LITTLE ROCK (KATV) \u2014 Neighbors in the Pecan Lake subdivision say they feel misled by the Little Rock Board of Directors after a series of changes left them without a clear path to stop a mental health group home from moving into their neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Last month, the board upheld a decision allowing The Gardens, a mental health therapeutic group home, to move into the area. <\/p>\n
The facility plans to operate out of an abandoned church at the entrance of Pecan Lake.<\/p>\n
Ed Bullington, who lives in the neighborhood, said residents were initially told there was a way to potentially reverse the board\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city attorney gave us a very explicit pathway to have the vote that they took at a previous board meeting to get it rescinded. And then they pulled that rug out from under us last night with \u2018change of circumstances,\u2019\u201d Bullington said.<\/p>\n
The issue began when Pecan Lake resident Denise White filed an appeal of the Little Rock Planning Commission\u2019s approval of a conditional use permit for The Gardens. When the board of directors voted on that appeal on October 21, five directors voted to repeal the commission\u2019s decision, while three voted to uphold it, needing 6 votes to cancel the group home’s permit, so the permit stood.<\/p>\n
Afterward, neighbors asked city leaders what options they had to challenge the outcome. Mayor Frank Scott Jr. told them they could try to persuade a director who voted to uphold the decision to rescind their vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou all can talk to someone who\u2019s not here to get them to talk to someone who voted, to rescind their vote. But it would have to be not of the 5. It would have to be of the 3,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n
A week later, Vice Mayor and Ward 7 Director BJ Wyrick, who represents the Pecan Lake area, gave notice that she planned to rescind the board\u2019s previous vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to give notice that I want to rescind the vote and that should happen on next Tuesday,\u201d Wyrick said during the October 28 agenda meeting.<\/p>\n
That vote was scheduled for the next board meeting.<\/p>\n
But before it could happen, The Gardens closed on the property on October 31, effectively changing the circumstances and halting the board\u2019s ability to revisit the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe applicant closed the property. So that was circumstances changed,\u201d Wyrick said.<\/p>\n
City Attorney Tom Carpenter confirmed that once the property was purchased, the situation changed from a potential sale to an actual sale based on the board\u2019s previous action.<\/p>\n
Now, city officials say the only option left for neighbors is to pursue a petition under Article 5, Section 1 of the Arkansas Constitution. That process would require signatures from 15% of voters who cast ballots in the last mayoral election, more than 9,000 signatures within about two weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an impossible task,\u201d Bullington said. \u201cWe only got 10 days or 15 days.\u201d<\/p>\n
White added that she\u2019s lost confidence in the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really don\u2019t trust that even if we got it they wouldn\u2019t come up with something else. At this point I don\u2019t trust them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In a statement to Channel 7, The Gardens co-owner Georgia Johnston said, \u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to providing quality care to our most vulnerable citizens and remain committed to being a good neighbor in Pecan Lake and the surrounding community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some neighbors say they\u2019ll still try to gather signatures, but many have accepted that The Gardens will soon move into the subdivision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LITTLE ROCK (KATV) \u2014 Neighbors in the Pecan Lake subdivision say they feel misled by the Little Rock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-269303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}