Arkansas Municipal Planning Enabling Act — Procedural Floor & Plan-Precondition Rule (AR)

Tracked preemption from the Arkansas overlay bundle.

Overview

Effective
1957-01-01
Sunset
Authority
state
Scope
state:AR

Trigger predicate

When this evaluates true for a parcel, the law's preempted fields take precedence over base zoning.

always true

Preempted fields

4 fields on the base district schema are rewritten when the trigger fires.

FieldOpValueNote
zoning_decision_procedure.requires_adopted_land_use_planoverrideTrue§14-56-416: city may not exercise zoning power until planning commission has adopted a land use plan — zoning ordinances absent an adopted plan are vulnerable to ultra vires challenge
zoning_decision_procedure.public_notice_min_daysfloor_at15§14-56-417: 15-day published newspaper notice and planning commission public hearing before governing body action
zoning_decision_procedure.requires_planning_commission_recommendationoverrideTrue§14-56-417: planning commission recommendation required before governing body enactment/amendment
extraterritorial_jurisdiction.max_radius_milescap_at5§14-56-413: first-class cities may exercise planning ETJ up to 5 miles from corporate limits unless another municipality is closer

Citation

Authority source
Ark. Code Ann. §§14-56-401 through 14-56-425 (Municipal Planning Enabling Act; originally Act 186 of 1957)
§ §§14-56-401 et seq.; §§14-56-412, 14-56-413, 14-56-416, 14-56-417, 14-56-422, 14-56-425
https://law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-14/subtitle-3/chapter-56/subchapter-4/

Research notes

Arkansas is a modified-Dillon's-Rule state — every municipal zoning power must trace to a §14-56-xxx delegation. The §14-56-416 plan-precondition rule is the single highest-volume vulnerability for smaller AR cities operating zoning without an adopted plan. §14-56-413 ETJ does NOT extend zoning regulatory authority to ETJ unless the city has adopted subdivision regulations covering it. Counties have a parallel enabling act at §§14-17-201 et seq.