Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1981-10-12 Minutes• • MINUTES OF A PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING A meeting of the Planning Commission October 12, 1981, in the Directors Room, Arkansas. was held at 5:00 P.M., Monday, City Administration Building, Fayetteville, MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Ernest Jacks, Don Hunnicutt, Elizabeth Crocker, Martin Redfern, Windell Cullers, Newton Hailey. MEMBERS ABSENT: OTHERS PRESENT: Morton Gitelman, David Williams, Joe Wilson. Tom Hughes, Ed Hudgens, Jr., Jim McCord, Jim Lindsey, Larry Wood, Cynthia Stewart, Bobbie Jones and others,: Chairman Ernest Jacks asked that the MINUTES minutes of the September 28, 1981 'meeting be revised as follows: Page 5, regarding Rezoning Petition R81-15, submitted by Steele Investment Company should read that the Chairman was against the access to the by-pass, but in favor of the service road. With that revision, Windell Cullers moved the minutes of the September 28, 1981 meeting df the Planning Commission be approved. Newton Hailey seconded. The motion passed (5-0-1) with Beth Crocker abstaining due to her absence. The next item for consideration was the approval of the Large Scale Development Plan for expansion to American Air Filter located South of Pump Station Road and West of Armstrong Avenue (2355 Armstrong); American Air Filter, Developer. Zoned I-2, General Industrial District. Tom Hughes and Ed Hudgens, Jr. were present to represent. The Chairman asked for a report from the Subdivision Committee. Don Hunnicutt stated there was nothing to be reviewed by the Planning Commission as there are no waivers requested with this expansion. However, he stated in the ordinance, parking for industrial uses is based on the square footage of the building. He stated in this case, the parking required for the expansion will exceed the need created by the expansion. In this case, the employees will be working in three shifts, and the parking would be far greater than needed. This appeal from the parking requirements will have to be sought at the Board of Adjustment. Ed Hudgens, Jr., engineer for the project, stated the general practice around the country is to base the parking requirements on the number of employees and the number of shifts rather than on the square footage of an industrial use Hudgens stated in this case, 50-60% of the expansion will be warehouse Tom Hughes,: Plant Manager for American Air Filter stated there will be somewhere between 135 and 160 employees when the expansion is completed. 65-70 of these will be working the day shift, the remainder of the employees will be working second and third shifts. • Redfern asked if more persons will be working the day shift than the other two shifts. Hughes stated that is correct. The day shift will have office staff and engineering personnel working and the other two shifts will not. LARGE SCALE DEVELOPMENT PLAN AMERICAN AIR FILTER ARMSTRONG AVENUE l76 )r77 J Planning Commission Meeting October 12, 1981 • Page 2 • • Hudgens stated 119 parking spaces are proposed with this expansion. Windell Cullers stated the Board of Adjustment is not inclined to waive such requirements unless there is a hardship shown. Jim McCord, City Attorney, stated this request for waiver indicates a need to amend the ordinance. Redfern stated perhaps the Planning Commission could recommend the Board of Adjustment look at the number of employees working the day shift since that appears to be the critical shift. Hunnicutt stated he would have to abstain from the vote as he is involved in the expansion, but he did not think the parking requirements in this case were fair. Martin Redfern moved that a recommendation be made to the Board of Adjustment that they take into consideration the number of employees on the day shift in their consideration of the requested waiver of required parking spaces. Beth Crocker seconded. The motion passed (5-0-1) with Crocker, Jacks., Redfern, Cullers and Hailey voting "Aye" and Don Hunnicutt abstaining. Beth Crocker moved that a recommendation be made to the Board of Directors that the ordinance be amended so that parking requirements for Industrial type uses be revised to take into consideration the number of employees working rather than the square footage of the structure. Windell Cullers seconded. The motion passed (6-0). Ernest Jacks stated a public hearing for amendment to the ordinance be scheduled as soon as a resolution is drafted by the City Attorney. The next item of business VARIANCE OF LOT SIZE was a request for variance from the FOR LOT SPLIT FAYETTEVILLE lot size requirement applicable to a lot split CITY HOSPITAL submitted by Fayetteville City Hospital for property North of Highway:16 by-pass and West of Duncan Avenue. Zoned R-2, Medium Density Residential District. Subject property contains a church facility and a residence. Jim McCord, City Attorney, was present to represent. McCord stated the minimum 3 acre requirement for a lot split was adopted to prevent circumvention of the subdivision regulations and was not intended to apply to parcels of land already developed. McCord said this request for waiver