Planned subdivision meets resistance

Neighbors, environmental groups fight development in western Pulaski County

When Chris Centofante moved from Los Angeles earlier this year to rural western Pulaski County, near natural beauties like Pinnacle Mountain State Park, she didn’t know a 76-lot residential development was planned next door.

Plans for the Paradise Valley Subdivision off Roland Cutoff Road and its wastewater treatment plant have drawn concerns from neighbors like Centofante and environmental groups about its effects on the rural area that sits close to Mill Bayou and the Lake Maumelle Watershed.

Developer Rick Ferguson’s subdivision plans were approved by the Pulaski County Planning Board in February, but inconsistencies in the submitted plans for permits — specifically in regard to wastewater — have prompted re-reviews from the Arkansas Department of Health and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment’s Division of Environmental Quality. Those reviews were still underway last week.

For Centofante and others, the development is problematic in several ways. They believe it poses significant environmental risks, but it also represents a change to an area that some residents chose for its natural beauty and lack of development.

Centofante moved to Roland for the scenery, animals and space as well as a place to anchor her family.

“It’s everything I’ve ever wanted. It’s peaceful,” Centofante said.

“We’re trying to protect this and if we don’t, development will continue.”

Ferguson, who is also the developer for the nearby Waterview Estates, did not respond to phone calls or email requesting comment over the past two weeks.

Shortly after the February

approval, the developer sent out the required written notifications of the planned subdivision to landowners with properties directly abutting the development.

Centofante, who had yet to move in, said she was not informed by the previous owner and did not find out about the plans until a Pinnacle Area for Responsible Development group meeting this summer.

After attending the meeting, Centofante started the nonprofit Pinnacle Mountain Community Coalition to protect Mill Bayou and petition against dense developments in the unincorporated area of Roland.

Both the Central Arkansas group of the Arkansas Sierra Club and Audubon Society of Central Arkansas have written letters to the planning board supporting local residents and those opposed the development. They voiced concerns about the effects high-density housing will have on the native wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation as well as pollution from the package treatment plant.

“Effluent from the development’s water treatment plant will add pollution as it runs off into Mill Bayou, then the Arkansas River, Mississippi River, and Gulf of Mexico,” wrote George Wise of the Sierra Club. “This pollution will be compounded by the surface run off from the lawns and streets of this development. Herbicides and pesticides have no environmental value in a forest setting. No good can come from adding pollution to this area and the streams around it.”

CHANGE OF PLANS

Original plans for the Paradise Valley Subdivision (then called the Saddle Ranch Subdivision) submitted to the Arkansas Department of Health in 2018 proposed raw wastewater be pumped to the existing Waterview Estates treatment plant.

Under state rules pertaining to general sanitation, the Health Department must review and approve plans for treatment and disposal of sewage. It reviews for “appropriate capacity and functionality of proposed treatment and the location of the treatment plant and disposal regarding setbacks from existing developments,” department spokesperson Danyelle McNeill said via email.

Ferguson asked for updated approval from the Health Department in February and assured department engineer Shada Roberts that there had been no changes to the design or proposal, according to a letter sent by Roberts to the planning board Sept. 28.

However, a notification from state Division of Environmental Quality about a new, separate wastewater treatment plant for Paradise Valley led Roberts in July to realize there had been a change, meaning the developer’s team needed to resubmit updated documents for the project, according to the letter. Roberts sent the request Sept. 29 to the engineering firm in charge, White-Daters & Associates Inc.

The Health Department received the new submission Oct. 12 and was in the review process last week, according to spokesperson Katie White.

Division of Environmental Quality spokesperson Jeff LeMaster said the agency has all but finalized its review for a discharge permit, but it is awaiting discrepancies to be reconciled and the Health Department’s approval.

Plans submitted to the division describe a small plant north of Roland Cutoff Road — across the street from the development — that would discharge treated wastewater into an unnamed tributary of Mill Bayou that would then flow into the bayou, LeMaster told more than 40 local residents during a meeting Oct. 15.

