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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979-03-26 Minutes• • • MINUTES OF A PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING A meeting of the City Planning Commission was held on Monday, March 26, 1979, at 5:10 o'clock P.M. in the Board of Directors Room, City Administration Building, Fayetteville, Arkansas. MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Ernest Jacks, Morton Gitelman, Beth Crocker, Rita Davis, Keith Newhouse, Peg Anderson, Bill Kisor, Windell Cullers and Newton Hailey. MEMBERS ABSENT: OTHERS PRESENT: None. Bobbie Jones, Gail Biswell, Larry Wood, Linda Yancey, Scott Van- Laningham, Rick Briggs, Mike Gauldin,Neal Albright, Lloyd Warren, Walter Turnbow, Duane Nelson, Tilden P. Wright, III, Ervan Wimberly, Ron Sherwood, Ora Lee Boss, Nat Hays, Ed Jones, Viola Jackman, Hester Armstrong, Bob Mayes, Clementine Infante, Jacke Dramis, Cindy Call and other unidentified members of the audience. Chairman Jacks called the meeting to order. The Chairman questioned whether there were ar.y corrections, additions or deletions to be made to the minutes of the previous meeting of March 12, 1P79. There being no revisions to be made thereto,' said minutes were approved as mailed. The next item for discussion was the prelimi- nary and/or informal plat of Meadow Lane Acres, a subdivision located outside the City Limits three- fourths mile East of Old Wire Road; Homer and Dorothy Fry, owners and developers. Mr. Neal Albright, engi- neer, was present to represent. Keith Newhouse, Chairman of the Subdivision Committee, moved to approve the plat as an informal plat subject to the following contingencies recommended by the Subdivision Committee: (1) Topography being waived. (2) The road proposed to be named "Meadow Lane" being reaffirmed to its original designation as "Bridgewater Lane." Said road being left at minimum County standards and ments being required. A notation being made on the plat restricting any further division of the lots without the subdivision plat being reprocessed through the Planning Commission. (5) All Plat Review comments being met. Newton Hailey seconded the motion, which passed unanimously (9-0). MINUTES MEADOW LANE ACRES (Outside City) Preliminary and/or Informal Plat (3) no further improve - (4) Item #3 on the agenda was a Public Hearing to consider an amendment to the Major Street Plan in the area between the Fayetteville -Springdale City Limits and the Highway 71 By -Pass. PUBLIC HEARING MAJOR STREET PLAN PROPOSED AMENDMENT Planning Commission Meeting • March 26, 1979 Page 2 • Chairman Jacks stated that this proposal had been prepared by the Fayetteville - Springdale Transportation Technical and Policy Committees of the Regional Planning Ccmmission. Mr. Jacks asked Larry Wood, Planning Consultant, to explain the proposals as developed by said Committees. Mr. Wood stated that the proposals had been made in conjunction with repre- sentatives of the Mall (Northwest Arkansas Plaza) and the State Highway Department it order to come up with a solution to the traffic problems in the Mall area He stated that these meetings came about when they read in the newspaper that a light' was about to be installed at Stearns Road and they decided that discussions on alternatives and ramifications of installing such traffic lights on Highway 71 were needed. He stated that it was generally agreed among these people that some t)pe of amendments to the Major Street Plan were needed to handle traffic coming ir and out of the Mall area, but that Duane Nelson's rezoning application had brought the discussions to a head much faster than normal since the Planning Com- mission had asked for a public hearing to discuss Major Street Plan amendments bcfore taking any action on the Nelson request. Mr. Wood stated that the aforesaid Transportation Technical Committee had met and reviewed the proposal to add a minor arterial street from Stearns Road ncrth to the Main Street of Johnson, Arkansas. He said that the Main Street of Jchnson is already a minor arterial on Springdale's Major Street Plan from Highway 71 west to the City Limits of Johnson. Mr. Wood stated that the Committee's second proposal was to add from Stearns Road south a collector street running to the north service road of the By -Pass. He stated that the map he had given Mrs. Jones to include in the agenda also pro- posed some other "cleaning up" items which he stated might not have been properly advertised. These items were: (1) Relocating the service roads on the East side of Johnson Road and the By -Pass to show them perpendicular to the By -Pass; and .(2) Adding the service road on the East side of '71 which would be Frontage Road from Arkansas Western Gas up to Stearns Road; and then continuing Frontage Road from Stearns Road north to Zion Road Mr. Wood stated that he felt sure that the last two items had been shown on the original By -Pass Plan which was adopted in 1974, but that they had never been picked up on the Major Street Plan. He was therefore proposing to add them to such Plan along with the first two new proposals set out above. Mr. Wood stated that the Technical Committee had disagreed somewhat on alternative proposals for the problem, however, he stated they had ultimately agreed that the best solution would probably be an interchange, grade separation somewhere in the vicinity of Zion Road and Highway 71. He stated that the Highway Department is currently studying possible designs and costs of such an interchange at the request of Fayetteville's City Manager, Don Grimes. He stated that the Technical Committee had also recommended to the Policy Committee the proposed changes that appear on the map advertising said amendments be added to the Major Street Plan also. Under a separate motion, he stated, the Technical Committee also recommended to the