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The Mountain Home City Council has cleared the way for a new veterans clinic, rezoning a West End Way site on July 16 so a developer can close on the property and start construction.
The council voted unanimously to change the zoning of the parcel, known as Lot 2D in the West End Phase I subdivision, from Commercial C-2 to Commercial C-2(C). Members also adopted an emergency clause, which let the ordinance take effect immediately. Attorney Ted Sanders, who presented the request for property owner Gregory and Magness Properties LLC, told the council the buyer could not close on the deal until the rezoning was final.
The property sits on West End Way, near Harps.
“The proposed purpose of this is a VA clinic, and it’s going to be a good-size facility,” Sanders told the council.
Planning Director Arnold Knox, who has reviewed the plans, told the council the clinic would be a sizable building, taking up “30 or 40 rooms.”
For veterans in the Twin Lakes area, the news lands on a long-running concern. The region’s current VA outpatient clinic operates as a contract-based Community Based Outpatient Clinic in Twin Lakes Plaza on Highway 62 East, and it has drawn complaints about space, staffing and wait times.
Those frustrations came to a head last year. At a Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System town hall in March 2025, which the Observer covered, veterans packed a courtroom at the Baxter County Courthouse to press for answers about the future of VA care in Mountain Home.
“We need a permanent VA facility, not a contract,” one veteran called out during the question-and-answer session. “Why are we being the last one? Every place else in Arkansas has already been transferred over from a contract facility to a permanent facility.”
Michael Moore, the CAVHS medical center director, acknowledged the concerns and told the crowd the agency was pursuing a new, leased clinic.
“In all honesty, it’s going to take a few years,” Moore said at the town hall. “We have to go through the leasing and all those processes, but Dr. King, our chief of primary care, is one of the leaders of that group, and we are actively working on that.”
Staffing and wait times were a recurring worry that morning. Ashley Owens, the clinic’s nurse manager, said the VA was working to add help.
“I really hope that we can work on our mental health wait times, whether that be through more staffing or more access,” Owens said.
The West End Way rezoning is the first visible sign locally that the promised replacement is moving from plan to ground.
City officials said they chose the C-2(C) designation, rather than standard C-2, so the zoning would accommodate a larger medical use and the clinic would not have to return to the council for another rezoning as it grows. The Planning Commission recommended the change after a public hearing, and no formal objections were recorded. Council members then attached the emergency clause so the sale could close and construction could begin without delay.
The stakes are practical in a rural area where the nearest full VA hospital is hours away. Community Based Outpatient Clinics let veterans get primary and mental health care close to home instead of driving to Little Rock or North Little Rock. A purpose-built clinic with more room could ease the space and access problems that veterans described at the 2025 town hall.
Much about the project is still unconfirmed, including its exact size, its full range of services, the developer behind it and a construction timeline. The rezoning approved July 16 settles only the land-use question, giving the buyer the go-ahead to close and build.
How large the clinic will be, what services it will offer and when it might open remain to be seen. For now, the council’s vote clears the path for construction to start.
