HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-12-13 MinutesMINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE
PLANNING COMMISSION
A regular meeting of the Planning Commission was held on Monday, December 13, 2004
at 5:30 p.m. in room 219 of the City Administration Building, 113 W. Mountain,
Fayetteville, Arkansas.
ACTION TAKEN
VAC 04-1324: Vacation (SALEM RD. TOWNHOUSES, 401)
Forwarded to City Council
Consent
LSP 04-1322:
Lot Split (MCDONALD/ BRIDGEDALE, 569)
Approved
Page 4
LSP 04-1312:
Lot Split (RON PAYNE #1, 526/565)
Approved
Page 6
CUP 04-1313:
Conditional Use (RON PAYNE, 526/565)
Approved
Page 8
LSP 04-1343:
Lot Split (RON PAYNE #2, 526/565)
Approved
Page 9
CUP 04-1327:
Conditional Use (HARRIS CHILD CARE, 596)
Approved
Page 10
CUP 04-1325:
Conditional Use (TERMINELLA TOWER, 479)
Approved
Page 12
PPL 04-1310:
Preliminary Plat (CROSS KEYS PH. II, 478)
Approved
Page 19
PPL 04-1338:
Preliminary Plat (SLOAN ESTATES, 258)
Approved
Page 22
PPL 04-1308:
Preliminary Plat (CRAIG HARPER S/D, 61)
Approved
Page 41
R-PZD 04-1307: Planned Zoning District (ASPEN RIDGE, 522/561)
Forwarded to City Council
Page 47
ANX 04-1334:
Annexation (HARPER/TEATER, 101)
Forwarded to City Council
Page 47
RZN 04-1335:
Rezoning (HARPER/TEATER, 101)
Forwarded to City Council
Page 67
RZN 04-1329:
Rezoning (HOGEYE, INC., 595)
Forwarded to City Council
Page 73
RZN 04-1330:
Rezoning (Dunnerstock Development, Inc. 361/400)
Forwarded to City Council
Page 77
PZN 04-1331:
Rezoning (BALE, 596)
Forwarded to City Council
Page 81
RZN 04-1332:
Rezoning (J.B. HAYS, 373)
Forwarded to City Council
Page 94
RZN 04-1333:
Rezoning (LB. HAYS, 373)
Denied
Page 97
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 2
Alan Ostner
James Graves
Jill Anthes
Christian Vaught
Sean Trumbo
Nancy Allen
Loren Shackelford
Christine Myres
STAFF PRESENT
Renee Thomas
Suzanne Morgan
Leif Olson
Jeremy Pate
Brent O'Neal
Kit Williams
MEMBERS ABSENT
Candy Clark
STAFF ABSENT
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 3
VAC 04-1324: Vacation (SALEM RD. TOWNHOUSES, 401): Submitted by
ENGINEERING SERVICES, INC for property located at THE N SIDE OF
WEDINGTON DRIVE, W OF SALEM ROAD. The property is zoned R -O,
RESIDENTIAL OFFICE and contains approximately 4.77 acres. The request is to
vacate a portion of a utility easement on the subject property.
Ostner: Welcome to the December 13`h meeting of your Fayetteville Planning
Commission. Could we have the roll call please?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call there were eight Commissioners present
with Commissioner Clark being absent.
Ostner: We do not have a set of minutes to approve. We will do that at the next
meeting. The first item is on the consent agenda, it is VAC 04-1324 for
Salem Road townhouses. I am going to read the item here. It is submitted
by Engineering Services, Inc. for property located at the north side of
Wedington Drive west of Salem Road. The property is zoned R -O and
contains approximately 4.77 acres. The request is to vacate a portion of a
utility easement on the subject property. If anyone in the audience would
like this item removed from the consent agenda please speak up. If
anyone on the Commission would like to remove this from the consent
agenda, otherwise I am entertaining motions to approve the consent
agenda.
Allen: I move for approval of the consent agenda.
Shackelford: I will second.
Ostner: There is a motion and a second, is there discussion? Could you call the
roll?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to approve the consent agenda
was approved by a vote of 8-0-0.
Thomas: The motion carries.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 4
LSP 04-1322: Lot Split (MCDONALD/ BRIDGEDALE, 569): Submitted by MEL
MILHOLLAND for property located at 1341 ROBERTS RD AND E OF
STONEBRIDGE S/D. The property is in the City of Fayetteville and the Planning Area
and contains approximately 7.47 acres. The request is to divide the subject property into
two tracts of 5.67 and 1.80 acres and approval of a waiver of lot width requirements.
Ostner: Our first item under new business is LSP 04-1322 for McDonald
Bridgedale.
Morgan: The applicant is proposing to subdivide the almost 7.47 acre tract into two
tracts of approximately 5.67 and 1.8 acres respectively. Tract A, the larger
tract, is located within the city and Tract B is within the planning area.
This property is part of the approved Bridgedale subdivision. The
applicant has submitted a waiver request to the Planning Commission for
approval of this lot with no frontage and it is shown within the Bridgedale
subdivision to be utilized partially for detention. Staff is recommending
approval of this Lot Split with five conditions of approval to include
Planning Commission determination of a waiver request to permit the
creation of a 1.8 acre lot with 0' frontage where 75' is required. Staff is in
support of this. Additionally, staff does request that conditions be placed
on this Lot Split restricting construction of a residential, commercial, or
accessory structure until such time that right of way and infrastructure is
provided to this tract. We have received signed conditions of approval
and will entertain any questions that you may have.
Ostner: Is the applicant present? If you could introduce yourself and give us your
presentation please?
Jefcoat: I'm Tom Jefcoat with Milholland Company. Suzanne has presented the
findings and we have signed conditions of approval. Our client is in
agreement with those. We have no further comments.
Ostner: Thank you. At this point I will open it to the public for comments. Would
anyone from the public like to speak to LSP 04-1322? Seeing none, I will
close it to the public and bring it back to the Planning Commission.
Shackelford: This is a pretty straight forward Lot Split. We have conditions of approval
as recommended by staff that the applicant is in agreement with. I will go
ahead and make a motion that we approve LSP 04-1322 subject to those
five conditions of approval.
Allen: I will second.
Ostner: Is there further discussion?
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page S
Anthes: I'm a little confused as to the future disposition of Tract B and I see that
staff has recommended that the proposed tract shall be restricted from
development until appropriate infrastructure is provided, do you see that
happening?
Pate: This lot is specifically utilized for detention for the associated subdivision,
Bridgedale subdivision. It is shown as primarily a drainage easement on
the entire lot. Staff's concern is that there was no adequate infrastructure
to build a house on this particular lot. We would not see that structure as a
building permit because it is in the county and would not require a
building permit through the city. Therefore, as part of the Final Plat and
the Lot Split request that is why we requested that this note be placed upon
that. In answer to your question about if there would be adequate
infrastructure at a later date, yes, potentially if property to the north
develops and they do a combined or regional detention area, facility, this
could potentially become a subdivided lot in the future with adequate
services, streets, etc., to adequately house a single family residential.
Anthes: If that happens the detention that is currently on this site would have to be
incorporated and moved?
Pate: That is correct.
Ostner: There is a motion and a second, are there anymore comments? Could you
call the roll?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to approve LSP 04-1322 was
approved by a vote of 8-0-0.
Thomas: The motion carries.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 6
LSP 04-1312: Lot Split (RON PAYNE #1, 526/565): Submitted by HOLLY PAYNE
for property located at 689 RAY STREET. The property is zoned RSF-4, SINGLE
FAMILY - 4 UNITS/ACRE and contains approximately 1.86 acres. The request is to
divide the subject property into 2 tracts of .30 AND 1.56 ACRES.
Ostner: The next item on our agenda is LSP 04-1312 for Ron Payne #1 if we could
have the staff report please .
Morgan: If you would allow me to address this as well as the next two items, a
Conditional Use for Ron Payne as well as another Lot Split for Ron Payne
together. The applicant currently owns a piece of property that is 1.86
acres. It is located west of Ray Avenue. The applicant, if you address
your survey which has been given to you, requests with this first Lot Split
that .3 acres be subdivided from the property to the north of the tract.
Additionally, they are requesting a Lot Split to create a 1.12 acre tract
which will have 25' of frontage and utilize property behind the .3 acre
tract to the north and a .44 acre tract to the south which currently houses
an existing single family home. The second proposal for the 1.12 acre
tract is to create a tandem lot, which would require the approval of a
Conditional Use. Staff is in support of the two lot split proposals as well
as the Conditional Use request for creation of a tandem lot. The lot in
question is a very large lot with quite a bit of property to the rear and south
of this lot. Staff finds that utilizing this area for development of a single
family home is appropriate in this area of town. There is an existing
school to the north of this property and those who develop this tract may
benefit from that service provided. Additionally, as part of the
Conditional Use approval we are to look at construction of sidewalk and
as a condition of approval for this tandem lot staff is recommending
construction of sidewalk along the 1.56 acre tract of property. That has
been recommended by the Sidewalk Coordinator and would help facilitate
construction of sidewalks in an area which is needing sidewalks due to the
school and pedestrian traffic in that area. As I previously mentioned, we
are in support of both Lot Splits as well as the Conditional Use.
Ostner: Thank you. Is the applicant present?
Payne: I'm Ron Payne, the property owner. I am a licensed residential contractor
and plan to do the building on the site.
Ostner: Thank you. At this point I will open it up to the public. Would anyone
like to speak about these issues? We can talk about them together, we
need to vote on them independently but we are talking about two Lot
Splits and a Conditional Use, LSP 04-1312, CUP 04-1313 and LSP 04-
1343. We can take public comment on all three items at once. Seeing
none, I will close it to public comment and bring it back to the
Commission.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 7
Anthes: On Conditional Use condition of approval number two, we have stated
that a new access drive shall be paved a minimum of 25' in length from
the intersection of the drive and Ray Avenue, do we need to state how
wide that needs to be or does that come under our residential building
standards?
Pate: It would fall under our residential building standards with a maximum of
24' in width at the right of way line.
Ostner: Staff, this is one lot currently and we are splitting it twice and we are
going to wind up with four lots?
Pate: Three lots.
Ostner: On the letter they wrote our intent is to split this lot into four smaller lots.
Is that just a typo?
Pate: The original request was to divide this into four smaller lots with two
tandem lots. That would not meet our ordinance requirement. There is
only allowance for one tandem lot. You cannot have one tandem behind
the other. Thus, the request has changed but the letter did not.
Ostner: Ok.
Vaught: We see the sidewalks come in on the Conditional Use, how come we don't
see that in the Lot Split as well with the parks fees?
Pate: With the Lot Split the condition of approval would be either at the time of
development you would see either a sidewalk being constructed or money
in lieu per the Sidewalk Administrator's recommendation at that time.
Because of the Conditional Use it sort of jumps into that at this time so the
condition of approval is appropriate right now.
Vaught: That is why it s just on the 1.56 acre lot because that is the Conditional
Use lot and just for that lot right?
Pate: Yes.
Allen: I would like to move for approval of LSP 04-1312 subject to the five
conditions of approval.
Myres: I will second.
Ostner: Is there further discussion on LSP 04-1312? Seeing none, call the roll
please.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 8
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to approve LSP 04-1312 was
approved by a vote of 8-0-0.
CUP 04-1313: Conditional Use (RON PAYNE, 526/565): Submitted by HOLLY
PAYNE for property located at 689 RAY AVENUE. The property is zoned RSF-4,
SINGLE FAMILY - 4 UNITS/ACRE and contains approximately 1.56 acres. The
request is to permit a tandem lot on the subject property to allow development of one
single family dwelling.
Ostner: On the second issue, CUP 04-1313, we heard a staff report and we offered
for public comment. Commissioners?
Anthes: On the sidewalk construction, when I originally read the packet I was
assuming that the sidewalk would go from the southernmost point of the
property to the northernmost along the three tracts. That is not what I just
heard.
Pate: The Conditional Use request is for the southern most lot and then the 25'
for the other portion of that tandem lot. At the time of development that is
the time in which a sidewalk will most likely be recommended as it has
been recommended for those two lots. The Conditional Use was for those
two lots, the Lot Split that was just approved is an actual legal lot.
Anthes: Ok, I understand.
Shackelford: We did spend a lot of time at Subdivision looking at these requests.
Basically, what we are going to end up is an existing house on about a .3
acre lot, a proposed house on about a .4 acre lot and then due to the fact
there has to be an easement back to the tandem lot, the third tract is going
to be larger, 1.12 acres. We have got the Lot Split to split it into two. The
next is a Conditional Use for the tandem lot. I am going to make a motion
that we approve CUP 04-1313.
Myres: Second.
Ostner: There is a motion and a second, is there further discussion? Would you
call the roll Renee?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to approve CUP 04-1313 was
approved by a vote of 8-0-0.
Thomas: The motion carries.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 9
LSP 04-1343: Lot Split (RON PAYNE #2, 526/565): Submitted by HOLLY PAYNE
for property located at 689 RAY STREET. The property is zoned RSF-4, SINGLE
FAMILY - 4 UNITS/ACRE and contains approximately 1.56 acres. The request is to
approve a 2nd lot split resulting in TWO TRACTS OF .44 AND 1.12 ACRES.
Ostner: The third item is LSP 04-1343 entitled Ron Payne #2. We have had the
staff report already and we have asked for public comment. Is there
comments from the Commissioners?
Shackelford: This request will take the 1.56 acre tract that we just created and split it
into a .44 and a 1.2, which is what we feel is compatible with the
neighborhood. I am going to make a motion that we approve LSP 04-
1343.
Allen: I will second.
Ostner: There is a motion and a second, is there further discussion? Could you
call the roll please?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to approve LSP 04-1343 was
approved by a vote of 8-0-0.
