FAYETTEVILLE -- A group of local investors wants to buy the old American Legion baseball field in southeast Fayetteville and turn it into some type of residential development.
Fayetteville planning commissioners signed off on a rezoning request that would facilitate the development Monday. The request is now up for final approval at the City Council's April 7 meeting.
Fayetteville Planning Commission
Also on Monday, the Planning Commission:
• Recommended approval of the city’s Active Transportation Plan
• Nominated Tracy Hoskins for commission chairman; Ron Autry for vice chairman; and Ryan Noble for secretary. Officers will be selected at the commission’s March 23 meeting.
Source: Staff report
Officials with the American Legion's Shelton-Tucker-Craft Post 27 are under contract to sell the baseball field, along Curtis Avenue, pending successful rezoning of the 6.8-acre property. The new zoning designation would allow single-family houses, apartments, duplexes or triplexes to be built.
Eric Duca, one of the potential buyers of the property, said following Monday's meeting his investment team doesn't have any specific development plans yet.
Mike Culpepper, commander of Post 27 for the past several weeks, said the sale will help the local veterans organization, which has been in dire straits financially.
Culpepper said the legion is several months behind on its sales taxes and is at risk of losing its liquor license.
The legion earns most of its income from renting out its hall for various meetings and social events. The money it receives supports advocacy programs for veterans. The organization has also awarded scholarships to high school graduates in the past and plans to send as many as 30 students to Boys State, an immersive civics education program, later this year.
Culpepper also attributed some of the legion's recent financial woes to declining membership. He said Post 27 had 344 members in 2008 and just 134 members currently.
He said $84,000 from the land sale would be used to cover bills, delinquent taxes and pay off the legion's mortgage on the building it owns. The building is not part of the sale.
According to Washington County property records, the American Legion acquired the land, north of 15th Street and east of Morningside Drive, from Dovie McBroom, the widow of L.B. McBroom, in 1968. Culpepper said the legion has had a presence in Fayetteville since 1919.
Organized youth sports have not been played on the baseball field for years.
"Nobody wants to see it sold, but there's not much we can do about it," Culpepper said. "We're hurting right now."
Planning commissioners heard several comments from nearby homeowners who opposed the rezoning Monday.
Sulma Lopez said the development would put more cars on Fairlane Street, Sherman Avenue and Sandy Drive, where her 6-year-old son likes to ride his bike.
Christopher Barker, who lives across from the baseball field on Sherman Avenue, said he was worried about declining property values and increased crime.
Fayetteville police responded to reports of shots fired on Curtis Avenue multiple times in 2012. In May of that year, a 36-year-old man was shot in the back following a disturbance that involved about 30 people. Kacey Derell Jones, 35, was later arrested and charged with attempted capital murder in the shooting. He was sentenced to 40 years at the Arkansas Department of Correction with 20 years suspended in April 2013.
"I'm not going to say that it's guaranteed that that's what's going to happen in this area," Barker said Monday. "But when you have a low-income-value area to the north and a low-income-value area to the south, it only stands to reason that that's what's going to move into this new area."
Andrew Garner, city planning director, said officials with the Fayetteville Police Department had no objections to the rezoning. But, he added, he would ask them for more input prior to the April City Council meeting.
Commissioner Craig Honchell said he understood neighbors' concerns. But, he added, the zoning designation the American Legion is seeking is the same as single-family residences to the east, multifamily properties to the north and a mobile home park to the south.
"That's what it's surrounded by, and that's what I have to base my decision on," Honchell said.
He and the six other planning commissioners at Monday's meeting all recommended the City Council approve the rezoning request.
Joel Walsh can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAJoel.
NW News on 03/10/2015