Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Oct. 17, 2024 – The rezoning ordinance to reclassify a piece of land from residential to commercial passed unanimously at Tuesday’s city council meeting, despite pushback from community members.

The ordinance will rezone 2.12 acres on 5425 Southwest Drive to commercial property to build a restaurant, Bruno’s Pizzeria.

During public comments, several Jonesboro residents who live near the property strongly urged the council members to reconsider voting for the ordinance, citing traffic dangers and poor quality of life.

“There’s going to be major quality of life changes and unfortunately that’s going to be an ‘unquality’ of life,” said Jonesboro resident Richard Tucker. “Based on the exact location of the property, it could be 100 feet from my property line. We don’t want the noise, we don’t want the stench, we don’t want anything that brings into play.”

Jonesboro resident Delton Dunn said the area was a dangerous intersection, adding that it was near Valley View schools. He said he was concerned for the safety of teenage drivers in the area.

“We’re going to ask the most inexperienced drivers in this town to leave that pizzeria, or whatever it’s gonna be, cross four lanes of traffic to get back to school,” he said. “I don’t care how much tax money you bring in; you will not replace these kids’ lives. That’s not gonna be one, it’s gonna be multiple.”

Mike Cone, legal counsel for restaurant owner Bruno Azemi, responded that Azemi had received 98 signatures supporting the rezoning. He added that commercial property, including a Dollar General and several storage facilities, was already near the area.

Cone did not provide the signatures to the city council during the meeting or afterward. The city clerk’s office told JRN that these signatures would not need to be provided since the ordinance passed. Cone’s office did not return phone calls to provide the signatures.

Councilperson Janice Porter, Ward 1, Position 1, spoke in support of the ordinance.

“For Jonesboro to be attractive to business owners, the rezoning process needs to be predictable and consistent,” Porter said. “The proposed rezoning would bring this property into alignment with our future use plan. Arbitrarily choking off development is a poor strategy for dealing with traffic concerns.”

With the ordinance passing, development is scheduled to begin in one to two years.