Legendary Performance

Whispers watched the drama unfold the last couple of weeks in Springdale and all we could do was smile. The residents of the Legendary subdivision near Elm Springs stormed the gates of Springdale City Hall, not once but twice, and in the process, quashed a smelly land deal.

Signature Bank of Arkansas proposed a rezone from residential to industrial on its 140-acre foreclosure across the street from Willis Shaw Elementary School so it could turn around and sell the acreage to Creative Things, a Lowell-based plastics manufacturer.

When the residents of Legendary got wind of this, they appeared in force at the Springdale Planning Commission meeting, the Springdale City Council meeting, and, launched a Facebook protest.

The planning commission denied the rezone, but Signature appealed to the council. But before the council voted unanimously to table the rezone until Sept. 9, the buyer, Creative Things, announced it would pull out of the deal and relocate to Bentonville.

Here’s the big catch: A source told Whispers the property in question was already under contract with the buyer, contingent on the land being rezoned from residential to industrial. In other words, had the residents of Legendary not mobilized to oppose the rezone, it would have been a done deal and that plastics factory would have moved forward with its construction plans.