Policy Committee that a comprehensive study of traffic patterns involving all the existing and potential commercial property in the areas East and West of Highway 71 be undertaken jointly by the Highway Department, the Mall representatives, the Regional Planning Commission and the Fayetteville and Springdale Planning Commissions. The Policy Committee, he stated, concurred and both Committees forwarded this recommendation to the Regional Planning Commission. Planning Commission Meeting March 26, 1979 Page 3 Discussion ensued on the various proposed amendments. Ervan Wimberly stated that he felt any interchange along 71 should be at Stearns Road rather than Zion Road since he felt that once Stearns Road is constructed to connect with Highway 265 that it will carry the greater burden of traffic. After further considerable discussion, Mort Gitelman moved to recommend to the Board of Directors that the amendments to the Major Street Plan as proposed by the Regional Planning Commission be approved. Bill Kisor seconded the motion, which passed unanimously (9-0). Consideration was had on Rezoning Petition R79-9, the public hearing of which had been held on February 12, 1979. Duane Nelson and attorney Tilden P. Wright, III, were present to represent. Chairman Jacks noted that this rezoning request had been tabled at the February 12th meeting until a proposed amendment to the Major Street Plan could be heard and adopted. He stated that the Commission would have to take some type of action on this request at today's meeting or the request would be considered as approved and go on to the Board of Directors. Chairman Jacks noted that the location of the service road proposed in the plan submitted by Mr. Nelson at the public hearing was not in the same position as the one in the Major Street Plan that had just been approved. Mr. Wright stated that Mr. Nelson "would be happy to tie into the road you just approved." He said that Mr. Nelson had submitted his proposed plan in order to have something to talk about and get the matter going. Mr. Wright urged the Commission to approve the rezoning request "since the area is going to have to be developed commercially since the A-1 use is not there and residential uses -won't be." Larry Wood, Planning Consultant, stated that he was "at a loss" as to what recommendation to make since he felt there were three possible alternatives to consider, i.e.: (1) Rezone commercially a reasonable depth back to the West of the new proposed road; (2) Rezone commercial back as far as the R-0 property north of this tract; (3) If sufficient room exists then the zoning line could be broken between those two locations. Considerable discussion ensued concerning the exact western property line of the property requested for rezoning, as well as concerning possible locations of a line to end the commercial zoning. Peg Anderson moved to deny the rezoning request. She stated that her reasons CONSIDERATION OF REZONING PETITION R79-9 Duane Nelson W. of Highway 71 N. were: (1) She felt the indefiniteness of the exact location of the property to be rezoned was very unfavorable. (2) She stated she thought there were many acres of land in the City already zoned Commercial and that she did not want to encourage any further Commercial development in this area until the Frontage Road and other service roads and interchanges proposed for the area have been constructed. (3) She stated that she had "a feeling against it since it is not in the Fayetteville School District." Morton Gitelman seconded the motion to deny the request, stating that he was offended by the possibility. of increasing the intensity of development around the Mall, although he did not like to see the Mall having a monopoly on commercial Planning Commission Meeting • March 26, 1979 Page 4 • property in that area He stated that rezoning this 80 acres commercially might induce the Steele estate to request such rezoning for its property which lies between this property and the By -Pass, thereby reducing the possibility of any R-3 in that area. He also stated that he disapproved of the effect that further commercialization in the Mall area would have to downtown Fayetteville. Mr. Gitel- man added that he would vote against any expansion of the Mall that might be considered in the future. Chairman Jacks called for a vote on the motion to deny the request. The recorded vote was: Ayes: Hailey, Cullers, Anderson, Jacks, Newhouse, Crocker and Gitelman. Nays: Kisor. Abstentions: Davis. The Chairman announced that the motion to deny had passed 7-1-1. Item #S on the agenda was a request by Ron Sherwood for a rehearing of his request for approval of off-site parking to serve an office building at 107 E. Spring Street. His request was denied March 12, 1979, but Mr. Sherwood asked for a rehearing for the following reasons: (1) The location of the proposed parking lot was incorrectly plotted on the zoning maps attached to the agenda. (2) The zoning of the property was in question at the time of the meeting. (3) Because of the uncertainty of the zoning, there may have been some questions concerning how the property could be used. (4) Additional information pertaining to possible fencing, design of the proposed construction, and landscaping were now available. Mr. Sherwood explained that the proposed off-site parking lot is located within C-2 zoning and that parking lots are a permissible use therein. He noted that some question had been raised at the first hearing regarding the proximity of his lot to the new Historical District. Mr. Sherwood stated that he had re- searched the boundaries of. such District and found that his lot lies outside its boundaries by 2 blocks in one direction and 11/2 blocks diagonally across the lots. Keith Newhouse moved to allow a rehearing on the request (such hearing to be held on April 9, 1979). Rita Davis seconded the