FAYETTEVILLE — A loose coalition of property owners is launching a campaign less than a week after passage of Fayetteville's streamside protection ordinance to put the measure to a citywide vote.
Alan Long, who lives in Fayetteville's Waterman Woods neighborhood, is organizing a group called Concerned Citizens for Fayetteville Property Rights. He said the group will begin circulating petitions this week to give registered voters an opportunity to weigh in on the controversial ordinance.
"We believe that the total population of Fayetteville didn't know and didn't understand how the ordinance would affect their property," Long said Friday.
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Ordinance And Ballot Initiatives
To read the state law guiding ballot initiatives and public referendums, go to www.sos.arkansas.gov/elections/elections_pdfs/2010_I_R.pdf.
Full language of the city's streamside protection ordinance can be found at www.accessfayetteville.org.
To contact the Concerned Citizens for Fayetteville Property Rights, send e-mail to [email protected].
Fayetteville attorney Steven Kay has offered to draft the petition and said Friday he hoped to have it ready by today.
Time is critical for the group in its effort to collect nearly 4,000 signatures, the number of registered voter signatures needed to put the streamside ordinance on the ballot in a special election later this year.
City Attorney Kit Williams cited Amendment 7 of the Arkansas Constitution, saying the group has until April 1 to submit the petition to the City Clerk's office. That's the same day that the ordinance takes effect.
Long said his goal is to collect well more than the minimum number of signatures. He and others plan to go door to door, solicit customers at local grocery stores and hold petition drives. He said volunteers would also register people to vote.
"We're going to try to be as visible as possible," Long said. "I am confident that we can triple the number of signatures that we need."
The last time a change to a city ordinance successfully went to a public referendum was in 2004. Voters ultimately upheld an ordinance that banned smoking in most workplaces at that time.
Long's initial gripe with the streamside ordinance was that he would not be able to dig an in-ground swimming pool or landscape his backyard as he sees fit. In the name of reducing harmful pollutants in city waterways, the ordinance will limit certain activities -- like removing existing woody vegetation or building a parking lot -- within 50 feet of streams, rivers and lakes. It would apply to roughly 1,300 property owners.
Although Long applied for a building permit for his swimming pool before the City Council enacted the ordinance, he said the principle behind it still irks him and should cause concern for anyone else in Fayetteville -- whether or not they would be directly impacted.
"Fifty feet is more than some people's entire yards," Long said. "Property owners' rights are really not being respected."
Steve Smith, who lives in the Crystal Springs neighborhood in northwest Fayetteville, agreed. He had discussed the petition with a neighbor Friday.
"We agree with what (the council) is trying to do here, but we don't want it to apply to someone's entire yard," Smith said.
Mayor Lioneld Jordan and Don Marr, his chief of staff, were in meetings Friday afternoon and did not return calls seeking comment on the proposed referendum.
Ward 4 Alderwoman Sarah Lewis, who sponsored the ordinance, said its development was "citizen-driven" from the beginning.
"This took form as a result of citizen activism and citizen volunteerism. Through the process, we have had lots of support," Lewis said.
City officials held public input sessions on the ordinance dating back to March 2010. They also mailed notifications to roughly 1,300 property owners whose properties are covered by the new restrictions. The Planning Commission and council each had multiple hearings on the ordinance, in which hours of public comment -- both for and against -- were heard.
Lewis said she doesn't believe a public referendum is completely necessary, but "that's the appropriate path through our government system."
Ward 2 Alderman Matthew Petty, who, along with Lewis, was one of seven aldermen who voted in favor of the ordinance Tuesday, said he was confident Fayetteville residents would support it in an election.
"I welcome the opportunity for our democratic process to decisively establish public support for the council's action," Petty said.
On Tuesday, several aldermen noted that a variance process would provide many affected property owners a possibility to be exempted from it when a variance is justified.
"Variances can happen, and don't take a pessimistic view that they're not going to be granted," Ward 1 Alderwoman Adella Gray said Tuesday.
Ward 3 Alderman Bobby Ferrell, who cast the lone dissenting vote against the ordinance, questioned how many variances would actually be issued, however.
"Oftentimes we hear people talk about, 'Well, just go down and get a variance,'" Ferrell said. "Occasionally, that happens. But I would say a lot of times it's not that easy."