JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - The city council met Monday to discuss several items on the agenda such as rezonings, but toward the end, a woman made sure council members knew her concerns over significant flooding.
Region 8 News spoke to Angela Williams 2 weeks ago about the flooding in her Hilltop area neighborhood that caused issues to her driveway.
During public comment, Williams handed the council printouts of the recent flooding.
“This is a problem that we’ve been having,” Williams said. “We believe as a community that this is the city’s fault.”
She and other residents say they’ve spoken with council members, engineers, and the mayor about the issue, but the city is not offering them a solution they feel would work.
That’s why she reminded city leaders to upgrade the area’s 30-year-old drainage system.
“That system was never designed to carry the load,” she said. “We just keep being told, ‘Take your fence down and let the water access the ditch. Take out flood insurance. We’re going to let water access your home twice. The city can get money from FEMA to buy your home.’ That’s not acceptable! That is not acceptable!”
Jonesboro Mayor Harold Copenhaver asked if her home was damaged, to which she replied no but described the issues they did see.
After that, the city didn’t comment any further.
The Jonesboro City Council did move the private club permit for Lost Pizza on Hilltop to a third reading. No one commented on the measure.
Councilmembers did approve an ordinance to rezone property at 305 Airport Road from R-1 single-family residential to RS-8 single-family residential.
Recently, residents have brought up concerns over the Cottage Housing ordinance.
During the meeting, the Jonesboro Metropolitan Area Planning Commissions’ Director of Planning Derrel Smith presented several amendments.
One of them included a minimum requirement of a thousand feet between each home.
Councilmembers accepted the amendments but then disagreed on how much that changed the actual ordinance.
The main concern about that was to allow the public enough time to review the amendments.
Ultimately, the council postponed the ordinance for another 2 weeks.
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