LITTLE ROCK, AR – Occupy Little Rock spent Tuesday in the River Market protesting the zoning plans for the Lake Maumelle watershed. The protest was part of Occupy Wall Street’s “National Day of Action.”
The protesters are concerned that Deltic Timber, which owns land in the watershed, will overdevelop the area by building thousands of homes and contaminate the drinking water of nearly 400,000 Arkansans in the process.
“Because Deltic Timber wants to develop new, beautiful lakefront property, the citizens of Pulaski County are going to end up being the ones that really pay for it,” said Adam Lansky, who is protesting with Occupy Little Rock. “It is a self-destructive practice to overdevelop a natural resource that people in an area are going to need. It doesn't make sense."
Deltic Timber, who also has a development in west Little Rock’s Chenal Valley, tells Fox 16 that there are “no development plans whatsoever at this time.”
The Lake Maumelle Watershed has been a contentious issue for landowners as well.
Several of them have hired attorneys in case the plan goes through.
In a unanimous vote, the board of commissioners for Central Arkansas Water approved the watershed plan. The Pulaski County Quorum Court will consider the plan in a meeting on December 20th.
Lanksy says it would be contradictory for elected officials to value the profit of a corporation over natural land.
“This is an opportunity for Pulaski County and for Arkansas to prove we are the natural state.”