motion, which passed unani- mously (9-0), REHEARING REQUEST RON SHERWOOD Off -Site Parking 107 E. Spring St. Chairman Jacks acknowledged receipt of a EDUCARE CHILD CENTER letter from Ora Lee Boss, the realtor who sub- Conditional Use Request mitted the Conditional Use request for his client 1090 Bertha Street Lloyd Schuh, Jr. in regard to the proposed Educare Child Center for 1090 Bertha Street. Mr. Jacks noted that Mr. Boss was asking that the hearing on this request be tabled for 30 days in order to allow him time to obtain approval of the majority of lot owners within the 74 -lot Maplecrest Addition of which the Bertha Street lot lies. He noted that this Addition has protective covenants on file restricting use of the lots to single-family dwellings. Mr. Boss noted that in the event a majority of the lot owners would not approve the proposed use that his client would probably withdraw his request entirely. Planning Commission Meeting March 26, 1979 Page 5 Chairman Jacks noted that several people in the audience were present to oppose the request and asked for their comments. Nat Hays, 3285 Martin, Ed Jones, 101 Alice St., Viola Jackman, 101 Bertha St., and Hester Armstrong each voiced objections to the large amount of additional traffic such a school would create in their neighborhood. Keith Newhouse moved to deny the original C.U. request as submitted. Morton Gitelman responded that he did not feel it fair to deny a request that they hadn't even heard the details of as yet. Mr. Newhouse withdrew his motion. Peg Anderson then moved to grant petitioners an additional 30 days before hearing their request. Windell Cullers seconded the motion, which passed unani- mously (9-0). A public hearing was held on Item #7, pro- posed amendments to Article V, Appendix A -Zoning, Fayetteville Code of Ordinances. The proposed amendments would reduce setbacks required from side property lines, reduce setbacks required from the centerline of public easements, and change the maxi- mum area that may be occupied by buildings on a lot within Industrial zoning districts. Chairman Jacks noted that the Public Hearing Notice had not stated any cer- tain zoning districts to which the above amendments would apply, and therefore he acknowledged a letter from Mr. and Mrs. Z. L. Thomas, 920 W. Elm, who admonished the Commission to incorporate such amendments with extreme caution if the property abuts a street that is already inadequate to serve existing traffic (such as near existing churches, etc.). Bob Mayes, 2910 N. Garland, was also present on the erroneous belief that such amendments would effect his commercially zoned property on Garland Street. Mort Gitelman noted that the proposed ordinance had omitted a sentence which should have been typed immediately following Section 1 (D) Bulk and Area Regulations, as follows: "Setback lines shall meet the following minimum requirements:". After a short discussion, Windell Cullers stated that he did not feel any further discussion was necessary since there were no objections to the proposals and since the Commission had previously talked about the proposed changes in detail. Mr. Cullers moved to approve the proposed amendments. Newton Hailey seconded the motion, which passed unanimously (9-0). PUBLIC HEARING Proposed Amendment to ART. V, SEC. VIII(D) and (E), & SEC. IX(E) • of the Zoning Ordinance A public hearing was held on Item #8, a PUBLIC HEARING proposed amendment to the General Land Use Plan Proposed Amendment to of the City of Fayetteville, for property located General Land Use Plan along North Street around Garland and Leverett Streets. Larry Wood explained that these proposed changes were the same as those discussed by the Commission at its February 12th meeting in conjunction with the public hearing of Rezoning Petition R79-13 (Robert F, Janeen Martin). There being no public opposition to the proposed amendment, Peg Anderson moved to recommend to the City Board that the proposed amendment be approved. Windell Cullers seconded the motion, which passed unanimously (9-0). • • • Planning Commission Meeting March 26, 1979 Page 6 Chairman Jacks reported that the Committee COMMITTEE REPORT studying Planned Unit Development regulations had STUDY OF PUD REGULATIONS met again and that they are still rewriting. He noted that the Committee is getting closer to com- pleting its proposals and that it hoped to have a new outline to bring to the Commission in the near future. Mr. Jacks noted that the Committee is still talking about allowing certain bonuses to developers as well as making divisions between large and small PUD regulations. Newton Hailey, Chairman of the Committee COMMITTEE REPORT on Planning Area Land Use Control reported that PLANNING AREA LAND USE CONTROL his Committee had met with the County Planning Board's Committee in conjunction with the County Judge last Thursday. He stated that this meeting was simply an initial meeting and that they had formulated an approach and reviewed some statutory obligations of the City and County. He stated that the County Committee is planning a meeting with Spring- dale to pursue this interest with them. Mr. Hailey noted that the Fayetteville Committee would have another meeting as soon as he receives updated growth area maps from Larry Wood. Chairman Jacks appointed a Committee to APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEE study policies for insuring off-site improvements OFF-SITE IMPROVEMENT POLICIES on subdivisions and large-scale developments. Appointed were: Keith Newhouse, Chairman Morton Gitelman Bill Kisor Ernest Jacks Mr. Kisor noted that realtor Jim Lindsey had also agreed to assist on this Committee. Mr. Jacks stated that City Director John Todd had asked to be notified of meetings of this Committee. There being no further business to come before the meeting, said meeting adjourned at 6:45 o'clock P.M...