The Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Agency received a thumbs-down from city officials when it came to the agency working outside its jurisdiction with police, fire and code enforcement to remove nuisances and burnouts throughout the city.
During last week's meeting, agency executive director Chandra Griffin told the board members that after several meetings with Council Member Bruce Lockett and Pine Bluff City Attorney Althea Scott, using the agency and its resources as a tool to remove blight was illegal.
During the meeting, it was said that demolitions done by the agency outside the urban renewal zone are not permissible and that if the agency expanded to include the entire city, it would establish another code enforcement unit, which can only be done by the City Council.
Griffin said the Urban Renewal Agency would continue to move forward within its area although she said she thought the agency's service would be helpful to the city. The idea came about during January's meeting when several board members were inquiring about the process of the city's code enforcement when it came to blight removal. Many board members agreed the collaboration would help expedite the blight removal process.
"The whole idea here was starting to get the fire chief and the police chief to use their authority in the urban renewal area," said board member Kirby Mouser, who suggested Griffin go back to address the original idea. "Nothing that was said in those comments has to do with work we do inside the urban renewal area."
Griffin said she received pushback from the original idea also because of the perception. "It would look like we were targeting only property owners within that area to utilize that emergency-type situation," she said.
With code enforcement, police, fire and the Urban Renewal Agency all trying to eliminate blight removal, the board members couldn't comprehend why everyone could not utilize their resources in working together using other cities like Blytheville for example.
In other business, Griffin presented the development agreement between the agency and Pines One Development LLC, which will be building downtown housing on Sixth Avenue and Georgia Street to Convention Center Drive.
The agreement, once signed, would execute the performance and payment bond, which cannot be done without the final construction contract, but that document had not been completed and received by the agency.
"You have to know the final amount in order to purchase the bond," said Griffin, who added that she spent several months negotiating the contract. Speaking with the developer, Griffin said they were ready to sign. Board members, however, did not want to sign until the language in the contract was corrected due to the final construction contract not being completed.
Griffin said she would get the final cost and would call a special meeting this week to approve the revisions.
"This is needed to move forward," said Griffin, who added that construction will begin by summer. "The architect has already had conversations with the inspection and zoning. We still have some soft costs that we are responsible for that we need to get executed. Until this is done, the architect can't move forward."
The board did approve the Sixth Avenue and Main Street Plaza project's maximum price build-out of approximately $6.7 million. Griffin said the cost of the project is already budgeted for and construction will start this week.
Other changes downtown will be the mural paintings by UAPB students. The board approved to pay the students for their art. Last week the Pine Bluff City Council approved a resolution giving permission to the Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Agency to include the painting of murals on city-owned structures in the urban renewal Area of the city.
The agency has partnered with the art department of the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff for the display of art in vacant storefronts on Main Street. According to the resolution, the art would be displayed on the exterior walls of the buildings as part of the city's effort to promote the area's attractiveness for residents and tourists.
The first building will be 300 S. Main St., which has an existing mural.
The mural, according to Griffin, will be replaced with removable art pieces just in case that building ends up being stabilized. "The mural won't be disturbed," said Griffin. "We will be able to remove them."
According to Griffin, the agency will be invoiced for the art. The Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Agency has $30,000 set aside for this project, which will allow the art students to receive a stipend for their art.
Griffin informed the board members that she received a property investment proposal from a long-time resident of Pine Bluff who would like to build their primary residence on E. 17th Avenue on three vacant lots owned by the agency.
According to Griffin, those lots were donated to the agency years ago and their intention was to have an investor develop housing anyway
"I think it's a great idea," said chairman Jimmy Deal, who questioned how urban renewal handles land that they own. "We don't want to own property. We want to do it legally and fairly so that we are not showing preferential treatment towards any one individual or customer."
Mouser said it will increase the property value, and Dill added that getting that area back on the tax roll would help the city.
As far as the housing project on 33rd Avenue and Plum Street, Griffin said the cost to build is too expensive and a bid to build all three homes will be on the table for the lowest contractor bidder.
"We don't want to build something that is way over price then sell it," said Griffin. "We need to get the cost down."