‘ Memorandum of understanding’ being forged on ETJ
County Judge Rick Davis said a “memorandum of understanding” is being forged between the county and the city of Hot Springs regarding the city’s extra- territorial jurisdiction policy.
The ETJ extends the city’s jurisdiction in property and infrastructure development to a fivemile radius surrounding the city.
Davis said City Attorney Brian Albright drafted the proposed memorandum and that County Attorney Ralph Ohm is reviewing it.
“The reason for this is to come up with a common- sense solution to the problems that we’re having with the ETJ,” Davis said. “If we get this in place, there’s going to be refined, so-many- step details to getting something accomplished instead of the way it is right now.
“When you go to get a subdi- vision plan approved, it’s a little bit hard to do, you have so many steps to go through. I think it’s going to make it easier for the public.”
Davis said the memorandum of understanding must be ap- proved by the Hot Springs Board of Directors and the Garland County Quorum Court before its provisions take effect. He could not speculate when that might be.
“It may be a while,” he said. Davis said the quorum court’s Public Health, Welfare and Committee will review the memorandum of understanding before it goes to the full quorum court for consideration.
Davis has been involved in reforming the ETJ since taking office in January 2011. He said Thursday he wants assurance “before I go any further and spend any more time” that the city board and the quorum court “are going to agree to what’s going to happen.”
“If they’re not, then I don’t want to spend any more time on it,” he said.
Davis said the memorandum of understanding “pretty well lays out what we agreed to; that the city will go back into the city limits as far as their rules and regulations and the county will pick up the area outside for their rules and regulations.”
Davis said the county’s rules and regulations pertain to county roads, storm water eradication, subdivisions and unsightly properties.
“We will adopt these ordinances and within this desig- nated area, that’s the county’s responsibility,” he said. “They’re things that the county needs. These things that we’re doing, we needed to do anyway.”
Davis said he wants a joint city- county planning commission, with the committee membership based on population, to resolve property development and related issues.
“How many are appointed will be according to the population, excluding Diamondhead and Hot Springs Village because they’re gated and they have their own rules and regulations,” he said.
Davis said the county has the option to form its own planning commission “but to me that’s growing government bureaucracy, and I don’t want to do that.”
“We don’t have the money to hire an engineer to put on staff to review plans. Once you hire him, then he’s going to need somebody else and it just grows and it costs taxpayers more money.”
Davis said the joint planning commission would consider property development and similar issues in both the city and the county.
“The planning commission will have two sets of rules,” he said. “They’ll have a set rules out in the county to go by and they’ll have a set of rules inside the city limits to go by. That’s what they’ll base their recommendations on.”
Davis said city and county residents could appeal determinations by the joint planning commission.
“If you take something to this joint planning commission and you don’t like what the response or the result is, and you’re going to ask for a variance of some sort, then if you’re out in the county you would go to a committee of the quorum court. If you’re in the city, you would go to the board of directors,” he said. “Right now, the way it is, anything from that ( city) planning commission goes to the city board of directors, which means the people in the county have really no representation. This is going to change that.”
He said under the proposed memorandum of understand- ing, county residents with variance or property development issues could take their matter to the quorum court “to lay it out in front of them for a variance or whatever.”
“I think it’s a big deal, it’s very important,” Davis said. “It’s not simple. It’s taken a while to sort through all this stuff and make sure it’s right.”