HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-07-20 email PA 2 Westbrook Award Winners Oppose HDC2019-023 July 20-2020
501.372.4757 | P.O. Box 305 | Little Rock, AR 72203-0305
July 20, 2020
The Honorable Frank Scott, Mayor of Little Rock
Little Rock Historic District Commissioners
Jamie Collins, Director, Little Rock Department of Planning and
Development
Brian Minyard, Urban Designer, Little Rock Department of Planning and
Development
RE: Opposition to HDC2019-023
Dear Mayor Scott, Commissioners, Mr. Collins, and Mr. Minyard:
The undersigned – all Little Rock residents and past recipients of
Preserve Arkansas’s Parker Westbrook Award for Lifetime Achievement
– oppose the multi-family infill development proposed for the northeast
corner of 10th and Rock Streets in the MacArthur Park Historic District.
Most of us have been involved in historic preservation, professionally
and/or as volunteers, for more than forty years. We remember the City’s
creation of the MacArthur Park Historic District in 1981, as well as the
reasons the district was created: to encourage the rehabilitation of historic
buildings in the area around MacArthur Park, Little Rock’s oldest
surviving neighborhood, and to discourage incompatible intrusions into
the neighborhood’s historic fabric.
The proposed project at 10th and Rock Streets is a very large and
incompatible intrusion into the MacArthur Park neighborhood’s historic
fabric and would be a bad precedent for future infill development in the
historic district. Others opposed to the project – notably the Quapaw
Quarter Association and Preserve Arkansas – already have analyzed its
shortcomings with respect to the eleven Design Factors used to evaluate
new construction in the district. Consequently, we simply will say that we
agree with those analyses and believe the project does not fully comply
with any of the eleven Design Factors.
All of us support good infill development in historic neighborhoods, but
new construction must blend harmoniously with its historic neighbors. A
different approach to redeveloping the vacant property at 10th and Rock
Streets – perhaps echoing the six cottages that once stood on that site –
would better serve both the MacArthur Park Historic District and the
cause of historic preservation in Little Rock.
Board of Directors
Mason Ellis, AIA
President
Jill Judy
VP of Development
Tim Maddox, AIA
VP of Education
Mike Kinkade
VP of Advocacy
Kathy Boyette
Treasurer & President-
Elect
Hunter M. Windle
Secretary
Julie Bridgforth
Suzzette Goldmon, Ph.D.
Edward Salo, Ph.D.
W. Chris Sheppard, AIA
Stuart Towns, Ph.D.
Mandy Welch
Angela Wilburn
Ex-Officio
Ruth A. Hawkins, Ph.D.
Sec. Stacy Hurst
Scott Kaufman
Carl H. Miller, Jr.
Cheri Nichols
Greg Phillips
Debbie Shea
Hon. John Thurston
Michael Higgs
Charles Witsell, Jr., FAIA
Please deny HDC2019-023.
Sincerely,
The Honorable Mark Stodola
Carl Miller, Jr.
Sandra Taylor Smith
Charles Witsell
Becky Witsell
Bobby Roberts, Ph.D.
Bill Worthen
Missy McSwain
Cheri Nichols
Tommy Jameson, AIA