A rezoning proposal before the city of Little Rock that would place a Chevrolet dealership a short distance from River Mountain Park has drawn opposition from a homeowners association as well as the local ward representative on the city board.
The land near Arkansas 10 and Interstate 430 is meant to serve as the new location of the Bale Chevrolet dealership that currently operates out of 13101 Chenal Parkway, roughly 5 miles to the southwest.
As a planned commercial development, the rezoned property could support residential, office and commercial uses on a total of 33 acres.
At the moment, the property is zoned PD-R, planned development-residential, and R-2. R-2 zoning can support single-family homes with a minimum lot size of 7,000 square feet.
Although the rezoning application was scheduled to be heard by the Little Rock Planning Commission at a Dec. 8 meeting, the applicant requested a deferral until the April 13, 2023, agenda.
For the project to move ahead, members of the Little Rock Board of Directors must approve the planned commercial development once it is forwarded to them from the Planning Commission.
Planning Commission documents list the project’s developer as John Flake of Flake & Company and the surveyor/engineering firm as Joe White & Associates.
The land targeted for redevelopment is owned by a trust associated with Bonnie Harvey, the wife of the late Edward M. Harvey, property records show.
In a recent meeting with Flake and dealership head Hunter Bale, Ward 4 City Director Capi Peck recalled that when asked how they could get her support for the project, she told them she could not support it and was “frankly surprised” they were still considering the development in light of the growing opposition.
Having spoken with her colleagues on the city board, none of them were going to support the project, she recalled telling Flake and Bale.
She told them it was “possibly the most controversial development I’ve heard of, definitely in my tenure on the board in six years, and maybe ever, with the exception of the Costco that was once proposed just east of this development.”
Peck, who lives a little over a mile from the property targeted for rezoning, said there remains a portion of the Arkansas 10 corridor “that still is scenic and beautiful and iconic, and it’s right where they want to put the car lot.”
Officials with Flake & Company as well as Joe White of Joe White & Associates did not respond to emails requesting comment.
The Walton Heights-Candlewood Homeowners Association opposes the redevelopment and is encouraging individuals to sign an online petition.
As of Thursday, the petition on change.org — “Say NO to River Mountain Road Development!” — had garnered more than 16,500 signatures.
In June 2021, officials including Peck held a ribbon-cutting for 10 miles of new professionally built bicycle trails at River Mountain Park, just down the road from where the proposed car dealership would be built.
Construction of those trails as well as trails at Pinnacle Mountain State Park was backed by $2.6 million in grant funding from the Walton Family Foundation to the Arkansas Parks and Recreation Foundation.
Regardless of the outcome of the rezoning application tied to Bale Chevrolet, more development is scheduled for the immediate vicinity. A separate planned commercial development just southwest of the proposed site of the car dealership was authorized in a 6-4 vote of the city’s Board of Directors on Dec. 6.
Print Headline: Homeowners resist plan to rezone for car dealership
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