By Ray King
When the Pine Bluff City Council on Monday they will deal with two competing pieces of legislation, one abolishing the Urban Renewal Agency (URA), the other supporting its continuation.
Mayor Vivian Flowers is sponsoring an ordinance calling for abolishing URA effective Dec. 31. Her ordinance says that the role URA performs “can be effectively distributed among existing city departments with little to no interruption in the delivery of services to the residents of the city.”
She also said this transfer of assets and duties of URA “will promote council oversight and eliminate unnecessary duplication of services.”
Until the URA board is abolished, the city will provide meeting space and prior to that date, the URA will transfer ownership of all demolition, mechanical, recycling, receptable, disposal equipment and motor vehicles, as well as the 6th and Main Street Project and the 219 Main Street property to the city.
That ordinance will be up for its second reading.
On that same agenda is a resolution sponsored by Council Member Lloyd Holcomb Jr., which says that despite progress made, “there remains a need for an Urban Renewal Agency due to one or more slum, blighted, deteriorated or deteriorating areas existing. The Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Agency will continue operations for the foreseeable future so long as it functions within Arkansas State statutes and that it subsidizes its operations through additional funding.”
The resolution goes on to say that the URA and other agencies have successfully removed over 200 condemned properties and facilitated new residential and commercial construction. Also, URA has active federal grants with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Forestry Division.
That resolution also reappropriates $860,000 for the Go Kart track construction initially voted on by the City Council in December 2024 as a match to the $1,200,000 Go Forward Pine Bluff grant to complete the construction and pay for furniture and equipment, as well as operation.