Thomas: The motion carries.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 10
CUP 04-1327: Conditional Use (HARRIS CHILD CARE, 596): Submitted by
MARSHA AND JUSTIN HARRIS for property located at 3539 E HUNTSVILLE
ROAD. The property is zoned C-1, NEIGHBORHOOD COMMERCIAL and contains
approximately 1.95 acres. The request is to approve a preschool facility in C-1 and R -A
zoning districts.
Ostner: The next item on our agenda is CUP 04-1327 for Harris Childcare.
Olson: The subject property is located south of Huntsville Road and east of
Stonebridge Road. It is zoned C-1 and contains two lots which total 1.95
acres with one single family dwelling located on one of those lots. The
applicant is requesting a Conditional Use Permit to operate a childcare
facility with a maximum of 108 children. The applicant proposes
replacing the existing single family home with a childcare facility that
would be 7,800 sq.ft. in size and employ 13 people to staff the facility.
Proposed hours of operation are 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The applicant's
proposal does meet the city's ordinance in terms of outdoor play area that
would be required, parking and those issues. Staff does recommend
approval for the request with the five conditions of approval as stated in
the first page of your packet. As to the findings, staff does feel that this is
appropriate and that it would meet the best interest of the public in this
location and with that said, staff does recommend approval of this
Conditional Use Permit.
Ostner: Thank you Mr. Olson. Is the applicant present?
Harris: My name is Marsha Harris and I'm the property owner. We are proposing
to build a preschool and remove the home that is there now.
Ostner: Thank you. At this point I will open it up to the public. Would anyone
like to speak to CUP 04-1327?
Barrett: I am Joel Barrett, I live right next door. The only two problems I have
with this is I am worried about the traffic. It is 50 miles per hour right in
front of where the childcare is and the water runoff when they build the
building there. There is nowhere for the water to go except in my yard. I
am just wondering if we thought that out and if we haven't, if we could.
That is all I have. Thank you.
Ostner: Would anyone else like to speak to this Conditional Use Permit? Seeing
none, I will close it to the public and bring it back to the Commission.
Have we looked into the traffic issue?
Pate: At the time of large scale development for the subject property there will
be a number of things that we look at to ensure that this meets all of our at
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page I1
least minimum standards for zoning and development ordinances
including sidewalks, right of way dedication, appropriate numbers of
parking, appropriate access points for this location along a principal
arterial, Huntsville Road. As for the traffic, the applicant as indicated
hours of operation are intended to be 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. This will
allow children to be dropped off early to avoid morning traffic and be
picked up late to avoid 5:00 p.m. rush hour. That should help alleviate to
avoid some of those specifically congested times in that location. I would
also mention that this is a C-1 zoning district. Much more intensive uses
could be permitted, a gasoline service station is one that generates a lot of
traffic. It is A -typical that we see a Conditional Use in commercial zoning
districts but it is listed in our Conditional Uses for this zoning district.
Staff also listed in your staff report on page 6.7 the permitted uses by right
in this neighborhood, C-1, Neighborhood Commercial zoning district.
Professional Offices, Eating Places, Office Studios, Related Services.
Staff feels that this use is compatible with this area. With regard to the
drainage, again, we would review that at the time of Large Scale
Development. Detention is required through this development to ensure
that the post development flows do not exceed the predevelopment flows
on this property.
Ostner: I hope that answered some of your questions Mr. Barrett. We are going to
see this again. This is a Conditional Use concerning the use that will
happen on this property. This is not an approval for construction. It will
come back through as a Large Scale Development. Commissioners?
Shackelford: I concur with all of staff's comments and I think this is a good
improvement to the property and much needed care facility in our city and
in this neighborhood so I am going to make a motion that we approve
CUP 04-1327.
Trumbo: I will second.
Ostner: Is there further discussion? Would you call the roll Renee?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to approve CUP 04-1327 was
approved by a vote of 8-0-0.
Thomas: The motion carries.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 12
CUP 04-1325: Conditional Use (TERMINELLA TOWER, 479): Submitted by Tom
Terminella for property located at 3425 S. DINSMORE TRAIL. The property is zoned
R -A, RESIDENTIAL AGRUCULTURAL. The request is to approve a 30' observation
tower as a temporary construction facility.
Ostner: Our next item is CUP 04-1325 entitled Terminella Tower. If we could
have the staff report please.
Pate: This property is located at 3425 S. Dinsmore Trail and is located on what
many know as the Marinoni Mountain area which is west of I-540 and
south of Persimmon Street. The property is primarily vacant currently.
The applicant is preparing to develop a large residential and mixed use
development on this property in a number of phases as well as additional
properties in the immediate vicinity. The proposal is to erect an
observation tower to allow the developer to oversee the progress of the
project and to provide a viewing platform for potential investors. This
would also operate as a point of construction observation plans for
instance, would be up there. You could look through construction plans to
see that different phases of the development were occurring as planned.
The tower is considered a temporary tower. However, it is proposed to be
located on this property for approximately four to six years as the project
develops. I am not sure of the overall acreage of this property but it is a
rather large piece of property. The tower has elevations that are on page
7.8 and 7.9 of your packet. You can also better reference the location of
the subject site onto pages 7.10 and 7.11. Because this structure is not an
accessory to the primary structure established on this property staff was
unable to issue a building permit without further review. Essentially there
is not a primary structure that this could be an accessory to. The use of the
structure is solely made necessary by the future development which must
be reviewed and approved by the Planning Commission. The facility
could not be installed unless and until that development project has been
approved and released for construction. The property immediately
surrounding the site of the proposed tower is agricultural and essentially
undeveloped. There is a table on page 7.3 representing the land use and
the zoning surrounding. As you can see, most of it is either large lot
residential or vacant property at this time. With regard to findings, the
applicant has submitted drawings, as I mentioned, and the Planning
Commission is empowered under Chapter 161 to grant this Conditional
Use. Parking is not required for this use. The owner and visitors will
have ample space to park their vehicles on the subject property. A private
drive will likely access this particular site. Trash pick up for the
construction facility shall be the responsibility of the developer. Any trash
shall be removed from the site in a timely manner. It is not anticipated
that this intended use will generate debris. On your findings on page 7.5 it
states no utilities will be extended to serve this facility. There may be a
change in that depending on what the applicant says tonight. I have had
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 13
conversations with him and I would also like to address the finding
following that. The applicant proposes to fly two company flags. Staff is
not in support of these flags. They would violate our city ordinances for
wind blown signs. An American flag or a state flag would be allowed by
right as well as the spot lights to light them as would on any piece of
property in the city. Therefore, no utilities will be extended to serve this
facility. I would anticipate if that is the case electric would be extended to
serve that. That is not really the Conditional Use request. The flags are
allowed by right without this Conditional Use. The proposal does comply
with a requirement of open space and setbacks. It is unique. We have not
seen a request like this in the past that I'm aware of. If you have questions
feel free to ask. Staff is recommending approval of this Conditional Use
request with seven conditions. Number one, tower structure must comply
with all applicable building and fire codes. It may require an inspection
by the Building Safety Division and Fire Marshall prior to permit. Staff
will review a specific site plan showing adjacent property lines and
dimensions prior to issuance of a building permit for this tower. The
structure shall be erected no sooner than construction plan approval and
the city's release for work in the first phase of development on the subject
property. Again, staff feels that this is directly tied to development on this
property and until such time as development is approved on this property
we feel that it is not appropriate for this tower to be located at this time.
With regard to when the temporary tower should be removed, condition
number four addresses, the structure shall be removed no later than Final
Plat approvals necessary to file the Final Plat for the final phase of
development on the subject property. Item number five addresses signage.
Ostner: Is the applicant present?
Terminella: Good evening Chair and Planning Commissioners. I am Tom Terminella,
24 E. Meadow, Fayetteville, Arkansas. Jeremy outlined it rather well. It
is a temporary observation tower for our Mountain Ranch project which
everybody is aware of, which falls in the valley of the Boys Club and new
school. The purpose is as stated, an observation point for our
infrastructure people and potential purchasers of developed lots in that part
of the world. We ask for your approval. There are just a couple of things
that I will speak to. As far as the flag issue, we find it reasonable to think
that we will just fly an American and a State flag there instead of a
Mountain Ranch flag as requested, and we would ask that the Planning
Commission approve spot lighting to back light the flags in the evening
out of respect to them. Other than that, I'm open to any questions and
available.
Ostner: At this point I will open it up to the public. Would anyone like to speak to
CUP 04-1325? Seeing none, I will close it to the public and bring it back
to the Commission for discussion.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 14
Anthes: The first paragraph of the staff report states that the request is to approve a
30' observation tower. It looks to me that to the underside of the roofline
is 35' and then we have a roof on top of that and a flag. Is that something
that needs to be amended in our report? Has the drawing changed?
Pate: I believe that needs to be amended in the report to reflect the eave height.
Anthes: If that has increased does that change any of staff's comments?
Pate: No, these are the original drawings that we received.
Anthes: The second question is do we have any indication of how high the
surrounding tree canopy is?
Pate: I do not have that information unless the applicant does.
Terminella: I would estimate it to be about 30'. This will be right at the top of the
canopy just to see out over the top instead of cutting the canopy that is
there we thought we might go up and over it.
Anthes: My last question would be about the sales. We usually see a sales office,
would this tower be in addition to the other structures we may see as sells
property?
Terminella: There will eventually be a model home in the first phase when we come
through and get a final and get it built. This is strictly for the
owner/investors and the contractor and it will be secured and limited
access to all. It is no an open structure. Just the liability if it was un -
maintained and unsecured would be tremendous.
Anthes: Thank you very much.
Allen: I have a question about the word temporary. Four to six years doesn't
seem particularly temporary to me. What sort of definition do you usually
use there for a temporary structure?
Pate: We don't have a basis to go from when it becomes temporary. It would
not be a permanent structure in that eventually, from what the applicant
states, this location will likely be a lot on which a home will be built as
part of the development. I anticipate the structure will be removed prior to
all phases being developed for the simple fact that a lot of the property is
not viewable from this location. There is some property further south that
you can't view from that. It is our intent to tie this tower to the actual
development on the subject property so that when the property has been
platted for the development of single family homes in the final phase or
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 15
whatever development does come through, that that tower would be
removed at that time, thus, being temporary.
Allen: Well, I know with some of the other developments around town there are
trailers that have been there temporarily that seem to stretch on to infinity
so I would like to see condition number four have a specific time rather
than just a vague end of the completion of the development so that it
doesn't happen. How do other commissioners feel about that?
Shackelford: I would like to ask the applicant, how long do you envision this tower
being in place?
Terminella: That depends a great deal on the planning process and the approval
processes for a PZD for the overall 472 acre project, which is quite
massive in size. The recommendation of staff is to bring it through in four
or five phases so we will be able to comply with the underlying issues as
far as our civil work. On the short window I would estimate 36 months,
on the long window I would estimate 60 months. It will fall on the second
phase of development. Our first phase, if all goes well, will come on line
March or April of next year. That will be about a 24 month process and
Phase II will fall in right behind that and that will be another 18 to 24
month process. It does fall within the developed part of our overall plan
so it would adversely affect the second phase if I left it there for any
length of time. The best guesstimate would be 48 months.
Anthes: In response to Commissioner Allen's question, because we have seen
some other problems, and I don't expect there to be any here, but we could
add something that talked about that we would permit 48 months from the
construction of the tower with an option to renew if there is appropriate
progress on the project. I don't know if there is an easy way for them to
renew without them having to come back before this body. That would be
my question.
Pate: As part of the Conditional Use the Planning Commission can impose those
conditions on this request. Staff would be more comfortable in seeing this
come back for your review as you are the body approving the request.
With the Conditional Use, for instance, if it has an expiration date of 48
months and it is not down it could come back before you to see if it is
appropriate for it to remain there.
Terminella: I would ask one other thing in pondering this. I got this document late
Friday, keep in mind, the development within the next four weeks will be
underway. I am being asked to provide right of way for streets for points
of ingress and egress for all of the things that are being developed in the
valley. It came as a surprise to me that they were wanting to tie this to the
approval of the first phase when in fact, we, Terminella & Associates and
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 16
Mountain Ranch, have moved forward with all the necessary documents in
order for the district to move forward with their LSD and their
requirements for right of way and dedication of properties that we
currently own to facilitate that. I would ask if we are going to put a 48
month window on this where I have to come back through that we would
be able to conceivably to ask for the approval to move forward with it in
the first quarter of next year. 48 months is a relatively time limit on a
project of this size. I can see it taking into the second quarter for the
approvals and possibly into the third quarter of next year for the first part
of the PZD to be approved by this process. My intent would be to have it
constructed and to have it for a point of reference to where we could
utilize it prior to the approval of 115.7 acre PZD which will be it's own
animal. I have no problem with the time restriction if you guys would like
to see me come back through the Planning staff that is no problem. I
would like to see if we are going to put a limitation on it that we are able
to move forward with constructing it in the first quarter. In my mind, we
are fully committed once we sign those deeds and right of ways to provide
access to others and at that point, in my mind, we are under way with
development. Of course, this body will see all of our plans throughout this
process in this multiple phase PZD and I just ask for your sensitivity on
that issue please.
Ostner: Would anyone be against granting this Conditional Use within the next
two or three months and then starting the four year limit?
Vaught: How would we word that?
Williams: I think he is asking for condition number three to be changed because that
says it can be erected no sooner than construction plan approval and the
city's release for work on the first phase of the development, which could
take a long time. You could make your conditional use effective
immediately if you wanted to to allow him to construct as soon as the
construction plans have been approved and start the clock on the
construction plan approval so that then he would have 48 months from
whenever he decided to start constructing the tower to either get it finished
or come back and say he needs more time. If you want to do that strike
the last part of condition number three where it says and the city's release
of work on the first phase. Leave the first sentence, the structure should
be erected no sooner than construction plan approval, which I think will be
approved by a building permit. Make sure that we still stay in the loop
there, that we approve he construction plan approval but at that point in
time he can build and that is when the clock starts running on the 48
months. Is that what you are looking for Mr. Terminella?
