U.S. Water News Online
LITTLE ROCK -- The water utility for 400,000 people in the Little Rock area has reached an agreement with developers that will allow a housing development in the watershed of Lake Maumelle, the main source of the utility's drinking water.
The agreement reached on a 6-1 vote will also pay the developers $1 million. The land has been a focus of a three-year fight over development near the lake. The development proposal drew strident opposition from many ratepayers.
About 1,000 comments were submitted from the public on the proposal, most in opposition.
In 2004, Central Arkansas Water condemned 301 acres to protect Lake Maumelle from possible pollution. With the latest decision by the Central Arkansas Water Board of Commissioners the way appears to be cleared for Rick Ferguson and his business partners to move ahead with their Waterview Estates development.
In exchange for keeping the land, the developers agreed to construct a diversion ditch, which would send runoff from the subdivision to another drainage basin. The ditch would effectively sever 179 acres of the project from Lake Maumelle's watershed.
The other 122 acres the utility had condemned would be held in conservation easements forbidding development. But the easements would allow trees to be cut and would allow subsurface mining.
The 179 acres is part of a 1,100-acre area that is to be developed for Waterview Estates.
In March, Central Arkansas Water paid Deltic Timber Corp. $8.2 million for 700 acres the company had planned for home development. The commission members said the Waterview Estates plan would not harm the watershed because the diversion ditch would remove 179 acres from the 88,000-acre watershed.
A lawyer for Ferguson said work could start on the ditch before the end of the year if the design is approved in time by the commission.
Without the settlement, the developers were expected to seek at least $8 million in compensation for the land and the matter could have gone to court. The utility already spent more than $350,000 in legal fees over the Waterview Estates land.
Board members were reminded the approved proposal had strong opposition.
"There are going to be things said about us. We need to keep as civil a tone as we can," board Chairman Roby Robertson told other board members. "There's going to be some hurt feelings."
Opponents argued the agreement could have unintended consequences.
"You were right to condemn the land," said Kathy Wells, a Little Rock neighborhood activist. "Keep to it."
Utility chief executive Graham Rich said talks were continuing on limiting development in a less critical part of the watershed that is included in the planned Waterview Estates.
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