results from a_land transaction by the City Hospital. He stated all zoning and setback requirements will be met by both parcels created from the split. The hospital will retain title.to the house and sell it fairly soon to recoup some of the acquisition costs. Beth Crocker asked if the required right of way dedications will be made. McCord stated the required right of way will be dedicated. Windell Cullers moved the lot split variance be approved as requested. Beth Crocker seconded. The motion passed (6-0). The. next item of business PLANNING COMMISSION was the discussion of a possible RETREAT Planning Commission "retreat" to better familiarize new members of the Planning Commission of their responsibilities and duties. Planning Commission Meeting October 13, 1981 • Page 3 cta Beth Crocker stated that since Morton Gitelman, herself and Newton Hailey's terms expire January 1, 1982, she felt if any new members were appointed to the Planning Commission they would benefit from the retreat and that it should be scheduled after the first of the year to include any new members. Jacks felt that was a good idea.and asked that this item be placed on the CD Agenda after the first of the year. 3 The next item of business REVISIONS TO A PUD • was the consideration of revisions BLOCK'3.SWEETBRIAR to a Planned Unit Development HORIZONTAL PROPERTY REGIME replatiing. Block 3, Sweetbriar Addition to (rt incorporate the Arkansas Horizontal 1LProperty Regime into the development plan. Property Zoned R-2, Medium Density Residential District. Jim Lindsey was present to represent. He stated that originally, these units were to be sold as townhouses with some property included in the transactions. Some of the units will be still be sold that way. However, he wishes to sell some of the units under the Horizontal Property Regime and both he and. Bobbie Jones wanted the Planning Commission to be aware of what was going on. Jacks stated the Horizontal Property Regime allows someone to sell property • on something other than a foot print basis. It allows for the selling of apartments that lap over each other. Lindsey stated property of this type is sold by title insurance rather than abstract of title. Lindsey stated a place has been provided on the plat for the secretary of the Planning Commission to sign if the Planning Commission feels it should be a party to the plat. Jacks asked if there would be a Property Owner's Association. Lindsey stated there is a Master Deed which ties everything on this plat back to the deed then there are by-laws that go with the deed. Jacks stated this is essentially a replat. Windell Cullers moved the revision be approved. Don Hunnicutt seconded. The motion to approve passed (6-0). Beth Crocker stated when this item was last reviewed by the Planning Commission, there was a lot of opposition from adjoining neighbors. She stated Bobbie Jones • had informed her that persons appearing at that meeting had been notified, by o address, and the notification had been addressed to occupant or resident. U Lindsey stated he would get copies of the master deeds to Bobbie Jones. Ernest Jacks stated there had been some complaints that street lights were ✓ not working in Sweetbriar. Jim Lindsey stated he would take responsibility • for those street lights. UJ L The next item of business REPORT ON LANDSCAPE cJ was a report from Larry Wood on a ORDINANCE � proposed Landscape Ordinance. • © Larry Wood stated he had worked out a couple of sites on his report and found that in some cases the ordinance can be limiting. 1'78 • Planning Commission Meeting October 13, 1981 Page 4 In these cases, the parking is the number one factor. After a certain point is reached with parking, there are cases where there is not enough room left to get the maximum building size for the district. Therefore, if the building size is cut back, the parking requitement isccut back. Wood said on a typical commercial site of one acre, the ordinance allows for 12,000 square ft. of building area, with the parking spaces, the landscaping ordinance would cut back this site to I 11,000 square ft. of building area. Wood said some technicalities had come up in his examination of Appleby Acres in determining what is interior space and what is exterior space. Redfern stated at the K -Mart site, there would be a requirement of about 100 trees and 180 shrubs, presently nothing is required. Jacks stated these details would have to be worked out if there is interest on the part of the Planning Commission in adopting this type of ordinance. Jacks I stated basically, this ordinance is modeled after Bentonville's landscaping ordinance. This ordinance may be a little less intense. Jacks wondered if the Commission felt people developing property should replace some of the greenery they destroy when they develop property. Windell Cullers felt that by requiring someone to install one tree and three shrubs per three thousand square feet may create some strange looking landscaping. He felt it would leave it open for people to comply with the letter of the ordinance and not with the spirit of it. Hunnicutt stated that each development is different and has different needs He stated some