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 17
Terminella: Just to clarify, what's being discussed is to allow me to move forward
once we are able to obtain a building permit and from that point once the
permit is issued we have a 48 month window.
Williams: And at that point in time you would have to come back if you don't want
to remove it.
Terminella: That would be acceptable.
Vaught: Number four will be amended to 48 months from construction plan
approval.
Terminella: Would that not be issuance of a building permit?
Williams: It is basically the same thing.
Vaught: With the electric, should we allow for spot lighting, should we change
condition number six to say no utilities except electric shall be extended to
serve this facility?
Williams: That is a good change.
Vaught: I do like the 48 month period. I look at it kind of like a sales office. With
all of that said, I will move for approval of CUP 04-1325 with the said
changes to condition number three, the structure shall be erected no sooner
than construction plan approval and an amendment to condition number
four to include the final plat or 48 months from construction plan
approval. Also, a change to condition six to say no utilities except electric
shall be extended to serve this facility.
Shackelford: I will second but I have a question of staff. As we have written condition
number four with the duration period of 48 months, at the end of that 48
month period the applicant would have the ability to request an extension
from the then seated Planning Commission or do we need to make that
part of it?
Pate: That would be automatic prior to that 48 month period it would need to
come back.
Ostner: I have a question from the motioner. On the third condition, structure
shall be erected no sooner than construction plan approval, approval of the
tower or approval of the development?
Vaught: The tower.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 18
Ostner: I believe that the thought behind staff was to tie that to the development,
we obviously, talked about that. I think item three is pretty much null
because we don't allow construction without permits. We are simply
saying don't build it without permit. We have changed I around that
instead of construction plan approval of the development we are talking
about plan approval of the tower so I think we should remove it
completely if we are not tying it to development.
Williams: I think it is clear one way or the other. The only reason you might leave it
is because you mention construction plan approval in condition number
four after it so it ties it together pretty well that you know exactly what
you are talking about. That is true that we don't allow construction
without a building permit.
Ostner: I was going to suggest that number three read structure shall be erected no
sooner than construction plan approval of the development. I know he
wants to build it now. Maybe I'm confused, number four covers it, never
mind. I would like to strike condition number three.
Vaught: I don't think it makes a difference so I will amend my motion to strike
number three all together.
Shackelford: I will amend my second.
Ostner: Is there any further discussion? Could you call the roll please?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to approve CUP 04-1325 was
approved by a vote of 8-0-0.
Thomas: The motion carries.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 19
PPL 04-1310: Preliminary Plat (CROSS KEYS PH. II, 478): Submitted by DAVE
JORGENSEN for property located at THE SE CORNER OF THE INTERSECTION OF
PERSIMMON ST AND BROYLES ROAD. The property is zoned RSF-4,
RESIDENTIAL SINGLE FAMILY, 4 UNITS PER ACRE and contains approximately
34.80 acres. The request is to approve the Preliminary Plat of Phase II with 20 single
family lots proposed.
Ostner: Our next item is PPL 04-1310 for Cross Keys Phase II. If we could have
the staff report please.
Olson: This property is located at the southeast corner of the intersection of
Persimmon and Broyles. It is zoned RSF-4 and contains approximately
34.8 acres. This property was annexed at the request of the developer in
the summer of 2004 and it is a portion of a larger parcel of land that was
annexed. Currently there is a Lot Split in process to create this tract and it
is a required condition of approval for this request. The applicant
proposes approval of a Preliminary Plat for the 34.80 acres to be
subdivided into 22 lots with 20 for development of single family homes
and two lots are designated with storm water detention. This brings the
total density of the property being developed to 0.57 dwelling units per
acre. As far as right of way being dedicated, a minimum of 35' from
centerline is to be dedicated for Persimmon Street and the development
will be dedicating varying right of way for Broyles Road along it's current
frontage depending upon where the property line lies in relation to Broyles
Road on the Master Street Plan. Staff recommends that the developer
construct Persimmon Street a minimum of 14' from centerline with curb,
gutter, pavement and a 6' sidewalk located along the right of way line
along the length of the property. In lieu of constructing Broyles Road
adjacent to the subject property, staff recommends that the developer bear
the cost of installing a planned turn lane at the intersection of Persimmon
Street and Broyles Road along with a 6' sidewalk located at the right of
way line. This is in conjunction with plans to extend Broyles Road to the
south in the future. As part of the Preliminary Plat, dedication of the
Master Street Plan right of way for the entire parent tract of 158 acres is to
occur for the streets fronting the property, specifically, Persimmon to the
north and Broyles to the west and that right of way is to be by separate
instrument. Adjacent Master Street Plan streets: Persimmon Street and
Broyles Road are both classified as collector streets on the Master Street
Plan. Park land dedication: The parks and rec. board recommended
money in lie of land dedication in September, 2004. Fees are to be
assessed in the amount of $11,100 for the 20 single family lots. There will
be some tree preservation/mitigation required and that is laid out in the
tree report here. Connectivity, the development will improve and extend
Persimmon Street to the east. Access would be currently from 46`h Street
and will in the near future be accessible via Broyles Road to Wedington.
Staff does recommend approval of PPL 04-1310 with the following 10
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 20
conditions of approval. The first condition goes back through the
Planning Commission determination of street improvements. Condition
number three talks about the tree canopy that will be removed and the on
site mitigation recommended for 12 2" caliper trees. If you have any
further questions we would be glad to answer those for you.
Ostner: Is the applicant present? If you could introduce yourself and give us your
presentation.
Brackett: My name is Chris Brackett. I'm with Jorgensen & Associates representing
the owners of this project. Essentially, this is an estate lot subdivision to
mirror the existing home that currently sits on one of the lots. The owner
has signed the conditions of approval, we are in agreement with all of
them and I would be happy to answer any questions that you might have.
Ostner: Thank you. At this point I will open it to the public if anyone would like
to speak to PPL 04-1310? Seeing none, I will close it to the public and
bring it back to the Commission.
Vaught: On the south side of the property there are some access easements to
service the detention ponds, is that correct?
Pate: Yes.
Vaught: Why is there one that runs from Broyles over instead of the ones down
from Persimmon Street. That gravel road runs quite a distance.
Brackett: That is an access road to the manholes. There is a requirement that the
sewer have access so that the sewer department can maintain the sewer.
Vaught: Because we are adding sewer in the rear?
Bracket: Yes, it is in the rear. That was done because they are such deep lots and it
falls off to the south.
Vaught: Access for the lots will be on Persimmon?
Brackett: Yes Sir.
Anthes: Will construction traffic be using those gravel roads and then will they be
maintained? Will the property owners be able to use them?
Brackett: The only construction for this project will be the sewer so that traffic will
use that location because that is where the sewer is being run. The little
bit of street improvements are right along Persimmon so they will be using
Persimmon for that. The rest of the construction traffic, there is no more
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 21
infrastructure for this subdivision. That will be an open access so if the
home owners wish to use it it will be open to them. I don't foresee that
that will be the case.
Anthes: The reason I'm asking about that is I live in an area where we do have rear
alleys and a lot of home owners do find that very convenient to load things
from the back of their houses so I was wondering if that was available as
an option for these home owners.
Brackett: It won't be a paved road, but it will be open and available to them if they
would like to use it.
Anthes: We have seen the concept for this on a couple of occasions and I think
subdivision and staff worked through it with setting the sidewalks back on
the right of way line so we have a nice space between the curb line and the
sidewalk and I appreciate the developer having these estate homes face
onto Persimmon Street, as I have stated in previous meetings. Therefore, I
will move for approval of PPL 04-1310.
Shackelford: I will second.
Ostner: There is a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Would you
call the roll please?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to approve PPL 04-1310 was
approved by a vote of 8-0-0.
Thomas: The motion carries.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 22
PPL 04-1338: Preliminary Plat (SLOAN ESTATES, 258): Submitted by PROJECT
DESIGN CONSULTANTS, INC for property located at THE INTERSECTION OF
SAGELY LANE AND GULLEY ROAD. The property is in the Planning Area and
contains approximately 32.14 acres. The request is to approve a residential subdivision
with 57 single family lots proposed.
Ostner: The next item on our agenda is PPL 04-1338 for Sloan Estates, if we could
have the staff report please.
Morgan: This subject property contains 32.14 acres located west of Gulley Road
and Sagely Lane. The proposal is to create a 62 lot subdivision with 57
single family lots and a 4.2 acre park which is also to be the location of a
septic system drip field for a community sewage system. This property is
located within the planning area not adjacent to the city limits. There are
certain things which the city reviews for these types of developments to
include appropriate division of land. That the proposal meets county lot
area and lot width minimums of 10,000 sq.ft. lot area and 75' width for
each lot as well as right of way dedication in conformance with the Master
Street Plan, septic system approval from the Arkansas Health Department
for those lots less than 1.5 acre, connectivity as well as the impact of
traffic which will be generated through this development. Staff has tried
to address each of these issues within the staff report. Staff did receive a
letter from the applicant which was received from the Arkansas State
Health Department stating that the proposed subdivision will require a
minimum of 4.11 acres for the drip dispersal system and additional area
for treatment plant and setbacks. Their proposal does contain a 4.2 acre
area for this purpose. Prior to submittal of construction plans a permit
from the Arkansas Health Department will need to be submitted to the city
for the proposed community septic system. The applicant is proposing to
dedicate a 90' right of way for Sagely Lane in compliance with the Master
Street Plan. Additionally, staff requested at Subdivision Committee that
additional stub outs be made to the south and a reconfiguration of the stub
out to the north to provide connectivity for future development and the
applicant has modified the Preliminary Plat to incorporate these changes.
Staff has received numerous concerns from the public with regard to this
proposal. Staff is, however, recommending approval of this Preliminary
Plat with fourteen conditions, of which, two require Planning Commission
action. The first is Planning Commission determination of appropriate
street connectivity. Staff finds that with the proposed connections to the
north, west and south the appropriate connectivity for future development
has been adequately addressed. Additionally, condition number two states
Planning Commission determination of appropriate alignment of the
proposed extension of Sagely Lane identified on the Master Street Plan.
Staff does find that the proposed location of the street will allow for
appropriate and logical extension to the west. Just as a note, Subdivision
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 23
did find in favor of that location. If you have any questions, I will be
happy to address those.
Ostner: Thank you Ms. Morgan. Is the applicant present? If you could introduce
yourselves and give us your presentation.
Scott: My name is Art Scott with Project Design Consultants here to represent
the developers. They have numerous concerns. I would like to clarify
something on the septic treatment system. This is the drip irrigation may
be a little misunderstood. This is actually underground release of the
treated water from the septic system. It is not a drip outside and it is not a
spray, although often times this system is used as spray irrigation for golf
courses and parks. This will be an underground release of the water. That
water is treated to a much cleaner, much higher standard than a typical
septic system. Probably a typical septic system is nine to ten times higher
in pollution than the treatment of the water that comes out of this system.
I did want to mention also that this is outside the city but we are
constructing curb and gutter and it will have drainage improvements
consistent with the ordinances of the City of Fayetteville and using that
manual for our design on that. I am here to answer any other questions
you all might have.
Ostner: Thank you Mr. Scott. At this point I will open it up to the public. Please
come forward, introduce yourself and give us your comments.
Gibbs: My name is Teresa Tuck Gibbs. I live at 3031 N. Gulley Road south of the
proposed division. As we stated at the other committee meeting, we find
this proposal to be totally inappropriate for the area. It makes use of the
value of their property to increase the value of theirs while decreasing
ours. It also represents a great many hazards to the area. When the
developer talks about the drip system being underground, he is aware, as
we all are, that underground is where all of our springs are. I don't know
how many yards from his sewer system I have a spring fed pond that I
have no doubt that his sewer system will go directly into and I will have
my water tested repeatedly. I'm not real sure who becomes responsible
when it becomes contaminated. I fully expect that it will due to this drip
system. When they met with us we asked a specific question, when does
this type of community sewer system not work? Their answer to us when
the soil is clay and rock, which is what our soil is. It is very ill thought
out. It is poorly located as far as safety is concerned. It is totally
inappropriate for the area and I think although we are just in the future
growth plan of Fayetteville, I think if this is approved that Fayetteville is
going to be annexing an area that will be ripe with problems that you will
inherit. I hope that if you have to pass it, pass it with prejudice if there is
such a thing. Thank you.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 24
Wood: My name is Steve Wood. I have property next door to where Tessie is on
Gulley Road and the back of my house faces the development. Certainly
there are many citizens here concerned about this and this is the third time
now that I've spoken before Planning Commission members regarding our
concerns. I don't know really where to begin because it has all become
somewhat apparent to me that even though perhaps you all support our
concerns there is really not much you can do about it. On the other side it
goes over to the County. Apparently, from what I understand there, they
really can't do much about it either because unfortunately there is no
zoning in the county. Most certainly I noticed in the paper this morning
that there was a big headline about the city was invoking its standards for
streets and such that they would apply in the city limits to development in
the Planning area. However, it seems like unfortunately, that at least in
my observation, that some of the concerns of the citizens here are not
really being looked at very carefully, i.e. by the city engineers, by perhaps
geologists. It is a real problem up there. The development I believe is too
dense for that particular location geologically and also just basically on the
basis of street traffic, runoff and other situations like that. I don't know if
the city has approved or agreed upon standards of stand alone community
pooled septic systems in the city limits. I don't know if that is on the
books here in the City of Fayetteville but certainly there ought to be
because you all are allowing this to proceed on through. The big issue in
my book is that on the top of that hill the geology won't support 60 houses
or more with many thousands of gallons going through that system every
day and going down into the ground. Over on one corner of that area there
is a stock pond and that stock pond is at about the same topographic level
as the effluent area that is proposed. That stock pond is fed by springs.
