The Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Agency has resumed with the demolition of dilapidated properties.
A house located at 1910 West 12th Street was the first property to be demolished by crews since the Pine Bluff City Council voted to resume demolition efforts in early January.
“City council voted to allow the Mayor to enter a cooperative arrangement with the Urban Renewal Agency which would allow us to act in concert with the city, whereby we can resume our demolition efforts,” said Urban Renewal Agency Director Maurice Taggart told Deltaplex News in January. “We are very excited about that and have been getting a lot of calls about it since last night, and I think it is going to be positive for the city.”
Urban Renewal had previously removed blighted properties for more than a six-month period before City Attorney Althea Scott that said the Urban Renewal Agency should be required to acquire properties before the blight can be removed.
The city attorney’s opinion said the Urban Renewal Agency, which is an autonomous body created by the city, with its own independent governing board, could not lawfully act in the same capacity, but would have to legally acquire property through “purchase, contract, eminent domain, donation by school district, donation by City of city property, etc.”
Director of the Urban Renewal Agency, Maurice Taggart, suspended all blight removal activities once the opinion was rendered until the matter could be resolved.
“We were moving towards getting rid of a lot of the blight, or large amounts last year,” Taggart said. “However, we ceased demolition and erred on the side of caution. There were some issues in regards to our ability to demo absent of acquisition. So, at any rate, we are past that and we are moving forward.”
State Senator Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, asked Attorney General Leslie Rutledge for her opinion on the matter on behalf of the agency in November. Rutledge responded saying the agency would legally be permitted to remove blighted properties through a cooperative agreement with the city.
Taggart stated there are three areas which are currently in the Urban Renewal footprint, however, that footprint could be expanded.
“There are three areas of plats of land that are designated as Urban Renewal areas,” said Taggart. “Right now, we are going to resume our efforts working from 34th (street) going south. Going east we will go to Ohio (street) going west to Hazel (street), then north to the Martha Mitchell Expressway. However, there’s a lot of folks talking about possibly expanding the Urban Renewal area, but we’ve got to deal with what we have now. We understand that blight is not only within those areas, but when I came on board those areas were drawn, and I think that that gives us a good starting point to move forward. Those conversations in reference to the expansion of the Urban Renewal area will come forth at sometime as necessary.”
Taggart noted that the areas with the most blight are within the hot spots that the most crime is occurring within the city.
“If you look at the hot spots in terms of crime, most of it is concentrated within the central city part of Pine Bluff, said Taggart. “I will say this, anytime you have dilapidated or properties that are in such a dilapidated state, you are going to draw in rodents, crime, and things of that sort. So, we want to maintain and get those areas cleaned up and set the foundation from which redevelopment can take place.”