These types of pre-manufactured treatment facilities are used to treat wastewater in small communities or on individual properties. The unincorporated area of Roland has no underground sewage lines — one of the points made by residents and environmentalists as to why the area cannot support a dense single-family subdivisions.

The coalition opposes these types of “leap-frog” developments, which pass urban areas to skip over several miles of dispersed residential and agricultural properties to bring intensive development to a rural area.

CONCERNS

The plans indicate the thousands of gallons of treated wastewater will go into the tributary, not people’s property. However, multiple residents at the October meeting said their properties see significant flooding several times a year, meaning anything dumped in the bayou will end up on their lands.

The Division of Environmental Quality bases its assessments on Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps and other relevant maps, LeMaster said, but residents said these are not up to date. Often the water on their properties is stagnant, residents said, creating a risk for harmful algal blooms.

“Generally, more flow equals less pollution,” LeMaster said.

Lee Forrester has lived in Roland since 1995, pointing to her 45-acre property at the center of the flood map near the wastewater discharge site. Forrester has used her land for community gardening and currently lets a neighbor use it for his cattle.

“I’ve been told we don’t mess with the flow of this stream,” she said. “How is it now they can get this permit?”

Centofante and several residents said that they are not necessarily against development.

“The point is to make [the developer] do it right,” resident Black McFadden said.

Sierra Club’s letter raises concerns that this type of plant would be unable to properly treat highly toxic waste streams and that pollution will be compounded by the surface run off from the lawns and streets of this development.

“Herbicides and pesticides have no environmental value in a forest setting,” it states. “No good can come from adding pollution to this area and the streams around it.”

The letter also points out that developers often turn over maintenance of package wastewater treatment plants to property owners associations, which have a poor track records of maintaining similar facilities around the country. When this concern was raised at the October meeting, LeMaster said the developer is listed as the responsible party for both Waterview Estates and Paradise Valley.

Photos Centofante has collected from neighbors depict acres of cattle land and calm waters rich with bald cypress trees and wildlife, favorite spots for locals to boat and fish. Though the area is close to protected lands like the state park, the bayou does not have protected status.

This rural northwestern section of Pulaski County has some of the county’s last remaining non-industrial forest blocks, wrote Cindy Franklin as president of the Audubon Society of Central Arkansas to the planning board.

“Each new development may not seem like it does much harm, but they add up to death by a thousand cuts; habitat loss is one of the biggest drivers of the loss of 3 billion birds on this continent since 1970. Pulaski County needs an open space plan like the one adopted in Northwest Arkansas and in other communities around the country,” the letter states.

The Ouachita National Recreation Trail would also be affected by this development, hurting the quality of the trail and the hiking experience, the Sierra Club letter reads.

“This appears to be phase one of a planned extensive development in one of the only remaining forest blocks on the North part of Lake Maumelle. The Ouachita trail provides a wilderness type hiking experience,” the letter states. “This development will disrupt the solitude and beauty of the portion of the trail passing below the development.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

Though the 30-day public comment period has long passed, the Division of Environmental Quality has given the coalition until Nov. 7 to prepare comments and concerns from area residents.

The division “would like the opportunity to review and consider any information that may be provided as such information may be useful to consider as we proceed with the next steps to complete the permit review process,” the letter sent to Centofante read.

At the October meeting, residents discussed gathering their own water samples, pushing for updated maps and reviewing wildlife in the area for any protected species.

The coalition was also invited to speak at the Pulaski County Quorum Court meeting on Tuesday to raise concerns, Centofante said.

Halting the development is not as simple as gathering enough opposition to the subdivision or treatment plant, LeMaster said. Opponents must demonstrate a grave risk to the environment or that something in the plans doesn’t comply with permitting regulations.

“They’re just checking boxes, and we have to be our own advocates,” said Lynn Corley, an 11-year resident next to the development. “Maybe we need new boxes.”