That stock pond is near the top of the development. When you get a heavy
rain up there the water just comes up out of the ground. I just
unfortunately, don't feel like this is a well thought out, well suited
development for this particular part of our community. We just appeal to
your judgment. I think that someway or another, if you all can invoke
street planning and curbs and stuff like that on developments out in the
planning area but not in the city limits why can you not invoke some sort
of authority on how the effluent of our sewage system is going to be
handled? Why can't you guys do that? I just don't understand it. I look
at the goals for the City of Fayetteville for 2008 and right now I'm
standing here thinking we've missed it by four years. I implore upon you
all to really for once, do some no voting up here. Thank you for taking the
time to listen to me.
Ginger: My name is Rebecca Ginger and I live at 3241 N. Gulley Road. My
property is directly adjacent to this development to the north. I appreciate
your taking the time to listen to me. I have lived in this property for 25
years, almost 26. It is a rural area. Gulley Road is a rural road. It is
narrow, there are no shoulders and our whole setting in this area of town is
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 25
rural. The density of this development is atrocious. It really, the
developer is trying to get every dollar he can out of every square inch of
this property. I know that you all don't really have a lot of power to limit
them of what they do. I know you are aware of the congestion on Hwy.
45, Mission Blvd., this is going to put 120 more vehicles coming into
Fayetteville every morning on Mission Blvd. The corner of Crossover
already is so congested. The school system McNair and Vandergriff are
already full to capacity, so is Root, so is Happy Hollow. There are not
enough schools, the road is narrow, the congestion is thick. As the City
Planning Commission I know you have your eye on the east end of
Fayetteville that will eventually be part of the city and we want to be part
of the city, but improved mobility and street quality. When is Sagely Lane
going to be connected? I know dollars are important. We just implore
you to please consider all of our concerns as the citizens of Gulley Road.
Thank you very much.
Ostner: Are there anymore comments from the public?
Ginger: My name is Darrell Ginger, I am the husband of the former speaker. I also
live on the north edge of the proposed project. I noticed that there was
communication about connectivity being to the north, to the south, to the
east and to the west. The north road that you see platted in front of you
opens onto our property and that is not part of the project. That is a dead
end street. Likewise, the connectivity to the south that you see platted
there goes onto the Tuck property which is also a dead end deal. There is
no plan for development there. Essentially, it only goes to the east and to
the west. I also stand in opposition to the density of this project. I am
concerned also about the effluent for the septic system that they have
proposed in our neighborhood. This is an ill thought out project and I
stand in opposition to it and I would encourage you to rethink it. When
the developers came to us the first time they withdrew their project with
the understanding that they would come back with a lesser density and
with a project that would be more community appreciated and would be
more to our liking. This is no better. If anything, it is worse. It is worse
than the original project. We stand in opposition to it and we encourage
you to encourage them to rethink the subdivision of the property. Thank
you very much for your attention.
Ostner: Thank you.
Wolf: My name is Nancy Wolf, I live at 5350 Sagely Lane. Thank you for
listening to us. Everybody has reiterated everything that I also have
opposition to the plan for. I would like to just state the traffic problem.
Three new subdivisions have been approved within the last year or two
adding probably 80 houses that go onto Gulley Road. This would be
another 59 houses. The road is a rural road. It says no trucks when you
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 26
pull onto the road. I don't know what no trucks means in terms of what
kind of road that is. It also crosses a small creek. It is not a bridge but the
road crosses a small creek that goes through there. That is going to be the
major entry and exit out of that subdivision. Traffic is already very bad
when people try to cut through Hwy. 265 and go around the 265/45
intersection. They use that to cut through. There is already a lot of traffic
beginning to go that way. This will add a lot more traffic. The other item
is the septic system. I know that you don't approve the septic system but
the Health Department does. They are in Little Rock. The engineers
understand the technical plans for the septic system but they are in Little
Rock. They don't know the area around here in terms of what it is going
to look like. It seems a little disjointed when one agency relies on another
agency to approve or disapprove and then they say as long as they approve
it we will approve it. The Health Department says as long as the city
approves it then we will approve it but nobody is working together on that.
When you put an individual septic system on a property a three bedroom
home, the lateral field is sized for 450 gallons of water per day. 59 houses
times 450 gallons is going to be a lot of gallons of effluent being pumped
out there on 2 '/2 acres or four acres including the area if it should fail.
The other reason is that these are all pump systems. They all have to be
maintained. It is so new to the Health Department yet that they don't have
guidelines on who is going to maintain it. They just want to know who.
That is all you have to do is put a name in there. They are not going to be
in charge of enforcing that maintenance. Somebody has to be in charge of
maintaining all of the pump work and the computers and the electronics
that go with that system. The homeowners should be aware that they are
on a community septic system and that they are going to be paying for this
maintenance for the life of the system. I don't know, I hope that you all
consider it very carefully. I think that it is a very scary site for such a new
system. If it should fail there really isn't anywhere for it to go on that
piece of property. None of the other soils are suitable to put it anywhere
else and they will all have houses on them. I would hope that you will
consider it very carefully and that if it should pass you will see these
community septic systems everywhere. Thank you.
Talbert: Good afternoon, my name is Ron Talbert, I live at 3130 Gulley Road,
which is just east of this property. Below the property and just adjacent
across the road from my property will be the waste dispersal field for this
whole entire development. I know that I have springs that come out onto
my property. I also have a pond on my property that I'm concerned about.
Where does that water, I know that it flows downhill from that hillside up
there but I don't know exactly where the connecting areas are but my pond
is spring fed and also there is a good size spring above my house and
below my house where I am now that come to the surface there during
rainy weather. I'm concerned about that aspect. I'm also concerned about
the increased traffic in this area and just the overall layout of the high
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 27
density housing is not what we have in our community out there so I just
object to it on all of these basis just like all of my neighbors are objecting.
Thank you for listening.
Alter: I'm Fay Alter, I live at 3030 N. Gulley, I'm southeast of this proposed
property. My biggest concern other than the effluent is that this road is a
narrow country road with no shoulders and no margin of error. On either
side of the road on both sides are ditches. There is absolutely no margin
of error. If they are pulling out on Gulley Road off of Sagely people
coming south on Gulley Road will be coming out of a blind S curve.
People coming out of the subdivision looking to their left will not know if
anybody is approaching until it is too late. We have a lot of accidents on
the corner of Hwy. 45 and Gulley. Since I have lived out there, about five
years, there has probably been four or five a year where people just pull
straight up off of Gulley Road and get creamed on somebody heading west
on Hwy. 45. I think that the way that this is laid out this is going to
happen consistently. People coming around that turn have their foot on
the pedal. They are going as fast as they can when they pull out of that
turn. People coming out on Sagely are going to get creamed. I think that
if they are going to do some sort of development that they ought to come
up with a better idea than doing it in blind curves and probably not 118
cars coming out of there everyday in the morning and going back at night.
Hayward: Good evening. Malcolm Hayward, I'm at 3200, I'm the next one up to the
north. Steve didn't mention when he was building his house that he
encountered a spring which now drains down into a pond. That spring is
going to be right in this effluent so he is going to have a drainage area. He
is going to have everybody's sewer coming right through the bottom of his
house which seems to me as perhaps an undesirable situation. I came to
the Planning Commission when Terry Gulley was proposing his 51 houses
to the north of this. At the time the whole issue of the road came up and
there was no answer. You are going to have to address the question of
Gulley Road sooner or later. As was stated, there are at least 80 new
houses plus there is a subdivision on the east/west stretch of Gulley Road,
whose name I don't remember, it is another 15 houses. Those people will
probably go to the north. Gulley Road is an accident waiting to happen.
Getting on Hwy. 45, getting off Hwy. 45 and going around that comer is
not prepared to absorb another whatever this is. The density is probably
three times what really is going to be gracefully absorbed there. If this
sewer system breaks down you all get to inherit it. No one has tried this
and it is being tried at absolutely the maximum that anybody can build one
of these systems. I think it is a poor way to start. I would suggest that you
start with something a little less grand, a little less intense, a little less
demanding and if it works you will get a chance to try it in denser areas
down the line. This development is about ten years of it's time. The roads,
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 28
the infrastructure and the sewer is not there yet. Until they are it is too
dense. Thank you.
Ostner: Are there any other members of the public who would like to speak about
this Preliminary Plat?
Brown: My name is Walter Brown. I served in the military and I've been in places
where these types of odors come in. The developers leave and someone
else inherits the problems. One of the things, I live west of it, I look at all
this sewer stuff and when we have a good rain out there the ground is
saturated. There is no place for this effluent that they are going to pump in
to go out on top of the ground eventually and down into our ditches. I
happen to be one of the areas where the ditch comes down from my place.
I don't appreciate that. The other thing is the last time we were here they
said 59 houses and now they say 57. Is that an error? The next thing is
they said there would be one car per house with $200,000 to $300,000
homes is what we were told. I suspect there will be two to three cars per
home. There will be teenagers and everything else. You all as a city
supply water out there so you will inherit the sewer problems if there is a
sewer problem. Thank you.
Ostner: Is there any other member of the public who would like to speak to this? I
am going to close it to the public and open it up to the Commission.
Shackelford: I have served on the Subdivision Committee and have looked at this
project once before. I appreciate all of the comment and the input that we
have heard from all of the surrounding land owners. I have a couple of
comments and a couple of questions. First, we have talked about, just so
that everybody is aware, those of you who have not seen this development
before, this project is in the county. It is not in the city limits and that
severely changes the way that we proceed with this application. There are
basically seven issues that we are charged by ordinance to look at. Those
issues are on page 9.2 and addressed by our city staff. One of the things
that we talk a lot about is this community septic system. Two things, first
of all, it is not necessarily a new procedure, it is something that has been
used in other communities and in other areas for quite some time. It may
be new to us but it is not technically a new technology or new procedure.
One of the things that we talked about at Subdivision Committee, and
Jeremy, I guess I'm going to you with this because Dawn is not here
anymore. Dawn made a comment that these community septic systems
are preferred by both our ordinances and the State Health Department over
individual septic systems so I would first of all, ask you to expand on that
Jeremy if that is correct.
Pate: Sure. Chapter 166.04, Required On Site Improvements for subdivisions in
the Planning Area. Subsection 8b states "Public Sanitary not accessible:
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 29
Where a public sanitary sewer is not reasonably accessible the subdivider
shall be required to install a community sewage system <much as we are
seeing tonight> as defined by Act 402 in compliance with State Health
Department standards and regulations. Provided if a community sewage
system is not reasonably available or economically feasible and a
subdivision has been platted so that each lot has a minimum gross area of
1.5 acres an individual sewage disposal system for each lot may be used."
Shackelford: In other areas that we have seen these outside of our community, these
areas are used for public parks, soccer fields, baseball fields and that sort
of thing. I think there is another misnomer that this is raw effluent that is
leached onto this field. From my understanding, that is incorrect. It is
treated to a level that is just above traditional storm runoff. If I could ask
the applicant to speak briefly regarding the treatment that is done prior to
this septic runoff being leached in the field and what level of treatment is
done to that.
Scott: Certainly. What I said before about an individual septic system, that is not
a treated effluent that comes out of that. The ground actually treats that.
The effluent that comes out of this system, they measure the bacteria level
by a BOD number, a typical septic tank has 200 in it's effluent, these
systems have 20 to 30 so it is 1/10 to 1/9 as strong. To put it in
perspective, the natural streams in the area have a level that is around 20
to 30. You can go one more level of treatment and then that is acceptable
to discharge into streams. Since this is going into the ground we are not
treating to that level.
Shackelford: Thank you. I have another question. One of the comments was about the
safety issue of pulling out of this subdivision onto Gulley Road. Do you
know the approximate sight distance from the corner to the proposed gate?
Scott: From our entrance to the curve at the north it is 500'. A national design
standard would be 100' for every 10 miles per hour of vehicle speed.
Typically, those cars leaving that curve up there are at 30 to 40 miles per
hour so we far exceed that.
Shackelford: It has enough sight distance for a road rated for 50 miles per hour?
Scott: Yes and it is a straight sight line. To the south it is much further than that,
probably 1000 feet or more.
Vaught: To follow up on that, one comment that I would like to make is being in
county once again we are limited to a few things we can look at and one of
those things that we can look at is septic system approval from the
Arkansas Health Department. If they approve it that is not something we
can necessarily consider. That is out of our hands. We can make that a
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 30
condition of the development. There are other things that we are required
to look at and I have a question for staff or the City Attorney, one of the
things is the impact on traffic and on site and offsite improvements. What
kind of off site improvements can we require in the county? I thought all
that we could require was building to county road standards. Can we go
above and beyond if it is a dangerous situation?
Pate: Typically, what we look at recommending is if surrounding streets in this
area are not up to county standards, improvements to those streets to bring
those up to county standards. Gulley Road is a collector street on our
Master Street Plan. It will likely be expanded at some point in time.
Obviously, it is not in the city so it is not going to be identified at any time
in the near future in our CIP or any other development for expansion
unless the county for some reason comes through and does that. Gulley
Road is considered up to those county standards so improvements to that
above and beyond we really wouldn't see. If, for instance, the developer
was requesting to access directly onto that curve and that was a bad sight
distance area we might look at realignment of the curve. There are other
instances where we have seen an intersection improved in a nearby
vicinity to help traffic movement in that area. More typically, and with
this request we are looking at providing as many connection points
north/south/east and west as possible so that in the future all of the
neighborhoods and this surrounding community can utilize those streets
once they do connect to alleviate some of that traffic congestion.
Vaught: Asking for additional improvements along Gulley, since it is already to
county standards, we can only ask for it to be improved to county
standards right now in this situation?
Pate: At this time that is correct.
Vaught: My second comment and question for the applicant is on connectivity.
This little hand out you gave us calls for a gated entry for Sagely Lane.
To me that defeats the purpose of connectivity in the future when this road
is built out. That was nowhere in our packet and I know that is once
again, out of our control. To me that speaks to connectivity.
Pate: Public right of way may not be gated. It is a public street.
Vaught: So they cannot gate Sagely Lane?
Pate: That is correct.
