6 districts revived for NLR ‘wet’ vote
Alcohol sales ban at issue Tuesday
Voters in six former voting districts in North Little Rock’s Park Hill area will decide in a special election Tuesday whether they want to allow alcohol sales in the small pocket of the city that has been “dry” since 1966.
The voting districts, which are defunct but were revived for the special election, cover areas basically along either side of John F. Kennedy Boulevard (Arkansas 107) from just north of Interstate 40 to about Randolph Road, in part of what is now Lakewood and Indian Hills.
Voters in each of the districts will decide independently of each other whether to join the rest of North Little Rock and become “wet.” No other part of North Little Rock forbids alcohol sales. The six districts have 3,700 voters eligible to participate in Tuesday’s election, according to the Pulaski County Election Commission.
As of 5 p.m. Friday, there were 220 votes cast during early voting. There won’t be any early voting Monday because of the Veterans Day holiday.
The North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce and the Park Hill Merchants and Business Association are leading the support for the change. The chamber is pushing a message that allowing alcohol, primarily liquor-by-the-drink sales, will encourage “revitalization and jobs” by opening opportunities for new businesses in Park Hill, particularly higher-end restaurants. Liquor stores will still be prohibited in the area if the measure passes.
No organized opposition has emerged. A spokesman for Park Hill Baptist Church, the largest of four churches within the six districts, said recently that church officials wouldn’t comment on the election. Fliers stating opposition to allowing alcohol sales appeared last week at many residences, but those didn’t identify an organized group that’s against the change.
The election is possible because the state Legislature passed Act 1018 in the spring to establish a process to identify former precinct boundaries during elections in which voters approved alcohol bans. The new law included a requirement for 38 percent of current registered voters of a now-defunct district to sign petitions calling for an election. Petitions were submitted during the summer and certified by the Election Commission.
Alcohol sales have been prohibited in the area since 1966, when voters in those Park Hill districts approved the ban. Once an area votes itself “dry,” that decision can be reversed only by a vote taken within the same areas.
Elections in 1978 and 1980 failed to overturn the ban, and other efforts have encountered problems with overlapping voter registration addresses and changes in voting boundaries.