posted on the dock.