Council tables amendment, joins opioid epidemic litigation

The Bella Vista City Council sent a proposed amendment for accessory structure regulations to the planning commission for review and signed on for litigation related to the national opioid epidemic.

The council voted, with five in favor, to join litigation related to the nation’s opioid epidemic. Council member John Flynn abstained.

Mayor Peter Christie explained that this litigation came up last week. The city will join the suit

as a member of the Municipal League, along with other cities including Rogers and Springdale. This, he said, is one of three Arkansas risk pools signed onto the case against identified responsible parties.

“We have a problem here, same as everybody else has a problem with this,” he said.

Staff attorney Jason Kelley said he agreed that these prescription drugs have caused problems in Bella Vista. He prosecutes misdemeanors for the city, he said, and has seen an increasing number of cases related to prescription drugs.

“The number of drunken driving cases that are actual prescription drug cases and not alcohol have increased dramatically since I’ve started prosecuting,” he said.

Kelley said that he did not see any risk. The city is not paying to litigate, he said, and will see a portion of any funds awarded.

“The only thing I can see is that the city might be required to do is gather some data,” Kelley said, “which

might not be that hard to do and which we might already have.”

The litigation, he said, is aimed at drug manufacturers who are believed to have been negligent and are, as a result, liable for the related damages.

Council member Doug Fowler said that, while running for the city council, he did ride-alongs with police. In one eight-hour shift, he said, he saw officers spend six of those hours working with someone who had a prescription drug problem.

“There’s definitely expense associated with this,” he said.

Flynn said he abstained because he didn’t believe that all the blame rests on drug manufacturers. In some cases, he said, doctors and drug users also have a share of the responsibility for the current predicament.

“I get it, the drug companies have mismanaged,” he said. “But there’s a lot of other people responsible.”

The council voted 5-1 in favor of tabling the proposed amendment on accessory structure regulations until March, with council member Linda Lloyd voting no. The planning commission will review the proposed amendment before it is brought

back to the council.

Lloyd said she was primarily concerned with the regulation’s impact on where property owners could build their accessory buildings, in particular with regard to homes on curvilinear streets.

Under the current regulation, a structure may not be built past the home’s front plane, defined as an imaginary line running across the lot, even with the home’s front door.

Lloyd said she believed that this line would remain parallel with the road but recently learned it does not. She’s met residents, she said, who were unable to build an accessory building on their lots because of this and she would like to provide them relief as soon as possible.

“The reason I opened up this can of worms now is to resolve what I thought was in the original ordinance,” Lloyd said.

Fowler said he made the same assumption when the council voted on these regulations earlier this year, but he would prefer to have the planning commission look at the proposal. He doubts it will take another year, he said, and he

believes the commission has people with relevant knowledge to better inform the council before its final decision.

“Going to the planning commission, I think, is the right thing to do,” Fowler said.

The council agreed to table the proposed amendment until the March regular meeting to give the planning commission adequate time to look at it.

The council also approved vacating a portion of the Caister Lane right of way, amendments for the city’s drug-free workplace policy, repairs for a road grader, funding for the animal shelter, traffic signal maintenance and monitoring contracts, and applying for a grant for federal funds for the Mercy Way bridge project.