The city of Pine Bluff is asking a Jefferson County Circuit judge to order the Arkansas Department of Community Corrections to get approval from the city council or planning commission before opening transitional housing on DCC property on the west side of the city for inmates who have been paroled.
City Attorney Althea Hadden-Scott filed paperwork late Thursday saying the city would “suffer irreparable harm if DCC is permitted to use a portion of the facility for a halfway/transition house in that approximately 30 parolees will be concentrated, in close proximity, of the citizens in that area.”
Hadden-Scott wants Judge Rob Wyatt Jr. to order DCC to halt their plans for the halfway/transition houses until the Pine Bluff Planning Commission or the Pine Bluff City Council reviews and approves the plans.
“The Department of Community Corrections will suffer no injury as a result of the issuance of injunctive relief,” Hadden-Scott said in the court filing.
Community Corrections spokeswoman Rhonda Sharp said the department had no comment on the court filing.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Hadden-Scott filed the paperwork after several people on the west side of the city complained to the city council last month about DCC’s plans, particularly the fact that sex offenders and violent offenders could be housed there. Residents also complained that they had received no advance notice of the plans.
The department plans to convert four duplexes that were previously used to house DCC personnel who were undergoing training into halfway houses for about 30 inmates who have been approved for parole, but do not have family or friends to live with. That group could also include nonviolent offenders, but DCC personnel said they had not yet determined how the inmates who would participate in the program would be selected, or how long they would be permitted to stay in the facility.
While there, they would be expected to work and pay rent, and would not be subject to 24-hour-a-day supervision, but DCC officials said a parole officer will have an office in one of the buildings, and they would be separated from the current facility where women are held by two sets of fences. Additional lighting and security cameras would also be added, and DCC inmates from Texarkana are currently remodeling the buildings and constructing a road into and out of the area.
According to the court filing by Hadden-Scott, the property and buildings were annexed into the city of Pine Bluff in 1999, and since that time, the facility has been used exclusively to house inmates.
The property where the DCC facility is located is zoned as an R-1 residential district, and the property was grandfathered in as a non-conforming use, and the court filing said any changes in the existing use must be reviewed by the planning commission.
“The Department of Community Corrections is attempting to alter its facility from a more restricted use to a less restricted use, which is prohibited by Pine Bluff Code of Ordinances Section 29-56,” Hadden-Scott said in the court filing.
Additionally, Hadden-Scott said that state law gives municipalities the authority to regulate the use of land, buildings and structures within the city limits, and nothing in the law exempts governmental entities from complying with a city’s zoning ordinances.
Arkansas law also requires that a public hearing be held on the proposed location of a residential facility for sexual or violent offenders at least 30 days before contracting for the property on which the facility will be located. Residents within 1,000 feet of that location must be notified of the hearing by mail at least 10 days in advance. There was no public hearing before DCC decided to locate the transitional/halfway houses on the west side of the city, nor were residents notified by mail, Hadden-Scott said in the court filing.