Voters in northeast suburb of Little Rock allow businesses to sell alcohol
The Little Rock suburb of Sherwood did not allow grocery stores to sell alcohol north of Maryland Avenue before a November 5, 2024 vote to make the area "wet." A Walmart Supercenter in the city is located just south of Maryland Avenue. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)
Arkansans in the northern half of a Little Rock suburb overwhelmingly voted Tuesday to allow some businesses to sell alcoholic beverages, a measure that supporters say will bring economic growth to the area and increase people's access to groceries.
The now-defunct Gray Township in northeast Pulaski County included what is now Jacksonville and the area of Sherwood north of Maryland Avenue. Residents of the township in the 1950s voted to be a "dry" area, banning the sale of alcohol from all businesses that might normally do so, including grocery stores and restaurants.
Sherwood voters alone in the former township had the option to vote for or against "the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors," and 4,478 voted for the measure while 1,465 voted against it, according to unofficial but complete results from the Pulaski County Board of Election Commissioners.
The issue made it onto the ballot after more than 3,800 registered voters in northern Sherwood signed petitions in support of the measure, Act4Sherwood . The City of Sherwood and its Chamber of Commerce both supported the effort.
Gray Township results
The liquor sales ban "really put a hindrance on a lot of economic development" in northern Sherwood, said Dillon Eberle, the Chamber of Commerce's board chairman. He called the election results "a big win."
Sherwood has a Walmart Supercenter and a Walmart Neighborhood Market just south of Maryland Avenue, the former Gray Township border, meaning both stores were already allowed to sell alcohol. Eberle said this was a "competitive disadvantage" that disincentivized grocery stores from setting up shop north of Maryland Avenue.
"This whole initiative was to make sure there's a level playing field for all businesses down there because it is a growing area of our city," Eberle said.
Restaurants in north Sherwood can sell alcohol on their premises as of 2017 when voters approved the policy in a special election, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. Jacksonville passed the same measure in the same election.
The required number of signatures to get this year's measure on the ballot resulted from Act 671 of 2023 , which the Arkansas Legislature passed last April. The law requires 38% of voters in defunct townships to sign petitions for local ballot measures.
Two Republican lawmakers representing Sherwood, Rep. Karilyn Brown and Sen. Jane English, sponsored Act 671.
Food desert
Sherwood has no grocery stores within or just outside the city limits north of Maryland Avenue. Jacksonville has only three grocery stores west of Arkansas Highway 167, leaving area residents with few options between there and nearby Sherwood.
A new grocery store in northern Sherwood would serve much of this food desert, according to both Democratic candidates who unsuccessfully ran for the two state House seats representing the area.
Andrew Cade Eberly lives in western Jacksonville and challenged Brown's reelection bid. Kwami Abdul-Bey lives in Gibson, north of Sherwood, and challenged Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle.
Both Eberly and Abdul-Bey said they made their support for Act4Sherwood part of their campaigns and regularly heard from voters frustrated about the dearth of grocery options.
Abdul-Bey said Wednesday that he was "excited that it not only passed, but passed with very convincing numbers."
He added that he led an effort to bring a cooperative grocery store to Gibson in 2020, during the lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, to no avail.
"I look forward to seeing either a Harps or an Aldi in this area very soon so this area can no longer be a food desert," he said.
A food desert is defined as an area in which affordable and healthy food, particularly fresh produce, is difficult for residents to access.
Eberle, the Chamber of Commerce board chairman, said there was "no organized opposition" to the Act4Sherwood, and some Sherwood residents' disapproval of the ballot measure stemmed from their personal disapproval of alcohol.
He said supporters worked hard to inform voters that the measure was meant to draw grocery stores and restaurants into the area, not to "have a bunch of bars and pubs down there."
Eberly, the state legislative candidate, said in an interview in October that the effort to pass Act4Sherwood meant emphasizing access to food as a bigger issue than access to alcohol.
"When you talk to people about Act4, what you tend to realize is a lot of them lean on their religious preferences [while voting], but whenever you start talking about food deserts and things of the sort, of course it's something that they want to combat," he said.