Vaught: That is all I have for now.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 31
Ostner: The issue that we have so few rules that we can impose here brings to
mind so many issues that we do usually impose when we are looking at
zoning if this were in the city limits we would look at compatibility. We
would look at so many things that the neighbors want. As we are going to
discuss tonight in many other issues. Mr. Shackelford was on the
annexation task force. Could you speak as to whether this area is being
considered for annexation?
Shackelford: Sure. I will let the City Attorney correct me if I make any mistakes on
this. There has been a taskforce designed to look at the proposal to annex
to the growth area of the city limits. This property would obviously fall
into that and would try to give us a little better tool for overall planning.
However, life doesn't evolve only around planning. There are other issues
as far as budgeting, police and fire protection and all sorts of things that
have to come into play and it would take a public vote as well. It is my
understanding that the City Council is reviewing the request or the thought
of requesting an annex to the city limits to our growth area to kind of
allow us to better plan growth as a broad picture. That has to obviously be
balanced with economic factors and how it would affect the overall
budget, which obviously, the City Council is charged with doing as
elected officials and we are not as well. I don't know that that decision
has been discussed very far with the City Council. It would take a
recommendation from the City Council and then a vote by the public to
make that happen. Am I correct on that?
Williams: That is correct.
Ostner: It was explained to me at Subdivision that if this were in the city limits
and I were being asked to rezone it I would have to say that it is not
compatible. No, I wouldn't rezone it to be able to be built at this density.
The other part of the annexation is the sewers. If you are in the city limits
you must connect to our sanitary sewer, there is no step system. It is a
county system. I just wanted to state those things. This makes me
uncomfortable. It is incompatible with surrounding land uses. I wish we
had more power to regulate and simply ask this developer to make the lots
three times as big. I don't think we have that power. The list of items that
Mr. Shackelford referred to in the beginning I want to read. These are the
seven items that we are able to consider in these areas that are in the
Growth Area, which is what we are dealing with. 1) The appropriate
division of land. 2) A lot area minimum of 10,000 sq.ft. 3) A lot width
minimum of 75'. 4) Right of way dedication in conformance with the
Master Street Plan. 5) Septic system from the Arkansas Health
Department for lots less than 1.5 acres. 6) Connectivity. 7) The impact
of traffic. Those are our only items of consideration that we are allowed
to scrutinize with this development.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 32
Vaught: I have a question for staff or the City Attorney. Appropriate division of
land, would you define that? I know lot area minimums and lot area
minimum width fall in there. As long as they meet that criteria, or do we
have control of density as well in appropriate division of land?
Williams: I am going to let the City Planner interpret that because they are the ones
charged in the statute of interpreting our code.
Pate: The density would not factor into that consideration. The county, as
mentioned by the public here tonight and the Commission, does not have
zoning at this time. Therefore, density is not regulated. We have set
minimums by the county that we have incorporated into our ordinances
and those are mentioned, 75' and 10,000 sq.ft. of lot area. As far as the
appropriate configuration of land, we are looking more at the lot
configuration with regard to streets. Does it conform to a typical and
logical configuration of a lot.
Vaught: Really as far as density all we have is lot area and lot width. Once again,
we are bound by what we are allowed to do in the county. That is
something that you guys can take up with the county officials and also
with the City Council over the annexation taskforce. The county is trying
to make this better. They are extending city street standards into a one
mile radius of the city limits. That ordinance has not been approved yet.
It is recommended. I think they are hearing it tomorrow night.
Pate: If I may, this development is actually complying with those proposed
requirements. The city does not require this developer to do curb and
gutter. It could utilize a county street system which I believe at least one
option is to use gravel roads and shoulders. They are providing curb and
gutter, typical street sections as indicated by the applicant, as well as
detention on this property, which again, is another requirement that we
don't typically look at. In response to your concerns about density, we did
a quick calculation, this would be approximately 1.77 dwelling units per
acre and almost meets the RSF-2 zoning district were it in the city limits.
That is just to give you a little perspective because obviously, we see quite
a few subdivisions in the city. That is not comparable to surrounding lot
sizes based on comments from the neighborhood here, but just for a little
perspective.
Ostner: Do those calculations include the big field?
Pate: Yes, that includes the property being developed.
Ostner: I would be interested in the density without that four acre park. I believe
each of these lots is listed at about .30 acres.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 33
Pate: Approximately 2.03 units per acre without the leach field.
Ostner: So it is still well under our RSF-4, which is our most common density
measure in the subdivisions we approve.
Shackelford: One other comment regarding the community septic system. We have
seen at Subdivision Committee and heard again today, that this
pretreatment effluent is approximately 1/10 of what a traditional septic
system would be. If there are 57 homes on this property the pre-treatment
effluent would be equal to somewhere between five and six homes with
traditional septic systems. For what it is worth, I think even with the
density that is in this area, five or six homes on this 32 acre tract would be
something that would probably be anticipated.
Anthes: I share frustration with many of the Commissioners here in that we like to
be able to address the concerns of neighbors when they come to public
meetings and see if we can come to a compromise with developers. It is
extremely difficult to do that in this situation. I have some questions
related to what Commissioner Vaught asked about the appropriate division
of land. What we are hearing is that the density is not something that we
can talk about there and that we have to look at a logical and orderly
division of land into lots. When I look at this I see that we meet that
requirement. As far as connectivity, I think a couple of people asked
about that, including Dr. Ginger. The stub out condition is something that
we ask for in developments all over the City of Fayetteville. That is a
policy of future connectivity when land develops and that is something
that we require everywhere and that this parcel actually meets or exceeds
what we have requested other developments to do. If I lived near here and
had a spring fed pond I would be extremely concerned about what was
happening with the ground water in the area and yet from what we are
hearing, we have a situation that we can't really look at it and that we are
having effluent that meets or exceeds standards. I would want to comment
though and ask a question of the developer on that. You indicated that
there was one more level up that is possible in a system like this that
actually creates effluent that is able to be discharged directly into streams.
Will you tell us what that means and tell us what financial impact a system
like that is compared with what you are planning to install and how you
came to that decision.
Scott: Certainly. The next level actually address phosphorous levels and as we
know, with all the phosphorous level issues with sewer effluent in the area
that would be the case. When you put it in the ground the plants actually
absorb the phosphorous and nitrogen and you can plant a particular grass
there that actually even absorbs more. It turns out that the soils in
Northwest Arkansas absorb phosphorous very well. They have a great
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 34
infinity for it. The phosphorous is really the next problem that we would
take out.
Anthes: How did you decide where to stop and what would be the impact of going
further with it?
Scott: It would have really no impact, other than the plants in that field would
not get as much phosphorous and nitrogen as they really do need.
Anthes: Is that system a lot more expensive to install?
Scott: It is probably $20,000 or $30,000. It is not really that expensive, it is just
not really needed. I would like to point out, as I understand the concern
and would have the same concern, I would like to point out that we dug
several holes, 4' deep pits and observed the layers of soil. In this area this
ridge line that runs through here, this entire side, this is the pond that they
were talking about in this area, this is the higher side 15 acres. This side
that we are placing this system in is very suitable. In the 4' deep pits that
we dug there was no signs of ground water on that side.
Anthes: I have another question or comment. On condition of approval number
nine we show pump station drip field lots as being 14,15,45 and 64, in
referencing the latest set of drawings I believe it is 13,14,37,43 and 62.
Can you confirm which? It is about lots designated for detention, pump
stations and a drip field.
Scott: When we did the stub outs the lots got renumbered. That is why there are
two fewer homes for the stub out connections.
Anthes: Lot 62 that is designated as a pump station, what sort of structure is that?
That is highly visible along Sagely Lane and is one of the first things that
you will see as you are driving into this development. Can you talk about
what that structure is?
Scott: Certainly. Most of it will be underground. There will be above ground
electronic portions that the developer has told us he will put a gazebo
around. All you will see is a gazebo and they are so unobtrusive that they
can be hidden with hedges and things like that. It will be screened.
Anthes: In terms of the orderly configuration of lots if you were somewhere else,
Lot 35 and Lot 36 look like a great community shared area. I hate to see
those things fenced off and blocked off. It would seem like two great lots
for the P.O.A. to purchase and have a community property. I know there
is nothing that we can do about that but I thought it would be on the
record. I really think that if we were seeing this in the city limits we
would be on a sewer system and that would alleviate a lot of the concerns
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 35
that the neighbors have. As far as density, this is meeting the density
requirement and pattern that we have all over the City of Fayetteville. I
really wish we could require some off site street improvements to help
with the safety on that curve but we just can't do it. I really appreciate the
neighbors in this area coming to us three times. I know we have seen a lot
of you here and you have spent a lot of time and I guess that is why a lot
of us live in Fayetteville is because we have that kind of interaction with
the public and the appointed and elected officials and usually we can get
to something that is a real strong compromise. I apologize that we are
probably falling short in your eyes tonight.
Allen: There seems to be little that we can discuss tonight but one condition that
seems important to me is a condition of good will. I wondered what sort
of efforts that the developer might have made to try to address these
concerns and if you have made concessions or modifications to try to
spread good will.
Hoskins: I'm Tracy Hoskins with Paradigm Development. I'm also representing
the development. I came into this thing back in September. The property
itself at that time had a totally different plan than what it does now. At
that time it did not encompass another seven or eight acres on the
northwest corner, that was originally where the drip field was. The
density I don't believe has really changed. The lot sizes are basically the
same as what they were before. However, what we have done is in this
new design we have also included that seven acres that was drip area and a
couple of lots before. What we did to address some of the concerns of the
neighbors is one of the things that I saw was a real problem was the
location of the drip field itself because it was basically in the back yards of
all the surrounding neighbors. We basically moved that up to the front of
the subdivision and made a park out of it getting it away from any of the
surrounding neighbors and actually within our own development. Also, it
is the intention of the developers to clear the sight distance around the
curve of Gulley Road, clean that up and put up a wrought iron fence. I
believe with the changes in this development that if it was in the City of
Fayetteville the City of Fayetteville would be tickled to death with it. It
has curb and gutter, streets, etc. as required, detention facilities and by all
means, a 4.2 acre park. The developers are sensitive to the trees and have
every intention of preserving as much of that as possible. I think the
engineer addressed the step system very well. I also know that other
municipalities have actually looked at this same type of system for their
small cities. We believe that we have done a good job on development. It
is not near the density that it probably could be and if it was in the City of
Fayetteville we would have RSF-4 zoning more than likely which means
that the density would be even higher. Also, the subdivision to me is a
very good alternative as to what could go there. It is in the county. It
could be anything from mini storages to very high density housing. I think
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 36
the developers have acted in very good faith asking Art and myself to take
a look at the project again and basically redesigning the whole thing.
Basically, anything they had done before is basically scrapped and all of
that money is spent. I happen to agree with Dr. Ginger that came up here
and spoke before that the stub out to the north and to the south, it would be
the developers preference and obviously, the neighbors on both sides if
those stub outs were not made. We will do it either way that you want us
to. If we could possibly get rid of that we would be fine with that as far as
redrawing that as well. Thank you.
Allen: While you are there talking about the City of Fayetteville being pleased if
you were in the city. One thing that they wouldn't be pleased about would
be the gated community and I wondered what your rational was behind
that decision.
Hoskins: It is not gated. That is strictly for aesthetics. It will be much like the
entrance to Savanna. I don't believe it was the developer's intention to
ever have those as operable closed gates.
Allen: It just said gated entry.
Hoskins: That is my office's fault, we labeled that a little bit wrong.
Myres: As logical as everything that everybody said is I still have a real problem
adding 120 cars to Gulley Road. One of the things that we talk about
frequently is improvements to infrastructure before we expect said
infrastructure to carry a larger load than it already does. I know that I
don't really have a leg to stand on to vote against this but with all due
apologies to the developers, I am going to simply because I have a real
problem with the added burden on that road as far as traffic is concerned.
Shackelford: We have talked at length regarding what we can do and what we can't do
regarding this development. We have talked at length regarding the
community septic system. I think there is some fear of the unknown
because we haven't seen this in our community. It has been used in other
communities. I have researched this and seen it in other projects outside
of our community. In fact, like I stated before, it is actually a preferred
method over what we are used to seeing in the county. Basically, as you
mentioned, there are seven issues that we an address. Staff has done a
good job addressing those issues. I think that we have governed all that
we are empowered to govern on this issue. We are here and charged by
our ordinances and operate at the will of City Council to enforce our
ordinances regarding growth and development and I think that we have
done that in this project. We have done all that we can do given the
ordinances as they are now both in the county and in the city. With that
being said, I am going to make a motion that we approve PPL 04-1338
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 37
subject to the stated conditions of approval, which there are 14 with the
specific finding in condition number one of appropriate street
connectivity. While I understand the applicant's and other folks
comments regarding stub outs that is something that we would require if it
was in the city for future connectivity. Some day the land north and south
of this project will develop. It may not be in my lifetime but it will be
sometime so we need to have that connectivity. Condition number two
regarding the placement of Sagely Lane. I find in favor of staffs
recommendation on that as well. I believe those are the only two specific
findings of fact that we need to make. I make a motion for approval
subject to those comments.
Pate: Condition number nine, there are some lot numbers that need changed
there. It should read Lots 13, 14, 37, 43 and 62, which those lots shall be
classified as unbuildable.
Shackelford: My motion will show in condition nine Lots 13, 14, 37, 43 and 62.
Vaught: I have a question for staff to alleviate one more of my concerns. Impact
on traffic with on site and off site improvements to these dangerous traffic
conditions, what all does that entail as we look at a county project? Is it
basically as long as they are built to county standards are there other
factors that we can look at like proximity to the entrance of the curve but
what about size of the street? As long as it is to county standards we don't
govern size of the access road into this at all? How does that factor in?
Pate: If you think of it in comparison with the city, this is within the Planning
Area. If it was in the city and all the surrounding streets were up to city
standards, likely, there would not be requirements to improve the streets.
