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GROUP SEEKS TO REDEVELOP AREA OF PINE BLUFF

By AmyJo Brown/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Monday, January 14, 2008 10:22 AM CST

A nonprofit organization has acquired options to purchase nearly three dozen pieces of property in north Pine Bluff, taking the first concrete step toward redeveloping a five and one-half block area in the city’s University Park neighborhood.

“We’re coming to build the community back,” said Jerry Riley, president of the Jefferson County Community Development Corporation, a local nonprofit formed specifically to work on a city-sponsored residential redevelopment plan for the area west of North Magnolia Street and east of North Willow Street.

The area adjoins the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, but is cut off from the campus by a chain-link fence. It is a compact neighborhood, with single-lane streets, deep ditches and tall clusters of pine trees separating lots often no bigger than 5,000 square feet in size.

While generations of families lived there, grew up there — on streets named Jean and Remmel and Roosevelt — the houses that were their homes are often marked now only by a tilting mailbox or an overgrown driveway. The ones still standing have weathered much: Porches lean and roofs sag while torn screens on the front doors and broken windows appear to provide little warmth and security.

In their place, the nonprofit is planning to build a “superblock” of about 80 new homes for families of mixed incomes — homes that planners hope will attract employees from Tyson Foods, Central Moloney and the university. The homes are scheduled to be built in phases over the next five to six years, according to project manager Bob Francis.

“The north side, in the next 10 years, should be the place to live,” Francis said.

The project is the first push in what Riley and officials with the city and UAPB describe as a significant revitalization effort for the north side.

“The whole idea is to develop a campus area that would be consistent with what you find in any other campus community and that would lend value to Pine Bluff as a whole,” said Henry Golatt, director of UAPB’s Economic Research and Development Center. “Most college towns, you know it’s a college town. ... We think we can generate that same kind of movement and synergy.”

So far, the nonprofit has signed 32 “options to purchase” contracts with owners of property in the targeted neighborhood. They are working on acquiring about 150 more lots and raising $3 million for the purchase and demolition costs before beginning construction, according to Riley and Francis.

Most of the lots in the five-and-a-half block area are vacant and owned by people more than happy to sell, Riley said.

But there are hold-outs. People in the neighborhood who said they don’t want to leave — at least not for the money being offered.

“I worked all my life for this stuff … I’ll tear it down before I let them take it,” said 64-year-old McArthur Eans, while sharing a drink outside his house on Remmel Street with neighbors on a sunny Friday afternoon.

However, the property owners may not have much choice. The project has the support of the city of Pine Bluff and under a contract signed last January with Riley, the city will share costs of the project by using federal grant money to alleviate substandard housing in the area, enforce city codes and eventually replat the land and pay for street, curb and gutter improvements.

It also — if needed — has the power of eminent domain, a point that was emphasized in a letter the nonprofit sent to at least one homeowner in the area, who then distributed copies of the letters to other property owners, raising concerns about the city taking land in the neighborhood.

Riley said the letter was an isolated incident and sent “as a strategy” to convince the landowner to sell the land. “He started buying up lots and thought he’d get a lot of money. He was trying to create a problem,” Riley said. “We’re not playing that game.”

Both Riley and Donald Sampson, the director of the city’s community and economic development department, said there were no actual plans to use eminent domain to acquire property in the superblock area.

“We have that as a last resort, but it’s not our intent to use it,” Sampson said.

“We’re going to try and work around those issues,” Riley said. “We’re not going to go in there and use eminent domain.”

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