A dispute that's nearly two decades old is back in court, with the city of Malvern asking a Hot Spring County circuit judge to rule that 10 pieces of property that left Rockport years ago and became part of Malvern should stay in Malvern.
The court case stems from a resolution that the Rockport City Council passed declaring that the properties that left Rockport should revert to Rockport because they were never connected to Malvern sewer service.
The southern edge of Rockport, which has 913 people, abuts Malvern, a city of 10,770 people.
Rockport argues that the homes in question belong in its city limits. Rockport bases its argument on Act 882, passed by the state Legislature in 2015. The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Tim Lemons, R-Cabot, whose engineering firm has worked on Rockport's sewer services.
Act 882 states that property owners who detach from one city and do not accept all of the services offered by the new city within 180 days must go back to the original city.
Many of the homes in question were annexed into Malvern before 2015, and attorneys are arguing over whether the 2015 law should retroactively affect those properties.
"Our claim is that they cannot do it because the statute is not retroactive," Malvern City Attorney Cecilia Ashcroft said. "Seventeen years is a long time to be in a city and then just all of a sudden you're not there anymore."
Attorneys for Rockport note that Malvern never extended sewer service to the properties in question. Now, Rockport is preparing to start a new sewer service and could extend lines to those properties, if they are reannexed into the smaller city.
Malvern is asking for a declaratory judgment that the properties should stay in Malvern.
The resolution passed by the Rockport City Council doesn't reannex those properties. "The power of the resolution was memorializing that the city of Malvern did not do what they should have done by providing services to those properties," Rockport City Attorney Billy Jack Gibson said.
The issue was litigated before 2015, and the court sided with Malvern.
It's unclear how much either city would get in property tax revenue from the properties in question.
Malvern annexed the property under Act 779 of 1999, sponsored by then-state Sen. George Hopkins, D-Malvern. Act 779 allowed people to detach from one city and annex into another if they wanted additional services that would be provided by the new city.
Many of the homeowners who left Rockport to become part of Malvern say they want to stay in the larger city because of its fire and police protection.
Hamp Williamson, 73, said his homeowner's insurance premium went down when he became a Malvern resident about four years ago. Rockport has a volunteer Fire Department, while Malvern has a full-time Fire Department. Williamson and others, because of where their property is located, still pay dues to the volunteer department, which Williamson said he doesn't mind doing.
Elizabeth Chenault, 75, and Olivia Pierce, 76, said they don't want to connect to Rockport's new sewer system but would be willing to connect to Malvern's. They like Malvern's fire protection and their lower homeowner's insurance rates because of the services provided by the larger city.
"I prefer to stay in Malvern, right where I am," Chenault said.
Metro on 05/01/2017