HOUSE OF WOE, CONT. substantially limits one or more major life activities, thus leaving them handicapped by the Fair Housing Act.” By the time Butler learned of the city’s objections, he had already purchased the home and begun renovations, based on Voyles’ initial email. Carter conceded the city sent Butler mixed signals. “You never want to give people conflicting information. You always want to be as clear as possible. And obviously, this is not one of those cases,” he said. “Local government needs to have predictable processes, and that’s how we could have done this better.” However, Carter also pointed to a 1997 Arkansas Supreme Court case, Russellville vs. Hodges, in which the high court ruled against a property owner who built an illegal trailer park based on a faulty interpretation of zoning regulations by a city official. The court ruled the city could force the trailer park to be removed because the official didn’t have the power to waive the regulations on his own. But McClain said the Russellville case isn’t applicable because his dispute with the city isn’t about zoning, it’s about housing discrimination against the disabled. After the city’s change of position left
him no other option, Butler did apply for the rezoning and special use permit. When his neighbors in Lakewood found out about it, they started to object, complaining an adult care home would lower their property values. “I had people call and leave me ugly messages on the phone and send me emails,” he said. Among the groups objecting was the Lakewood Property Owners Association. Ken Sullivan, the association’s executive director, said “our objection is that we didn’t want it to be rezoned.” Asked if the association would have objected to the city allowing the House of Three to operate as a permitted use under R-1 zoning, as was done in Little Rock, Sullivan said “I can’t really speak to that.” “We were opposed to it being rezoned as a business,” he said. When the rezoning came up last December, it drew a standing-roomonly crowd to the City Council chambers. Most of those on hand, including family members of House of Three residents, supported Butler. But the City Council voted 6-2 against the rezoning, based on the concerns about precedent of allowing a business use in what is an R-1 neighborhood. That’s when con-
struction on the half-finished House of Three came to a halt. The question now before the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission is whether North Little Rock violated fair housing laws. Butler believes the city did, pointing to a document on the U.S. Department of Justice’s website that lays out the following scenario: “Suppose a city’s zoning ordinance defines a ‘family’ to include up to six unrelated persons living together as a household unit, and gives such a group of unrelated persons the right to live in any zoning district without special permission. If that ordinance also disallows a group home for six or fewer people with disabilities in a certain district or requires this home to seek a use permit, such requirements would conflict with the Fair Housing Act.” In 2011, Jonesboro lost a federal court case after it denied an application to house eight handicapped children and two house parents in a group home. It cost the city $90,000. In 2003, the city of Sedona, Ariz., was forced to pay $530,000 to the operator of a residential home for recovering drug addicts, who are considered disabled under federal law. After the home had been purchased, the city turned down a
use permit when neighbors complained. The Little Rock City Board of Directors initially balked at applications by Oxford House Inc. to set up group homes in residential neighborhoods for recovering drug users and alcoholics, but relented once it became familiar with the Fair Housing Act. Its defining ordinance for home occupancy does not include the nonprofit requirement. The Arkansas Fair Housing Commission was expected to issue a ruling on Butler’s complaint in mid-March but extended the deadline “to make additional efforts to conciliate [settle] the complaint,” according to a letter the commission sent to Butler. A decision still has not been reached. Carter said city officials have met with the commission’s staff, which has already prompted a change in the way North Little Rock will handle these types of requests going forward. According to Carter, the city was informed it was required by federal law to have a process in place for making reasonable accommodations for housing for the disabled, which the city lacked. So under a new procedure approved by the City Council in March, a property owner who wants to operate a home CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
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