Likewise, in the Planning Area, if the surrounding streets that access this
property are up to county standards and they have met or exceeded those
standards. As mentioned by some of the Commissioners tonight, the
Planning Commission does reserve the right to require off site
improvements. Staff is not recommending anything other than what is
shown on the plat at this time. We feel that those streets do meet the
county standards. The sight distance, which is something that we would
look at potentially for an offsite improvement, is acceptable in this
location for Sagely Lane, which would eventually connect west to
Skillern. Additionally, the intersection south with Huntsville Road is a
relatively safe intersection. A collector road, which would provide at it's
full build out, 4,000 to 6,000 vehicle trips per day. The next arterial that
this intersects with is a principal arterial which would allow for 17,000 to
20,000 vehicle trips per day at full build out. Access to these properties
staff finds is adequate.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 38
Vaught: What I was thinking is on the other side of town we dealt with a
subdivision right on a 90° corner and when we are looking in the city one
of our terms is compound a dangerous traffic condition and I don't see that
in the things we consider. To me when I'm looking at what we can look at
it is basically can the road handle the traffic and if it does we can't require
improvements if it is built out to county standards.
Pate: It is something that we look at in Chapter 166.07 Required Off Site
Improvements it goes through the rational nexus calculation just like you
would in the city when there are required off site improvements. Again,
staff finds that the surrounding streets in this location do meet those
standards at this time.
Vaught: With all of that said, I will second the motion. I just wanted to clarify that
for us and for everybody else.
Williams: Is this your most recent lot numbering or is this incorrect?
Scott: That is the most recent.
Williams: I noticed that the large park is Lot 15 is that supposed to be buildable or
not buildable?
Vaught: The numbers don't match.
Pate: The submitted plat that you have for review labels it as Lot 14 and that is
what staff has reviewed.
Vaught: So Lot 13, 14, 37, 43 and 62.
Shackelford: Yeah because the southern stub out is different.
Williams: All the reference will be to the submitted plat and not to the hand out. I
have not seen the submitted plat, does the submitted plat show gates, even
non-operable gates? This is a collector road and I think it would probably
be inappropriate to have an indication that this is somehow a private road
where the gates could be closed with the City Council's policy of no gates
and connectivity, I think it would be improper to approve a plat that would
indicate to the public that this is not a through collector street.
Vaught: Staff said that no gates are permitted in a public right of way or public
easement.
Pate: A public right of way may not be inhibited by a structure of any type
including a gate. That is also a county ordinance I believe that was passed
in the last few months. Again, these plats don't have that gate. You have
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 39
something that we don't have a copy of that shows the gated reference.
The plats that we have reviewed have never indicated any type of gate.
Shackelford: Applicant, do you agree not to put gates on this entry?
Scott: Absolutely.
Ostner: There is a motion and a second.
Anthes: I'm looking at this and I'm trying to compare what would be any different
about whether we were looking at this in the city verses in the county and
the only things that I can find are different is we ask for off site street
improvements and every house on this would be on a sewer. Every other
thing seems to meet all of our development ordinances for every kind of
zoning that we could anticipate this kind of property having. I do think
that with them clearing the corner and not putting houses on that corner
that should at least help. It will not be as compounding the situation
anywhere near as if they would've built homes out on what is now
designated as Lot 14. I just don't see anything else that we can do. As far
as the drawings and the way that these lots are laid out and constructed, it
is very logical and it is something that we would approve in the city.
Ostner: You are assuming that the rezoning discussion went smoothly.
Anthes: Assuming we are somewhere between RSF-2 and RSF-4 which as we are
seeing, the RSF-4 is a more common zoning designation than the RSF-2
and we are pretty close on those. While I struggle with this like a lot of us
have, and I certainly support what the neighbors said, I don't think that
there is any way to do anything but vote for this development.
Ostner: I would tend to agree. I would implore the neighborhood to seek relief
from your elected officials in the form of county zoning. I think that if
you had zoning protection this discussion would be completely different.
You don't so we are left regulating the few things that we are. I would
tend to agree with Commissioner Anthes that I feel compelled to vote in
favor of this item.
Pate: Just one comment for the public's benefit, this item does go before the
Washington County Planning Board as a public hearing for final approval.
Other improvements should they see fit for county roads to be imposed at
that level based on their ordinances may be approved.
Allen: Do the neighbors have any kind of recourse on what decision we make?
Williams: This still is going to require the City Council to approve the change in the
deed restricted area. However, I don't see that as being a major stumbling
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 40
block for this development. I was on the Council when this deed restricted
area was created and it was to protect the right of way for the Master
Street Plan and here they have designed the road to fit the Master Street
Plan with a slight change in it's location. I don't see the City Council as
being very reluctant to change that as they have many times to move the
location of a master street to fit a development as it is coming through in a
slightly changed or requested change in the Master Street Plan. That is the
only other thing I see in here except for the County Planning Board. It
might even be that eventually, I'm sure that there will not be county wide
zoning, but it might be the JPs would consider zoning within a certain
range of cities or something to give these growth areas some more
protection. They might approach their elected officials that way and they
might be more receptive to close in zoning and let the outside county still
be unzoned.
Ostner: Is there further discussion before we vote? Could you call the roll Renee?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to approve PPL 04-1338 was
approved by a vote of 7-1-0 with Commissioner Anthes and Allen voting
yes with prejudice and Commissioner Myres voting no.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 41
PPL 04-1308: Preliminary Plat (CRAIG HARPER S/D, 61): Submitted by
ENGINEERING SERVICES, INC for property located at THE SW CORNER OF THE
ALBRIGHT ROAD AND GEORGE ANDERSON INTERSECTION. The property is
zoned RSF-4, SINGLE FAMILY - 4 UNITS/ACRE and contains approximately 19.98
acres. The request is to approve the Preliminary Plat of a residential subdivision with 48
single family lots proposed.
Ostner: The next item on our agenda is a Preliminary Plat for Craig Harper
submitted by Engineering Services, Inc. If we could have the staff report
please.
Morgan: This property contains approximately 20 acres and is located west of
George Anderson Road and south of Albright Road. The property was
recently annexed into the city from the City of Springdale and rezoned
RSF-4. The applicant proposes to create a 48 lot subdivision with 47
single family lots. Right of way to be dedicated within this property is per
the Master Street Plan with 35' right of way from centerline for George
Anderson Road and 25' from centerline for Albright Road as well as an
additional 50' of right of way dedication for all interior streets. The
applicant is proposing connectivity to the south from Copper Creek
subdivision as well as two connections north to Albright Road and a stub
out to the west for future connectivity. Staff is recommending approval of
this Preliminary Plat, PPL 04-1308 subject to thirteen conditions.
Required are Planning Commission determination of appropriate street
connectivity as well as determination of appropriate street improvements.
Ostner: Thank you. Is the applicant present?
Moore: Good evening, I'm Brian Moore with Engineering Services representing
the owner. I really don't have a formal presentation. We have agreed to
the conditions of approval and I'm happy to answer any questions that you
may have.
Ostner: Thank you. At this point I will open it up to the public. If anyone would
like to speak to this Preliminary Plat please step forward.
Nooncaster: My name is John Nooncaster, I'm an adjacent property owner. I own
property to the west of this project. I was also at the Subdivision
Committee meeting. I raised some concern at that point. I had some
questions about the design of this with houses to the back of Albright.
Also, I had a question about since a portion of this property was recently
de -annexed from the City of Springdale, I question if this is still in the
Springdale water district. I talked to Mr. Boettcher, the City of
Fayetteville Water and Sewer Director and he wasn't aware that this
property had ever been taken out of the Springdale water service area and
I haven't heard back on that but he wasn't aware that it had been. My
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 42
main concern about this is when the property that I have to the west of this
was annexed just recently there was talk of off site street improvements to
Albright. Since this property that you are considering tonight is the
largest, undeveloped piece of property that has the most frontage along
Albright between George Anderson and Crossover, if we are going to be
fair about this and if we are going to ask for any offsite improvements I
think they should be done for this property as well. Those are my
concerns. Thank you.
Ostner: Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak about this Preliminary Plat?
Seeing none, I am going to close it to the public and bring it back to the
Commission for comments. To start, staff do we know if this is in the
Fayetteville water service district?
O'Neal: The subdivision will be connecting to the Copper Creek subdivision to the
south which is in the Fayetteville system.
Ostner: It is in the Fayetteville water district.
Nooncaster: The question is not whether it is connecting to Fayetteville but rather
whether according to the map is it in the Fayetteville water service district
or not.
O'Neal: I'm not sure of the boundaries for the district. If you will notice at the top
of your plat there is a 6" water line that is inside the city limits of
Springdale. I'm assuming that Albright is going to be a divider since this
was de -annexed from Springdale and annexed into Fayetteville that that
map would be revised for that annexation.
Williams: I don't think that's necessarily automatic, maybe it should be. We do have
agreements with Springdale and occasionally we swap back and forth the
water district lines between the two cities depending on the circumstances.
In this particular case if one city is providing the sewer it should also
provide the water. Both Springdale and Fayetteville agree on that and so
we have in fact, adjusted the line in the past between the two cities when
that occurs. I don't think it is necessarily automatic with the annexation
although that would be a good idea if we could figure out how to draft an
agreement that would make it automatic. If it is not in the Fayetteville
Water District now then probably it should be because if we are going to
provide sewer then we need to provide water too.
Shackelford: I have a question regarding tree preservation. On page 10.2 it shows
existing canopy is 2.81, preserved is 2.21, the removal of those trees, is
that in right of way or is that easement where there will actually be trees
removed from this?
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 43
Pate: The trees that are within the existing right of way are not counted as even
existing trees. Those trees that are shown to be removed are actually
either on the detention pond or on the property as part of the project.
Shackelford: The public comment regarding the road improvements to Albright,
condition number two requires Albright Road to be improved to 14' from
centerline including storm drains, curb and gutter, pavement and
sidewalks. Can you speak towards that level of improvement verses what
else we've seen on Albright or is this the first piece that we've required
improvements to Albright?
Pate: I believe this is one of the first subdivisions that we have seen directly
onto Albright Road. I believe there was a PZD recently that was on
Albright Road west of this property. The improvements directly adjacent
are relatively typical. As our ordinances state, if you are adjacent to a road
that is substandard the typical improvement as determined by the Planning
Commission and recommended by staff in most instances is to improve
half of a street width in that location. Therefore, in this location Albright
Road would improved for a distance of 1,318 feet and George Anderson to
the south would match the improvements of the Copper Creek
subdivision.
Trumbo: Staff, I'm not sure I understand what we are supposed to be determining
on condition number two.
Pate: The Planning Commission determination of street improvements for a
subdivision or Large Scale Development. That is a Planning Commission
determination and staff is recommending those improvements that you see
there that George Anderson be widened 14' from centerline including
storm drains, curb and gutter, pavement and sidewalks along the length of
this property. It is primarily the same improvement to Albright Road.
Williams: As the City Planner mentioned, there is before the City Council, an
ordinance that is going to take into effect what the County Judge ordered
granting the city the right to require city streets within one mile of the city
limits. It looks to me like rather than improving Albright Road to one side
being county standards and then by the time that Mr. Nooncaster comes
through he is going to have to improve it to city standards, it would be a
much safer situation to have a city road on both sides all the way back
towards Hwy. 265. I know that ordinance is just going to the City Council
in a week but it seems that it might be something that you would want to
actually do to make that a safer situation.
Pate: Our typical recommendation based on our rational nexus calculation is
that the half of the street, 14' from centerline that fronts onto this
development is improved to city standards. Therefore, the other half of
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 44
the street, should it ever develop in the future is developed, that
responsibility would be born by that developer. That is our typical
recommendation within the city limits.
Moore: In this case Mr. Nooncaster actually owns to the west of the property, not
across the street. We will end up doing our side. County standards are
paved so you will have a fully paved road on both sides of the street from
the intersection of George Anderson past Mr. Nooncaster's to the west.
Williams: I think Mr. Nooncaster's position was when he was before the City
Council asking for rezoning that they began to talk about offsite
improvements headed back towards Hwy. 265. That is what he was
concerned about. Maybe he can speak to that. You have poor access to
both of your developments because that is obviously, going to be a very
heavily traveled road once you all have both of your developments in.
That will be the quickest way back to Hwy. 265.
Moore: Actually, this has access through the Copper Creek subdivision also. That
is a wider street. If I am in that subdivision I'm probably going south first
and then to the west instead of traveling on Albright.
Anthes: Mr. Moore, I have a question pertaining to internal street widths within the
subdivision. Will this subdivision have covenants?
Moore: Yes.
Anthes: Will those covenants in any way prohibit on street parking?
Moore: I don't know. The covenants will be the same as Copper Creek or similar
to. These are the lots that are pretty much similar to Copper Creek. I'm
not sure what the covenants will say.
Anthes: We are expecting to see a covenant that says you cannot park your car on
the street over 24 hours but you can park it there other times? These
internal cross streets, Street "A" and Street "C" have a 28' cross section
for 8 or 9 houses which seems a little excessive unless we are going to
allow on street parking. I would just hate to see that happen.
Moore: We can reduce it to 24' if that is what you all would desire. That is a
savings to us.
Vaught: I prefer to match whatever the adjoining subdivision has so you are not
driving down the street having it wide and then narrow. It makes sense to
me if it is adjoining a 28' cross section that it should keep that 28' cross
section.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 45
Anthes: It would be only the internal streets "A" and "C" that are laterally
connecting, the streets that connect north/south.
Ostner: You would have to turn onto them. I would be in support of reducing that.
Vaught: "A" connects to the west.
Pate: Staff would recommend that a through street retain local street standards.
Staff would support Street "C" being reduced to 24'.
Ostner: Would the developer be amenable to reducing that?
Moore: Sure.
Ostner: The comment I have has to do with the streets along the northern edge
turning their backs to Albright Road. Mr. Nooncaster spoke to this a little
bit at Subdivision and he, as would I, those homes already existing on
Albright Road I don't believe should have to face the back of other homes.
