Call to Action for disapproval of replat at 1516 S Ringo Street
CALL TO ACTION:
Act today to take part in city preservation.
We are asking our members to contact the Little Rock Planning Commission and its Staff to voice their disapproval of a replat of a lot at 1516 S Ringo Street. The developer tore down one of the Bush Family houses (Mosaic Templar Fraternal Organization fame) and now wants to subdivide the lot so that three 15-foot wide houses can be built.
Photos showing 1516 Ringo Street before and after the home was demolished on May 16, 2024 courtesy of preservearkansas.org
Below is a copy of the letter we have sent to the Commission and Staff for more information on the situation. A template letter and email addresses are at the end of this letter.
This is NOT a template, please find that at the end of this email
"TO: Brad Jordan, Interim Director, Planning and Development
FROM: Brian Minyard, Interim Executive Director, QQA
RE: S-1976, Comments for PC Hearing, September 12, 2024
DATE: August 26, 2024
The QQA Advocacy Committee met and discussed the house at 1516 Ringo multiple times this year and opposes this action. The QQA Board of Directors has also voted to oppose this action at the Planning Commission. Please share these comments with the Commission and enter them into the record. The Committee and Board reviewed the revised application for a replat for 1516 Ringo.
The Advocacy Committee strongly disagrees with the recommendation of Approval for the replat of the lot with the following three variances: 1. Variance to allow reduced lot width. 2. Variance to allow reduced lot area. 3. Variance to allow increased lot width-to-depth ratio.
The property in question had a house that was on the National Register of Historic Places. It was included in a multiple property listing of Charles Thompson Houses. Thompson was “the” architect of the early 20th century in Little Rock. Later, two of the residents of 1516 Ringo were Bush relatives of Mosaic Templars fame. After that, Milton Pitts Crenchaw lived there. Mr. Crenchaw was an original Tuskegee Airman, the very first Arkansan to arrive at Morton Airbase in Tuskegee. One of the first two flight instructors at Tuskegee, he is in the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, started and taught at the aviation school at Philander, AND awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. The house had an incredible pedigree of Black history. The Advocacy Committee placed the house on Preserve Arkansas’ Most endangered list in the Spring of 2024, which may have hastened the demolition of it. The house, which held a remarkable legacy of Black history, is now irrevocably lost.
Two other Bush houses are to the north, 1510 Ringo and 1500 Ringo. Benjamin Henderson, a nephew to John E Bush, owned 1510 Ringo and AE Bush, son of John E Bush, owned 1500 Ringo. John E Bush was the founder of the Mosaic Templars of America, a black fraternal organization founded in Little Rock in 1883 whose headquarters sat at West Ninth and Broadway.
We tried contacting them to discuss and they ignored both Preserve Arkansas and us. Grants and tax credits were on the table for a restoration project. Tearing down a house with this pedigree was bad enough. Now the developer wants to subdivide the property into three lots for houses. These homes, as described on the plat submitted to the Planning Department will be out of character on that block for size and width. The block historically had four houses on that blockface and an increase of 50% more homes is not appropriate. The houses on that block had larger lots to signify the prestige and affluence of the Bush family. These three skinny houses will not honor that legacy.
Materials of any infill houses (whether it be one, two, or three houses) should be compatible with the other houses on that blockface: primarily brick or horizontal wood siding. A good reference is the current MacArthur Park Guidelines for infill Construction that dictates materials, size, scale, setback, etc. and strives for appropriate infill. The QQA would recommend that the applicant change the application to a Planned Residential Development (PRD) to address design choices preferred by the neighborhood to make the house blend more with the adjacent historic structures.
The Advocacy Committee strongly disagrees with the Staff Recommendation of approval and asks the Planning Commission to deny this request."
Please use this template below to contact the Planning Department and the Planning Commission. You may cut and paste the template below and add additional text if you wish. Please email your comments to bjordan@littlerock.gov, dstafford@littlerock.gov, and us at qqa@quapaw.com. (We would like to to announce how many people sent in comments while at the meeting.) Please send your comments by noon on September 5th to be placed in the packet that goes out one week in advance of the Planning Commission meeting. If that is not doable, please send them before noon on September 12th.
"Bradley Jordan, Director of Planning and Development
Michael Vickers, Planning Commission Chair
Debra Stafford, Planning Staff
Re: S-1976 1516 Ringo Street
To whom it may concern,
We would like to register our opposition to the variances associated with the proposed replat of 1516 Ringo Street. We understand that the property will be divided into three lots and houses proposed to be built will be out of character with the surrounding historic homes in size, materials, and architecture.
As members of the Quapaw Quarter Association, we care about the historic homes in our town. This now-demolished home had multiple layers of history being a Charles Thompson designed house, connections with the Mosaic Templars fraternal organization, and with the Tuskegee Airmen. We understand that we cannot reverse the demolition, but we want to influence the design and number of the new houses so that they honor the remaining Bush family houses on that block.
We ask that you deny the variances requested for the replat. We further ask that the applicant file for a Planned Development – Residential so that the community and neighborhood be able to have input on the size, shape, materials, and architecture of the new house or houses.
Thank you"
What is a replat?
A lot replat, also known as a re-subdivision or replatting, is the process of combining or reconfiguring multiple parcels of land to create a single larger parcel or newly configured parcels. Replats can also be used to vacate lots, parcels, or easements in a recorded subdivision or partition plat. This can be done to increase or decrease the number of lots in the subdivision, or to reconfigure the existing subdivision. For example, a large piece of land could be replatted into smaller lots.