The first permanent entertainment district in Eureka Springs will be a reality within the next month.
The Eureka Springs City Council voted 5-1 at its Sept. 23 meeting to approve the third and final reading of an ordinance that establishes a permanent district at Pine Mountain Village, a shopping center on East Van Buren Avenue. The ordinance approving the district will go into effect 30 days from the date of passage.
The district will have to be re-approved in two years and can be revoked at any time at the suggestion of the city’s police or fire chief.
“The entertainment district at Pine Mountain is an opportunity to align with modern trends like outdoor dining, which has surged in popularity mostly due to COVID, but has continued to grow and is not diminished,” council member Susane Gruning said. “Pine Mountain is perfectly suited to offer this experience and has the capability and the capacity to make it a success.
“… If we continue to block opportunities for growth, we will only lose more revenue to towns that aren’t even focused on tourism. Let’s work toward positive solutions, build a stronger future, and stop shutting down the pathways that could help our city thrive. Let’s take the opportunity of how we can expand our revenue without undermining the quality of our town. I do thank those that support this essential revenue expansion and encourage everyone to consider the vital role that a Pine Mountain entertainment district will play and can play in preserving and enhancing Eureka Springs’ future.”
Property owners Marshall and Kyle Johnson, who are brothers, have wanted to turn the area into a permanent district to help draw more businesses to the shopping center, which currently has numerous vacant storefronts. Pine Mountain Village hosts numerous temporary entertainment districts throughout the year and a permanent district will allow the consumption of alcoholic beverages within the property.
“Our goal is to create an attractive property, which we’ve already started,” Kyle Johnson said at an Aug. 26 council meeting. “The steps of doing this, that’s going to attract other businesses, which drive economic development. … We already have our businesses that we operate, and we’d like to bring in some others that complement what we currently have, the Eureka Harley store. We’ve got a restaurant.
“Just the way the property is set up, with the horseshoe and the front parking lot … it’s 40 acres, five of it’s developed. There’s really a nice offset from the highway with a beautiful berm that creates barriers as well as some other natural barriers around the backside.”
While the entertainment district will be effective every day of the week, Kyle Johnson said music and events would still happen sporadically. The key is attracting new businesses to the center, he said.
“We have operated events there, sure,” Kyle Johnson said before the council approved the proposed ordinances on its first reading. “There will be a few events, but from our perspective, we would prefer long-term tenants that are paying rent month after month complementing what we already do. That is a steady stream of income. It’s easier to operate and plan financial expenses and things like that.”
Nine residents spoke on the topic of the permanent district during public comments at the Sept. 23 council meeting. Eight voiced support for the district. In addition, seven more residents submitted letters on the subject that were read by Ida Meyer, city clerk-treasurer. Of those, five were in favor of the Pine Mountain Village district.
“I am the proud owner of a home that is closest to the stage [at Pine Mountain Village], so I get to listen to all the great music that comes out of there, and luckily they kind of shut it down at 8 p.m. over there,” resident Damon Henke said. “… My primary point is the fact that this isn’t about events. An entertainment district isn’t designed to put more events in Pine Mountain Village. It’s designed to have better quality tenants in Pine Mountain Village. It’s designed to take Pine Mountain Village and put it back on the map as a destination for visitors. That’s the predominant reason that we need the entertainment district in Pine Mountain Village. It has nothing to do with having more music.
“There is no other property that has five acres with a 35-acre buffer around it. If we’re going to have an entertainment district anywhere in town, that is exactly where we would put the entertainment district.”
The vote to approve the permanent district comes nearly four years after residents voted down a downtown district 641-518 in the November 2020 general election. The vote came after the council voted earlier that year to establish the downtown district.
Karen Lindblad, the lone resident at the Sept. 23 meeting to speak against the proposal during public comments, reminded the council of that vote.
“I’m surprised at the fact that this council either is ignoring or not aware of the fact that we already had a vote on a permanent, and I will call it an alcohol district, because you can have plenty of entertainment without people walking around with alcohol, and we have proven that over and over,” Lindblad said. “We had it on the ballot and 60 percent of Eureka said no permanent alcohol districts. … Anyone that votes for this district is standing up for the 40 percent who said yes. It was 60 percent of people that said they don’t want it. These aren’t entertainment districts, they’re alcohol districts.”
Mayor Butch Berry reminded council members that the district that got voted down was for a large area of downtown and is much different from the one approved at the Sept. 23 council meeting.
“That was for downtown Eureka Springs, not up on top of the hill,” Berry said. “The district boundaries were entirely different. It was going from the Cat House all the way up to Chelsea’s corner and down on Main Street and on Spring Street. It was entirely different….”