That is not addressed in our development ordinances. We are developing
so fast in Fayetteville that we are approving these developments with the
backs facing the street but we don't get them built quick enough for
people to see it and react to it. I believe if we do that a lot we start to
really lose the sense of character and street life that Fayetteville has. We
don't want to create concrete canyons that you simply drive. I believe it is
time that the Council address this. It is not fair to the community to build
streets that don't serve anyone except someone to drive past them. I am
not going to vote against it. In fact, I am going to vote for this project but
I believe our rules with our Master Street Plan are lacking in this area.
With that, I am going to make a motion that we approve PPL 04-1308
with the condition number 14 that Street "C" be reduced to a 24' section
with curb and gutter.
Shackelford: I will second.
Williams: Are you adopting the staff recommendations in condition number two
then?
Ostner: Yes, a specific finding on condition number two to go ahead and widen
George Anderson Road 14' from centerline including storm drain, curb
and gutter, pavement and sidewalk and the east side of the roadway will be
in the county and Albright Road will need to be improved to 14' from
centerline including storm drain, curb and gutter, pavement and sidewalk.
Do we have further discussion? Could you call the roll?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to approve PPL 04-1308 was
approved by a vote of 8-0-0.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 46
Thomas: The motion carries.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 47
R-PZD 04-1307: Planned Zoning District (ASPEN RIDGE, 522/561): Submitted by
MATT CRAFTON of CRAFTON, TULL & ASSOCIATES for property located at THE
SW CORNER OF HWY 62, S ON HILL AVENUE AND BORDERED BY 11TH
STREET AND THE BURLINGTON NORTHERN RR. The property is zoned RMF -24,
MULTI FAMILY - 24 UNITS/ACRE and contains approximately 27.969 acres. The
request is to approve a Residential Planned Zoning District with 220 condominiums in
two phases proposed.
Ostner: The next item on the agenda is a PZD for Broyles.
Pate: The subject property is adjacent to Hwy. 62 south on Hill Avenue
bordered by 11"' Street. The property is currently zoned RMF -24 allowing
24 units per acre and contains approximately 27.969 acres. The request is
to approve a Residential Planned Zoning District with 220 condominiums
in two phases proposed. The first phase being on the east side of the creek
east and north and the second phase being on the south and west side of
the creek. The property previously was inhabited by a mobile home park
along with several single family homes. These were recently within the
last year or year and a half removed by the applicant. Just for your
benefit, this is not really recognized in the development review process,
but a lot of time and effort has been taken by the applicant to remove a lot
of trash and debris left on the site by years of abuse and neglect on this
property. There was a total of 49 mobile homes in addition to that, and six
single family homes removed. Approximately '/z of this site is underneath
tree canopy. A majority of that is located along Town Branch Creek. This
stream and associated runoff from surrounding development has been the
source of many neighborhood concerns in past years and the applicant has
met several times with the neighborhood in both formal meetings and just
a door to door type basis as well as addressing comments received at
public meetings from the last Subdivision Committee meeting. There are
existing wetlands in this area also, much of which the developer is
proposing to retain or enhance along the creek corridor. The site, as it
exists today, is currently vacant with remnants of the previous
development evident. Surrounding properties are zoned a variety of
zoning primarily RMF -24, C-2 to the north, I-2 to the south with Pinnacle
Foods there, I-1 to the east with some of the commercial development
along Hill Avenue and College Avenue as well. The actual request, the
applicant is requesting a rezoning and Large Scale Development approval
for a residential development within a unique R-PZD zoning district. As I
mentioned, this is to be a condominium style development consisting of
220 attached residential units. As I mentioned at agenda session, there is a
little learning experience here for all of us, I included information with
regard to the difference between condominiums and town homes and the
differences in those. Just to reiterate, a town home is a home that is
attached to one or more other houses and has land. A condominium does
not have that land underneath. The proposal that we see before us is a
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 48
condominium style development. However, the applicant has stated that
his intent is to come back at a later date once these units are in the ground
and actually subdivide the property into each unit having it's own lot.
This would require an amended PZD. That is information for your
benefit. The total proposed density for this project is well below what is
allowed by right. The 7.87 dwelling units per acre is the proposed density,
which is again, well below the 24 dwelling units that are currently
allowed. The potential for a townhouse style division of land, the
inclusion of a public trail system, a public park, a large tree preservation
area, a riparian corridor, preservation protection area, these are all
challenges presented by the existing natural conditions as well as the
railroad easement to the west, which do contribute to the need to process a
PZD as opposed to a Large Scale Development multi-family type of
development. In your staff reports on page 11.3 there are the zoning
criteria as outlined by the applicant. The use units that are proposed, Use
Unit 1, city wide uses by right. Use Unit 8, single family dwellings, Use
Unit 26, multi-family dwellings, which actually allow the townhouse style
development. Building setbacks are shown, building height, a maximum
of 40'. Greenspace is 51.6% for this project. There is information on
wetlands, water and sewer that are being extended individually to each one
of these units as well as access, the access points to this property. Access
and street improvements are obviously, a concern. We talked about those
at length with several of the projects tonight. Staff made a
recommendation for the street improvements surrounding this project.
Those are itemized on page 11.4 and 11.5. Those are to repair the broken
pavement on l Ith Street identified by our City Engineers. Continue the
existing sidewalk on the north side of 11th Street to connect to the
proposed sidewalk on the applicant's proposed entrance, that is
approximately 20' of sidewalk. To complete the curb and gutter on the
south side of 11th Street from the bridge to improve some of the drainage
situations in this area. Based on the traffic study presented, the applicant's
traffic engineer recommended widening the intersection of Hill Avenue
and 6th Street to include a turn lane. The cost of locating a traffic signal is
a necessary cost to add a left turn lane to that signal system. Additionally,
a portion of Hill Avenue will need to be improved where necessary and a
6' sidewalk is required both on Hill Avenue and on 6th Street at the right
of way line. Also, with regard to Phase II for the 107 units that are
proposed. This exceeds the maximum number allowed by International
Fire Code to have a secondary means of access. Therefore, staff worked
with the applicant many months ago to find a secondary means of access
for this piece of property, which is relatively limited with frontage. It is a
large piece of property but it has a very small amount of frontage on right
of way where access could be gained. In doing research staff and the
applicant have proposed to extend Brooks Avenue south which is platted
right of way from many years ago, and connect that to 12th Street. At
Subdivision Committee there was a question if this could extend south all
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 49
the way to 15`h, which would be a logical connection and one that staff
asked as well. That right of way has been vacated for decades and is no
longer a feasible connection in that area. The applicant requests to build a
street to a 24' wide section. Staff is recommending a 28' wide section in
this location. There was a letter past out right before the meeting about
some of the recommendations from staff. I believe this is one of the only
few items that the applicant and staff have not compromised on and found
a solution. Staff feels that a 28' wide street is appropriate in this location
based on the traffic numbers that would be associated with Phase II.
Approximately 627 vehicle trips per day would be generated from that
development if I remember my numbers correctly and we feel that half of
those would access that street, about 313 would access that street.
Therefore, it would allow for on street parking in that area and for
potential development in the future. The Parks and Recreation Board
recommends a combination of money and land and services to the
parkland dedication requirements. I will mention, as noted in your letter
and the recommendation to City Council should this go forward, there will
be credits applied to those homes that were removed from the property. I
don't have the number in front of me but it is in excess of $30,000 that
will be credited for the removal of those homes. Additionally, the
applicant is requesting temporary office space in one of the units to allow
for sales. Staff is in support of that as well. Neighborhood involvement
has been crucial in this project in getting to the point that we are at today,
as well as staff involvement and I believe the applicant has done a good
job in meeting with the neighbors. We have heard from the neighbors
stating good things and concerns both for and against this project and I am
sure that you will hear some more tonight. Staff is recommending
approval of this PZD that is based on the development ordinance
requirements that we review as part of this Large Scale Development as
well as the numerous rezoning findings that are included in your staff
report. I will not go over all of those findings for you but if you are in
agreement staff would recommend that this project be forwarded to the
City Council with a recommendation for approval. There are 24
conditions of approval. A couple which I haven't mentioned, item number
two, Planning Commission recommendation for a future vacation of
portions of Hunton Avenue and Anderson Place rights of way. That is
referenced on the graphic. Staff finds in favor of these vacation requests.
They are not formal vacation requests at this time but we feel that it is
important to understand the Planning Commission and City Council's
recommendation for this when a formal vacation request does come
forward. Staffs recommendation is based on the fact that the circulation
that was achieved with these rights of way has been achieved, just in a
different location. The same circulation, you are still getting the
connection from 6`h Street to Hill Avenue and actually with a potentially
improved location as shown on the site plans. Item four requires Planning
Commission's specific determination regarding the temporary sales office,
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page SO
as well as item number five, a determination of appropriate off site street
improvements, specifically the 28' verses the 24' street. I would ask that
the Planning Commission make a finding with regard to that tonight. The
rest of the conditions are relatively straight forward and do not require
specific recommendations by the Planning Commission. I would note that
staff finds in our findings that this Planned Zoning District meets the
General Plan 2020 Future Land Use Plan for this area for residential. We
feel that it is a benefit to this neighborhood. It is providing a reuse and is
one of the principals for the General Plan 2020 as outlined, revitalize
South Fayetteville. We reviewed it with regard to all of our development
ordinances and find it to be compliant with the exception of a couple of
things mentioned in the conditions of approval, which are not beyond
fixing with the construction plan review. The parking and off site street
improvements are acceptable and we are recommending those street
improvements to not create or compound a dangerous traffic situation.
You might have seen in your specific findings that the Police Department
did mention with regard to safety and access that just rezoning this
property to this PZD could increase the traffic. I agree because the
property is vacant currently. However, it could also develop to 24 units
per acre, which is a much higher density. With that, I will be happy to
answer any questions.
Ostner: If the applicant will come forward and introduce yourselves and give us
your presentation.
Crafton: My name is Matt Crafton, I'm an engineer with Crafton, Tull &
Associates. With me are Mr. Hank Broyles and Mr. Hal Forsythe. They
are the developers and owners of this property. We thank you for the
opportunity to be here. This project has been in planning for about two
years now. We have brought numerous concepts to city staff and we want
to publicly thank them. We have thanked them many times for all of their
efforts. They have worked very hard with us and met with us many times
to try to develop a concept that would be successful, both for the city and
for the developers. Also that would be very unique and appeal to the City
of Fayetteville and all of Northwest Arkansas. Jeremy has done a good
job tonight of explaining the project and going through all of the details of
it so I won't rehash everything that he has gone through. As you can see
on our plan, we have four wet lakes with retention ponds that also act as
detention. As you mentioned, there is about a .86 acre park on the south
part of the project. There are very nice curved boulevard streets with tree
plantings up and down them. We are saving some of the larger trees at
those entrances to enhance the look. We think that this will be very
unique. The units actually face onto either greenspace, a lake front or
other features like that rather than looking onto a parking lot. We feel that
that is unique. There is not a whole lot of that that we are aware of going
on in Northwest Arkansas so we feel like that is a positive feature of the
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 51
project. Some of the issues that were raised at the Subdivision Committee
we wanted to address and show that we do want to work with the city and
the adjoining property owners. We have added since the Subdivision
Committee an additional median on Windstone Drive, that is the east/west
access. There will be trees planted there as well. One of the intersections
when you come off of 6`h Street coming to the south we had the entrances
a little bit skewed and we have lined those up according to one of the
Commissioners request. Some of the neighbors expressed concern about
the floodplain in this area. Of course this is Town Branch Creek that runs
through the site and it does have a floodplain surrounding it. The city
received floodplain study data from the Corp. of Engineers within the last
year or two and we have used their data to map the floodplain in this area.
We feel very confident that's where the floodplain is. All of our units are
at least 2' above the 100 -year floodplain. In fact, for the most part they
are 2' and 3' and 4' above, and that is the garage level. The actual living
space is 8' to 10' above that. We don't feel like there is going to be an
issue with floodplain encroaching upon people's living area in these units
so we do feel like that is addressed. As Jeremy mentioned, we submitted a
letter today to respond to some of staff's recommendations in this packet.
First of all, the owners are Mr. Hal Forsythe and Mr. Hank Broyles.
Regarding the width of Brooks Avenue that is going to the south and
connecting to 12'h Street, it really is going to go back to what do we
assume people are going to do. The Phase Il development is expected to
generate about 627 cars per day. Our traffic engineers, Peters &
Associates out of Little Rock, has estimated that only 4% of those 627 cars
are going to use Brooks Avenue. Again, it is required for fire code that we
have a second access to this site, however, we don't think it is going to be
used a lot. That is why we are recommending that it be a residential width
street and that would be plenty big enough for 4% of those 627 cars, about
25 vehicles per day. The hours of operation of the sales office, we had
submitted hours previously and it was our mistake. We have Monday
through Friday and also Saturday and Sunday and we have given the hours
in our letter. The repair of the broken street in front of our southern
entrance to the site, we wanted to quantify that as well. It is about 2200
sq.ft. of asphalt that our developers will be repaving. Regarding the
parkland dedication, I just wanted to request that the actual credit for the
existing units be shown on the recommendation to the City Council and at
$555 per unit, which is what the parks staff requires, at 55 units that
amount is $30,525. We would like that specific amount in the
recommendation to City Council. Then finally, a pedestrian path has been
added. We do have a pedestrian bridge that connects Phase I and Phase II
but we have also added a second pedestrian access between Phase I and
Phase II to the green area that is shown in our drawing there. The desire is
to make that a 5' wide mulched trail rather than concrete. It will be lined
with landscape timbers so it will be a nice trail through the tree
preservation there but we would rather not pave that. Those are our
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 52
comments regarding city staff's recommendations. At this time I would
like to have the developers come forward and present some additional
information.