developments would have a harder time maintaining landscaping than others. If a big island of landscaping is required in the middle of a parking area, there may be a problem in providing water to the island and generally maintaining it. Hunnicutt felt that areas should be designated green areas and it be left up to the developer to install whatever landscaping he is capable of maintaining. Jacks stated landscaping is written into the ordinance presently to some extent.in the form of screening. Hunnicutt stated he felt landscaping should be required for perimeters but he did not want to get into the middle of a person'..s;piece of property. He stated that in perimeter areas, landscaping could be used to control traffic flow. He felt something required around perimeters and entrances or easements should be required but that no more land should be taken from a developer than is already taken. Hailey stated he would like to see something done to protect what is existing as far as trees and greenery. He felt perhaps persons should be penalized for removing existing trees. Jacks stated there is a provision in the proposed ordinancetwhere existing material can be used. He said that existing large, .mature landscaping should be encouraged to remain. Any final ordinance could be designed to encourage the maintaining of existing large pieces of landscaping. Harriet Jansma addressed the Commission in favor of the ordinance. She stated that landscaping should be used to guide traffic in parking areas. She stated that at the Mall for instance, it is much safer to walk around than at Evelyn Hills Shopping Center. Hunnicutt felt that landscaping should be limited to the rights of way and easements. He did not feel that the bulk of a developer's money should be spent on parking areas. Beth Crocker stated it seems green spaces are often left just dirt. She felt by drawing green spaces closer to buildings it may make people care more about how they look. She felt that specific requirements should be layed out. Windell Cullers wondered if there was any particular draw back to having • mei J Planning Commission Meeting October 12, 1981 • Page 5 an Appearance Board. Crocker felt that an Appearance Board would run the risk of being somewhat arbitrary. She felt the landscaping ordinance was really fairly general. However, an Appearance Board and an ordinance may not be a bad idea. Cullers stated he would rather see an AppearanceBoard with the proposed ordinance for guidelines. An Appearance Board would be responsible to the community and the Board of Directors. Crocker felt it would be good to have rules. Redfern stated he felt an Appearance Board would be a good idea. However, he felt it might be better to have something like the Planning Commission having jurisdiction over landscaping and confining landscaping requirements to entry ways. Hunnicutt was of the opinion that the City should not tell the developer they should install so many trees. He was of the opinion that if landscaping would enhance a building that developers would install it. He felt the adoption of the ordinance would create a lot of headaches. Redfern said he had no problems with setting out criteria, but he felt it should be confined to developments of a Large Scale Development nature and confined to perimeters and entry ways. Jacks stated the screening ordinance has an incentive in reduction of building setbacks if parking is placed somewhere other than in 'the front of the building and landscaping installed. He stated he wished an incentive ordinance could be drafted for landscaping. Cullers asked if there was a problem with an Appearance Board. Hunnicutt stated that the Appearance Board would have. to consist of people who have an idea of dollar amounts in relation to development as well as the consideration of esthetics. Hailey felt it would be better to start implementation of the landscaping ordinance at the Large Scale Development level. Hailey felt this should be studied further. He felt more emphasis should be placed on protection of existing greenery. He felt a representative of the Commission should go to the Board of Directors and talk about the possibility of an Appearance Board. Hailey said he would like to see the landscaping ordinance pursued. Redfern felt that some kind of landscaping ordinance is appropriate. Hunnicutt stated he was for some guidance with landscaping and some minimums. He felt the size of development should be taken into consideration, because he felt it would be too much of a burden on the small developer. Hunnicutt suggested taking the proposal to the Board for their input. Cullers stated he was against an ordinance that sets minimums and maximums. He felt the Developers in Fayetteville were generally a good bunch and could not see further penalizing them. Redfern felt that reasonable minimum could be written into the ordinance. Beth Crocker moved that Chairman Ernest Jacks go to the Board of Directors and inform them of what the Commission had been working on in regard to the proposed landscaping ordinance. Martin Redfern seconded. The motion passed (6-0). There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 6:10, P.M. so