Citing a need for a historic preservation plan for the community, the El Dorado Historic District Commission has submitted a letter of intent to include the cost of the plan in a state grant application.
Elizabeth Eggleston, executive director of the EHDC, tendered the letter Dec. 14, a day after commissioners approved a motion to pursue funding for a comprehensive, citywide preservation plan.
Eggleston said Dec. 14 was the deadline to formally notify the state of the city’s intent to apply for funding in the 2019-2020 cycle of the Certified Local Government grant, which is funneled through the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, to help cover the cost of the preservation plan.
CLGs are programs that represent partnerships between local governments, the AHPP and the National Park Service to preserve local, historic resources.
El Dorado is one of 20 CLG cities in Arkansas.
Eggleston said the grant application will be submitted at a later date.
“Now, the state is recommending that if you’re a CLG city, and you don’t already have a preservation plan, now is the time to do it. They’re almost insisting,” Eggleston told commissioners.
‘I think we need a plan’
“I think we need a plan, and you can’t do city planning out of the (Department of Public Works),” Eggleston said.
She noted that El Dorado has not had a city planner’s position since June 2010 when the city’s first and only planner, Joe Hurst, resigned after three years to take a job as city planning director in Van Buren, his hometown.
In November, Hurst was elected mayor of Van Buren. He will take office Jan. 1.
After Hurst left, the city planner’s position was cut from the city budget as a cost-cutting measure to contend with tightening revenues.
Throughout the past eight years, El Dorado City Council Member Willie McGhee has periodically asked city leaders to reconsider.
He has argued that El Dorado needs a city planner not only to develop land-use and zoning plans in logical order, but also to research and apply for available grants for programs such as the preservation plan that is under consideration by the historic district commission.
With new El Dorado city officials coming aboard at the first of year — Mayor-elect Veronica Smith-Creer and council members Andre Rucks and Paul Choate, Eggleston and commissioners agreed that they need city officials to support the preservation plan.
“We need to invite our new mayor to our meetings and let her know that we want to do whatever we can to help and that we want to work with her and her administration,” Eggleston said.
“It also helps with the grant application if they know we have the city’s support,” added Teresa Golliher, vice-chairman of the commission.
Eggleston agreed, saying that the EHDC attempted years ago to apply for a grant to develop a preservation plan for El Dorado.
The catch then was a $10,000 match from the city, Eggleston said, adding that while a match is not mandatory for the 2019-2020 grant, support from the city bolsters the grant application.
She noted, “The city is the actual applicant for the grant.”
Guidelines and other studies
The planning project will be based on the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s standards and guidelines for historic preservation planning — which organizes preservation activities, such as identifying areas and buildings for possible placement on the National Register of Historic Places, Eggleston said.
Preservation plans also line out how such activities may be executed and the education, experience and resources that are needed to carry out the activities.
Additionally, Eggleston said the historic district commission can lean on a comprehensive city planning study that was developed for El Dorado in the early aughts.
The study was conducted in 2001 by the University of Arkansas Community Design Center.
El Dorado 50 for the Future covered the cost of the study, which was developed by a team of UACDC staff and students, at least one of whom was an El Dorado native.
Eggleston said the team tailored the plan and recommendations to address the needs of El Dorado.
She said the study was extensive and covered several topics, including affordable housing initiatives, infill projects, beautification, transportation/walkability, gateways, rails-to-trails development, targeted industries/businesses, and public-private investment opportunities for such projects as a parking garage in downtown El Dorado and mixed-use development for Mellor Park Mall and the old Warner Brown hospital.
At the time, city leaders cited a lack of funding to implement many of the recommendations, agreeing to focus on projects that were within the city’s reach.
For instance, a housing authority was formed in 2003 to address the need for dignified, affordable housing for working class families in the city.
However, the authority completed only one new-home construction project before financial difficulties and conflicts with city officials prompted the city council to officially dissolve the authority in 2014.
In the years following the presentation of the UACDC plan, two additional studies and plans were completed to help boost economic development in El Dorado.
The TIP (Talent, Industry and Place) Strategies/El Dorado Forward plan was rolled out in January 2007 and received an injection several months later when El Dorado voters turned out for a special election to approve a one-cent sales tax to help carry out some of the recommendations in the plan.
The first and largest El Dorado Forward project to be completed was the construction of the El Dorado Conference Center in early 2011.
In November 2010, a Seattle-based destination development firm developed an action plan that resulted in the “Festival City” brand idea and led to the creation of the Murphy Arts District to champion and implement an action plan.
After the El Dorado Forward tax sunset in 2015, voters again returned to the polls in a special election to keep the momentum going by approving the El Dorado Works tax, another one-cent sales tax that will expire in 2025.
Many of the challenges and needs the city faces today were outlined in the UACDC plan, Eggleston said.
With the help of the two economic development taxes, she said other projects and recommendations in the nearly 20-year-old plan are gradually being addressed.
Handsome monument signs have been installed at four of the city’s gateways; plans are under way to study the feasibility of a rails-to-trails project to connect the area to North Louisiana; a study has been completed to develop a pedestrian/bicycle system in El Dorado; El Dorado Forward and El Dorado Works tax money has been dedicated to industry expansion and new-industry projects, including the opening of the Conifex timber processing facility on Junction City Highway.
With the development of MAD and other projects, commissioners agreed that a preservation plan is in order.
Golliher pointed to a recent MAD announcement of plans to build a boutique hotel on the southwest corner of Washington and Locust.
“Is the new hotel going to be in the (commercial) historic district?” Golliher asked.
Eggleston and several commissioners said no, with Eggleston adding, “I have asked if they would be sensitive to being adjacent to a National Register district.”
As has been done in other cities, Eggleston said a series of public hearings would be held as part of the process to develop the preservation plan.
She said at least three such meetings should be scheduled — an initial meeting to invite public input, a second meeting to review and finalize a draft of the plan and a third meeting to present the final plan to the city council for approval.
“There should be input not only from our group but other groups in El Dorado,” Eggleston said.
She noted that the grant application will include customary requests for other components, including staff salary for the EHDC executive director and ongoing training and travel expenses for the executive director and commissioners.
Referring to the UACDC study, Eggleston said, “This plan is 18 years old. It needs to be updated. If we had done some of the things in here back then, we would have been ahead of the game.”
Several commissioners said they were unaware of the study and would like to review it. Eggleston said she could provide copies.
“This has to do with smart growth and quality of life issues …,” she said. “If we want to grow El Dorado and have visitors come in and be impressed with our city, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or by email at tlyons@ eldoradonews.com.