Little Italy task force plans appeal of town-incorporation rejection

Leaders of the Little Italy Incorporation Task Force will appeal the decision by Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde to deny their petition to turn the community into a town, according to a notice of appeal filed in circuit court this week.

Hyde, who is the chief administrative officer of the county and judge in county court, denied the task force’s petition to incorporate Little Italy on Feb. 26, citing the potential limitations of the community if it became a town.

The ruling came after months of back-and-forth between Little Italy Incorporation Task Force Co-Chairmen Kristy Eanes and Chris Dorer and Central Arkansas Water representatives who were concerned about the effects that incorporation would have on county zoning code for the Lake Maumelle watershed.

The lake provides drinking water for about 400,000 central Arkansans, and Central Arkansas Water worked for several years to pass land-use restrictions and zoning in the watershed through the Pulaski County Quorum Court to protect the lake from future development and the pollution that might result from it.

The proposed borders for Little Italy encompass about 25 percent of Pulaski County’s share of the protected watershed. The watershed — land that drains into the lake — encompasses 137 square miles in Pulaski, Saline and Perry counties. If Little Italy had incorporated, the area would have been removed from county zoning and landuse restrictions unless a town council approved reinstating the restrictions.

Central Arkansas Water proposed two compromis-

es for Little Italy in July that would gain the utility’s support for incorporation, which included stopping the incorporation effort in favor of getting the community recognized as a historic district or getting owners of 75 percent of the land in town to agree to signing “historic preservation covenants” extending water-quality regulations. Eanes and Dorer rejected both compromises, citing a desire to incorporate and to do so quickly.

Eanes and Dorer, who had served on another task force that amended the Lake Maumelle watershed zoning code, offered their own compromise in their letter to the utility in August, proposing that they would lobby a new town council to adopt the zoning code for the town. If the council did not approve it, Hyde would have the authority to rescind incorporation.

The utility rejected that compromise, noting that a town council could repeal the zoning code in the future.

In testimony before Hyde in December and January, Eanes and Dorer said they wanted to commemorate the community’s 100 years of existence by becoming a town but that they also wanted to improve local services, such as road maintenance, and represent the community at a greater level with other government agencies like Metroplan.

On Wednesday, attorneys with Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull filed the notice of appeal, which landed in Circuit Judge Mary McGowan’s court, on behalf of the “incorporators of the community known as Little Italy.”