By Ray King
With no dissent, the Pine Bluff City Council on Monday voted to suspend the rules and read an ordinance three times to rezone a portion of the city near the Pines Mall where new single family homes are planned.
The property is in the 2500 to 2700 block of Auburn Drive, North Belair Drive and South Belair Drive and was formerly zones residential multi-family and general commercial.
Rob Withers of Home Again Pine Bluff explained the project to Deltaplex News.
Withers told the council that all the homes will be three bedroom, two bath and the long range plan is to build a total of 34 single family homes on the property.
Also Monday, the council suspended the rules and read an ordinance which will allow current council member Steven Shaner to do business with the street department.
Shaner is a principal in Natural State Asphalt Repair which, according to the ordinance, “utilizes an innovative technology which provides an advanced and potentially more effective and less expensive method of street maintenance.
The vote to read the ordinance three times and approve it was 6-2, with Shaner abstaining and Council Member Steven Mays voting no.
The council also fixed millage rates for the City, the Relief and Pension Funds of the Police Department and Fire Department, and the Pine Bluff Public Library. Mary Ann Lee was reappointed to the Historic District Commission and Thom E. Brown was appointed to the same commission, and David Knott was appointed to the Advertising and Promotion Commission to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of at-large member Barbara Dunn, who is now the director of the Pine Bluff Convention Center.