Henke echoed those comments.
“… I agree within the valley here of [downtown] Eureka Springs, it’s tight,” Henke said. “You’re bordered by R-1 and it’s a small commercial district in a valley where you have a lot of sound bouncing around. That is not what we’re talking about up at Pine Mountain Village.
“In order for the Johnsons to get the right tenants in there to make this area something that appeals to visitors of Eureka Springs, I believe this entertainment district is going to be a very valuable asset just like it has been in numerous communities across Arkansas.”
Others who spoke in favor of the district included CAPC director Mike Maloney, Devin Henderson with the Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce and Susan Harman, former city council member and current chair of the city’s planning commission and board of zoning adjustment.
“What I see and what I believe we all should be able to see if we’re honest is that the city is facing some very real and significant expenses in the immediate future,” Harman said. “Lawsuits that haven’t been settled, we’ve got a $5 million annually for water and sewer, higher water rates, …the fact we have to borrow money to clean up Lake Leatherwood Creek, the possible demise of our marketing arm, the CAPC, not to mention our commitment to a roundabout in 2025. These are all expenses that cannot simply be taken off the budget and postponed.”
Having another area of the city able to attract visitors to spend money that would impact sales tax is important, Harman said.
“We are seeing decreases in our tourism markets,” she said. “We’re down this year. I know a lot of stores are down. We’ve got empty stores downtown. This is due to a variety of reasons, some within our control and some outside our control. … Currently expenses facing the city will be a burden on all residents regardless of our tourism success. Are we only going to entertain in a specific area such as downtown, or only the right kind of tourist, and even then, only for a day or weekends? We remove huge target markets by doing that.
“Target markets are going to have significant disposable income that could be helping us pay the expenses that are before us. … Do we let the tourist, all tourists, pay for future needs and wants? Or do we let our citizens take more and more of the hit?”
Harry Meyer continued to be the lone dissenting vote on the idea among council members.
“I’ve heard a lot about this entertainment district and all the miracles it’s going to do for our city. I see no data,” Meyer said. “There’s absolutely no example of Pine Mountain Village anywhere else in Arkansas that we can compare it to that will make this a big deal. What in the world is stopping them from developing the property on their own? I don’t see where walking around with a drink is going to help anyone rent anything out. … You know, much of my neighbors and a dozen of Damon’s neighbors signed a petition saying they don’t want it. They don’t like it. They don’t want the noise. … People can go to the equalization board with with a recording of the noise in their backyard and possibly get their taxes reduced because Pine Mountain Village used to be a quiet shopping center. The music venue shut down a long time ago, but it was a quiet shopping center. And if you want families to come to a quiet shopping center, I would think that you’d want something for children to do besides watching their parents drink a beer.
“It’s just totally absurd. … I understand there’s some panic here. Half the council owns businesses. So they’re thinking we’ve got to do anything. But the reason the tourism is slowed down has absolutely nothing to do with drinking a beer. Absolutely nothing to do with it. It’s the aftermath of COVID, it’s inflation, it’s the election coming up that people are afraid of. Go ahead and pass that if you want, but I stand against it.”
Council member Autumn Slane, who owns three restaurants and a tavern, reminded council members that ABC rules will still apply regarding alcohol sales, and said hearing live music from one’s home is part of living in a community that thrives on tourism.
“I live off Pivot Rock Road and I enjoy the Wanderoo’s music every weekend,” Slane said. “That’s part of being here. I wish them luck every time because I know that is what is bringing tax dollars to our community. I know that’s a little bit we’re getting to help pay [water and sewer improvements]. So, I feel anything we can do to support these guys, that are second generation here in Eureka Springs, is the least we can do in my opinion.”
Council member David Avanzino, who owns the Wanderoo Lodge and Gravel Bar that Slane was referring to, said he learned first-hand how to “be a good neighbor” after getting noise complaints during his business’s early days, forcing him to invest in materials to help buffer the noise.
“I thought I was being a good neighbor. I was not,”Avanzino said. “… I think we’ve done a good job because I’ve heard zero since we invested in what we built.
“That being said, I’ve wavered on this permanent entertainment district. I was for it, I was against it, and now I am for it again. Some of the comments that were made up here in public comments are simply not true. This is not an alcohol zone and you’re not going to have 100 alcoholics drinking beer and having their liquor wandering around the streets of Eureka Springs. It’s not going to happen. It doesn’t happen, that I know of, anywhere else in town. These fears to me are blown out of proportion. To be honest, I think it’s a great revenue source. It’s not going to be party central 24/7. … I appreciate every comment for and against, however, the argument against just hasn’t met the standard that it needs to meet.”
