The El Dorado City Council is expected to convene with two city commissions in separate meetings that are set for today in the Council Chamber of City Hall.
Council members and the El Dorado Planning and Zoning Commission have scheduled a specially called meeting at 4:30 p.m. — an hour before a regular council meeting, during which city officials will hear from the El Dorado Airport Commission.
The purpose of the specially called meeting is to address an ongoing issue regarding city Ordinance 1773, which prohibits residents from parking in their front yards on certain city streets.
Former Mayor Frank Hash had asked commissioners and council members to work together and clarify language in the ordinance, which bans the parking or storing of vehicles “on the grass in a yard between the residence and the street right of way” in designated areas on a prescribed list of main arterial and collector streets throughout the city.
At issue is a clause in the city ordinance that prohibits the paving or graveling of a yard “to the extent that such paving or graveling violates the (city’s) zoning ordinance.”
Hash, other city officials and planning and zoning commissioners have pointed out that the city’s zoning code does not address such a parking issue.
Commissioners previously agreed to research zoning codes in other cities and in March, they agreed to schedule a meeting with City Council members to discuss the matter further.
A city resident inquired about the matter during a Ward 2 Town Hall meeting that was held Tuesday evening in the South Arkansas Community College Library Auditorium and Mayor Veronica Smith-Creer said the issue would be addressed during the specially called meeting today.
Police Chief Kenneth Hickman has been invited to attend the meeting to discuss enforcement of the ordinance.
Airport commissioners have requested a place on the council’s agenda to explain options for a property lease or purchase agreement for land that is to be used for an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission conservation education center at South Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field.
The project is still in the planning phase.
Preliminary plans call for a 3,200 - 3,400 square-foot facility that will be built on the west side of Airport Drive across from the old Babe Ruth baseball field and just past the U.S. 82 entrance to SARA. The site would roughly take up 12 acres.
Conceptual designs for the “South Arkansas Conservation Education Center” include a fishing pier; covered, 3D, pop-up archery range; nature trail with interactive panels; and more amenities. Inside the center, visitors would have access to display areas, including an aquarium display, an activity area, a classroom, office space, hunter/boater safety testing areas, a gift shop, where hunting and fishing licenses would be sold, and restrooms.
Airport commissioners are working with the Game and Fish Commission and Federal Aviation Administration on the project, with consideration of any future expansion of the airport property for commercial purposes.
In other business, Council Member Billy Blann is expected to propose an ordinance that would require the council’s approval of any change-orders in city contracts.
“This would make the City Council the responsible party and keep us in the loop,” Blann said.
The proposal comes more than two months after the council approved a $2.2 million funding request from the Murphy Arts District to cover cost overruns for the construction of the MAD Amphitheater and Playscape.
The money was taken from the El Dorado Works tax, a one-cent sales tax that is earmarked for economic development and quality-of-life projects.
When MAD presented the funding request last fall, city officials and members of the El Dorado Works Board, which
administers the tax, expressed frustration about not being notified in advance about the cost overages.
The amphitheater opened in 2017 and the playscape opened last May. The properties are owned by the city and leased to MAD for a nominal fee.
“This is part of the mayor’s transparency program, and I’m trying to enhance that,” Blann said.
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].