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UA, Pulaski County Fight Over Property Taxes

2 min read

The Board of Trustees for the University of Arkansas and Pulaski County can’t agree on whether 11.3 acres of undeveloped land owned by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences should be exempt from property taxes.

Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines ruled in January that because the land is vacant — which it might stay until a floodplains issue is resolved — it is not exempt from property taxes. The county is seeking about $31,000 in property taxes.

The UA recently appealed Villines’ ruling to Pulaski County Circuit Court and wants a judge to rule that the property is exempt because it is “public property used exclusively for public purposes,” according to its lawsuit.

Of course, you remember that at the end of 2010, UAMS spent $3.65 million to buy the property at Cantrell Road and Rodney Parham Road from Verizon Wireless of Baskin Ridge, N.J.

The plan was to develop it into a clinic that would offer such services as ambulatory surgery and vascular studies and possibly others such as hospice, rehabilitation and long-term care, according to filings in the lawsuit.

“The land might never be used by the University for the purpose for which it was intended,” Villines wrote in his Jan. 4 ruling. “It remains conceivable that the floodplain problem may remain unsolved and construction might not be able to be carried out.”

Leslie Taylor, a UAMS spokeswoman, said the clinic project is not hold and that UAMS was aware of the wetlands issue when it purchased the property in 2010.  She said the wetlands area accounts for only a fraction of an acre of the site, and that, worst-case scenario, UAMS might not be able to build on that section of the site. 
Taylor also said UAMS is working with the Corp and its developers on an optimal building plan for the site. That includes UAMS submitting a proposed resolution to the Corps, which is now pending, she said. 

“This planning is essential to the development of the Property and is a part of it, but physical construction cannot commence until the wetlands issues are resolved and approved by the Corps of Engineers,” UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn said in a Sept. 1 affidavit filed in the case.

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