Diamondhead receives approval to be a city; services raise concern
Garland County said Diamondhead residents who petitioned to make the gated community a city met the statutory requirements for incorporation but questioned their wherewithal to provide basic services.
The order conferring municipal status County Judge Darryl Mahoney signed March 1 included concerns he expressed at hearings on the petition last month and an earlier petition in June of last year. His order allows the Garland County side of the community to incorporate.
According to information the committee for incorporation presented last year, about 1,400 people live in Diamondhead.
“They didn’t really have a good plan about providing police protection,” Mahoney said earlier this week. “That worries me more than anything. I know the people there want police protection, and they want their roads fixed. And they deserve that.”
The order stated petitioners provided “minimal information” on how ownership of the community’s network of roads would be transferred from the property owners association to the new city. The law prohibits state and county revenue that comes with municipal status from being spent on private property.
Revenues the new city is entitled to include population-based shares of sales taxes the county levies for roads and bridges and in support of its general and solid waste funds. State revenue includes shares of the 0.50% sales tax levied for highways and the tax on motor fuel.
“The petitioners offered no clear plan for the roads to become public property,” the order stated.
The committee said it planned to annex the Hot Spring County side after the Garland County area was incorporated. Until then, tax money can’t be used on the Hot Spring County side.
“The petitioners provided minimal information on how to deal with infrastructure needs when the revenue stream will be larger from Garland County than Hot Spring County,” the order stated.
Many questions the county raised can’t be answered until Diamondhead becomes a city, petitioners said in testimony they gave at last month’s hearing.
Mahoney denied the first petition, ruling the committee failed to satisfy all of the statutory requirements. The map attached to the petition registered voters in Diamond
head signed wasn’t approved by the state GIS office prior to its circulation, a requirement for incorporation. The order Mahoney signed earlier this month said the subsequent petition had resolved the mapping issues.
The law gives county judges authority to deny municipal status, even if the statutory bar for incorporation has been cleared. Mahoney said community support was part of his rationale for endorsing the petition. The county clerk’s office testified last month that signatures in support of the petition exceeded 330, or half the number of Diamondhead residents registered to vote in Garland County.
The law requires signatures of either 200 registered voters or a majority of the registered voters residing in the area proposed for incorporation.
“I think this is something they want,” Mahoney said. “They believe it’s in their best interest to incorporate. It looked like the majority of the people, if not all the people down there, believe this is best for their community, and that’s what we all want in the end.”
Mahoney noted the lack of opposition at last month’s hearing. POA Board of Directors President Dan Dickerson spoke against the earlier petition at last June’s hearing, telling the county court most of the residents who signed it were unaware the security gate would be removed if Diamondhead became a city.
He said the board didn’t know the petition was being heard last month. He’s one of four directors Omni Home Builders appointed. The Colorado developer’s acquisition of more than 1,600 lots in 2018 made it Diamondhead’s largest landowner.
“We just found out about it,” Dickerson said Thursday. “We have concerns. People need to reference the judge’s ruling. There’s lots of questions without answers.”