Broyles: My name is Hank Broyles, I'm one of the developers, along with Hal
Forsythe. We just want to say how much we appreciate all of the input
that has come from the community. They have met with us numerous
times. They have walked the property, they have walked the creek, they
have invited us into their neighborhood association meetings. The two
things that they stressed to us the most was flooding and they wanted a
park. We have put the three detention ponds in Phase I and a very large
detention pond in Phase II. That is our answer to their request in trying to
capture as much water as we could before it got to the creek and those will
allow for seepage back down into the creek basin. In the yellow you can
see that is our park area down there. We have been successful in working
with parks and they were good to work with also. Thanks.
Ostner: At this point I will open it up to the public if you would like to make some
comments please step forward. I would like to remind everyone to
introduce yourself and sign in at the podium.
Holcomb: My name is Fred Holcomb, I own property on 12th Street. My concern was
about the traffic coming out of Phase II onto 12th Street. I noticed that
staff said that the right of way couldn't be extended to 15th Street but it has
been platted out on the city map for years it looks like. Over there, they
are getting a right of way through that part at this time and I don't
understand why they can't take it on to 15th Street. He said there would be
about 25 cars per day come that way. At this time I have seen that many
cars come up 12th Street and turn around from people just looking around
so I really can't agree. Surveys are good but sometimes they are a little bit
short. I'm concerned about the traffic going on 12th Street.
Grayhom: My name is James Grayhom. I own some property on S. Hill Avenue. I
would like to say that I'm a little excited about this redevelopment that is
coming into the neighborhood. I think it is going to be a great addition. I
wish I was part of it. However, I was not invited. I am standing here now
because I have a concern over the storm runoff. Mr. Broyles pointed out
that there are four retention ponds that are going to be constructed on this
property that will help catch some of this storm runoff. I really don't think
that that is going to take care of the amount of water that is going to runoff
from this property. Whenever you add 220 town homes parking spaces
for that, sidewalks, and all the concrete, you are going to have a lot more
runoff that you have from the vegetation that is currently there and the
trees. These retention ponds are going to help, and probably will help and
take care of this runoff for the majority of the time. In the wet part of the
year whenever you have a lot of rain these retention ponds are going to be
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 53
full. Whenever these ponds are full and you get a lot of rain that water has
to go somewhere. It is going to go down this College Park branch. That
property is bordered by this branch on the back side. I have seen on
numerous occasions what heavy rains can do. This branch will actually
get out of its banks and it will flood the property there. It just so happens
that the dwelling that I own is high enough that it is probably not going to
be affected. However, I think that there are some more concerns from
property owners that are downstream from this that are going to be
affected by this additional runoff. I'm excited about it. I'm ready to see
them start construction but that is one concern that I have and it is
something that this committee needs to address. Thank you.
Ostner: Is there further public comment?
Shepherd: I'm Aubrey Shepherd we live at the south end of the development. The
street comes towards our yard as it now exists. It started that it was a full
acre but it happens that the previous owners sold that 1/2 acre to the trailer
park before we bought our Yz acre so that is why we are going to have one
of those nice buildings next to us. There are many concerns. A few years
ago the people making the maps at the city named this College Branch. If
you look at the older surveys, this is the Town Branch main portion. This
is the Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River. This is an
historic neighborhood. There are many concerns there. It was mentioned
that there was credit for the housing that was moved off of that street.
They had to spend a little money on each of those moving them out.
There was a question that that reminds me of. There is one historic house
that these guys have bought but I would like the status of the preservation
of the 135 year old house. We are concerned that it be preserved and were
hoping that maybe they could make a bed and breakfast in it or something
but if that is not possible perhaps they could take it apart and move it
somewhere. It is a wonderful old home. Those of us who have bought old
houses in Fayetteville because they are old and historic in nature really
like those better than some of the new ones, although these are going to be
constructed much better, I understand that. Three of the houses were
removed by fire and I want to ask if we have seen the last of that. The
Fire Department appreciates getting to do it but at some point the wind
could cause a fire nearby. The first occasion they burned one it burned for
48 hours before it was completely burned out. We hope that that will not
occur on the remaining houses. Another question, is an agreement with
the railroad yet with the trail that you can actually describe? The railroad
tunnel has been filled in for a long time and they are building a trail up to
it which will be a part of the city's trail system. It is going to be expensive
to clean it out and we are wondering about the specifics of whether it will
be cleaned out. This summer when they replaced the railroad ties they
dumped the old ties right off into the tunnel mouth and they slid down into
the creek. It is illegal by federal and state law to dump into a stream so we
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 54
hope that that part will be addressed soon. I didn't get the firm explanation
of the drainage. Also, I did not find a soil study available of the hydric
soil and so forth on the property. I didn't find anything about boring in the
dirt on the land to determine the depth of the soil above the base rock. This
of course will be of concern when you are building a three story building
and how deep do you have to go for it to be stable on various parts of the
property. Have the sink holes that exist on various parts of the property
been addressed? Particularly the west side. Part of that is prairie land and
it is wetland prairie. It is not going to all be delineated as wetland but
portions of it are very obvious to anyone and much of it can be delineated
as wetlands but you have things like the burrowing crawdads that come up
from the ground. They don't live in the creek. They come from the
ground water that is always on that land on the west. If you dig a little bit
it caves in under there and there are several instances of visible sink holes
as big as a king size bed or bigger in places that have standing water out
there much of the time. This is something for their engineers to study in
looking at the base of the structures. If they have to go down deep how
will it affect water on the adjacent property, particularly the people such as
we are, south, who share the same underground water with this property.
We know that there is limestone bedrock under most of that. We have
structures underground all over in this part of the state and this is probably
what they will determine if they do a study out there of some sort. I hope
that they don't go out there and start moving dirt and discover that they
can't dig one of these lakes where they expect to without blowing out a lot
of rock and I think it is something that they need to look at before they get
to the actual construction. I did not find a wetlands delineation on the set
of plans listed and I'm not sure who did the actual delineation of wetlands
on there which is pretty standard for this kind of property. Which ones of
these ponds will hold water most of the time and which ones will be the
storm ponds or storm gardens that were discussed early on in our talks
with the developers? Right now it is not exactly the same as when we had
our neighborhood meeting in April. In fact, the whole west side has been
constructed since then. We are concerned about tree preservation. It has
52% tree canopy. If you stand on the railroad there just south of 6`h Street
you can see what appears to be solid woods. We have had people go up
there and not believe that this is inside this city. That will radically
change if you take out that much of the existing timber. We were
certainly disappointed that the percentage of preserved timber isn't higher.
We hope that this isn't something like Steele Crossing. They were
surveying on Mr. Hoodenpyle's property today so did they get the results
of that and how did it come out? I think you have to complete a deal on
that property for the entry way. Another thing, we get back to the wetland
delineation. This is the overflow area and the four areas that they are
showing on here, this shore line is lower than this shore line. Whenever it
rains this water is going through and it goes all the way back to this
property here. That might be a question to look at before you go too far
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 55
here. On the Brooks Street extension I believe we have paperwork that it
was abandoned in 1993 and I'm not sure who wanted it for what. At some
point there they vacated it and it belongs to the cannery people. It would
seem that it would not be too expensive to benefit the people on 12"' Street
to open that up. There was an agreement made years ago under previous
administration when they paved 12`h Street they allowed a turn around to
be built that extends out into the Pinnacle property. It is big enough for a
moderate sized semi -trailer truck to turn around there and drive back out
12`h so you don't have to turn around in anyone's yard. At the time that
that agreement was made the property owners were assured that it would
never be opened up to traffic from the west or north or south at that point.
I don't know where that is in file, whether it may be in the city's files or
the county's files or Pinnacle Foods files. Unfortunately, some of the men
who participated in that negotiation with the city have since died. It is
more than a decade ago. These people expected that agreement to be kept
and that is why we urge you to see if there is a possibility of opening the
previous right of way that was once dedicated all the way to 15". It is
much faster for people to get out. You can go quickly to the interstate or
to the campus or to 71 B and downtown. I think that some of the people at
the city and the gentlemen developing this would like to see that happen. I
don't see how it would be a problem for the corporation who owns it.
They don't have to give up any of their property. They still have their
buffer because they make a lot of noise. That's all that I have. Thank
you.
Ostner: Thank you Mr. Shepherd. Is there anyone else who would like to
comment on this item?
Hayes: I'm J.B. Hayes I would like to comment about the inconsiderate
individuals that come up with the repetitive repetition and put a time limit
of three minutes or something like this on them. Thank you very much.
Ostner: Is there further comment about this development? Seeing none, I am
closing this to public comment. Commissioners?
Myres: I think a lot of the concerns that have been voiced by the people who came
up to comment on this development are certainly well founded but they
are also going to be addressed in a later stage in the development of this
project.
Ostner: Actually, this is the development stage. This is a combination of rezoning
and development.
Myres: So what we approve today is going to stick? We won't see it again?
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 56
Ostner: We are going to forward this to the Council for their approval, our
recommendation. This is the approval stage for this body to forward it to
the Council. That is where the pressure or the size of this project is very
important and I think that the comments of the neighbors are crucial. This
is a very big development. It is very complicated to try to work something
like this into an existing part of town. It is not easy. We can devote an
entire meeting tonight to this and we have to work it into everything. I
would like to start by asking about a few of the things. The first question
was on the vacated Brooks easement going all the way to 15`h Street. How
final is that right of way vacation?
Pate: The platting of Brooks Avenue happened quite a while ago. This is part of
the old portion of the South Fayetteville plat. As Mr. Shepherd
mentioned, it was vacated in years past. You can note on page 11.45
south of the subject site there is an obvious right of way extending south
and then it basically dead ends into lots. When right of way is vacated the
property ownership ceases to be the City of Fayetteville's and it goes to
the adjoining property owners. Therefore, the property owner there,
which I believe is the Pinnacle Foods Plant, does own that property. As
they own both sides of the existing Brooks Avenue that the applicant is
proposing to construct. They own both sides of that property through
which this right of way is platted. In order for the applicant to construct a
public street in that location he would be required to purchase that
property from the land owner and dedicate the right of way to construct
the street to 15`h Street. Just for your benefit, it is something that we
definitely looked at. It would seem to be the most logical solution to
getting people south as well as north to a major arterial from this project.
However, with it not being available in this location the next best
alternative was to alleviate the traffic by connecting 12th Street, which I
believe is 31' wide at this time, it is really over built for our current
standards to Duncan Avenue and then travel south to 15`h Street or north to
Hill Avenue.
Ostner: Applicant, did you all pursue those discussions with the property owners
on the Brooks between Brooks and 15`h.
Broyles: Yes we did. Approximately two years ago we contacted Pinnacle Foods
when we first started and realized we were going to need another exit out
from that side. We asked them and they refused to sell us any property at
all anywhere down there. We did try. We did approach them for probably
three or four months in negotiations and it went up the ladder and when it
got up to the top they said no, nothing.
Vaught: On access, we don't have a street crossing the creek to connect the two
phases together, I was just curious on the logic and what went into that. Is
it environmental?
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 57
Pate: When I initially started on this project months ago just looking at
conceptual drawings we looked at the potential for a street crossing to
connect these two phases so that vehicular connectivity could be provided
between the phases. It would be difficult but it is possible with a bridge
crossing. It would take a bridge crossing to get over this creek. Staff felt
it was more appropriate because of the points of access that the applicant
could gain, that is really where the discussions from getting a second point
of access to Phase II came about. If there is not another point of access for
this development south of the creek across the creek there has to be some
other way in and out of the property. That was staff's recommendation, if
we are not going to cross the creek we need to look at another means of
access. We feel with two points of access, a pedestrian access across the
creek that it provides connectivity that is consistent with our city's
General Plan and policy of connectivity as well as it does not
environmentally impact as much of the wetland area and stream crossing
as it potentially could should there be a vehicular bridge across there.
Vaught: It seems like you are going through significant costs to finish out Brooks
and 12`", why did you guys go that route over the crossing of the creek?
Crafton: As Jeremy pointed out, we had looked at that in the past when we were
looking at different concepts for this. One of the reasons that we did not
had to do with the neighbors did not want that connection and requested
that it be limited that way. That was the primary reason that the
developers did not choose to do that due to the significant cost to build a
bridge across that creek.
Allen: One of the neighbors mentioned something that I think I think is important
in our community, and that is addressing adequate housing that is
affordable and I wondered if your project included any affordable housing,
the prices of some of your town homes, do they differ?
Crafton: My clients can address this better than I can. There will be differentiating
prices with the units. Some are lake front, some are looking onto public
streets, some onto the railroad so there will be some variation in price
within this neighborhood. As far as "affordable housing" goes it is just
not feasible economically to do this. The cost for this project is
significant. The off site improvements that we have talked about with
Brooks Avenue, the Hilt Street intersection with 6`" Street is a significant
cost for the developers to widen that street, improve the signals and all that
kind of thing. The project is quite expensive actually for the amount of
land that we are talking about so it is not going to be feasible for there to
be "affordable housing".
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 58
Allen: You hear the neighbors repeatedly expressing concern about the storm
water runoff, does staff feel that their plan adequately addresses that
repeated theme?
O'Neal: With further review of the drainage report the applicant is proposing to
over detain. There are just a few minor modifications to the report. It
does meet our ordinances.
Crafton: Some of the folks asked about which ponds are going to be wet and
actually, the intent is for all four ponds that we have shown to hold water
and to be wet all the time. There will be a concrete drainage release
structure within those ponds that will set that water elevation and then the
additional depth on the banks above the water will serve as the detention
that actually detains the storm water to predevelopment flows.
Ostner: That leads me to my next question. Are you certain of the depth that you
need to excavate for your detention?
Crafton: Yes Sir. We have done extensive analysis. It is quite complicated when
you try to tie different ponds in together but we have done that analysis
and submitted that to the city in preliminary format. As Mr. O'Neal
pointed out we still have final drainage reports to submit along with our
construction plans and so the city will have an additional chance to review
all of the details of all the storm inlets and the storm pipes and the
detention pond release structures and everything else will go through a
further city engineering review to make sure that we've got that calculated
correctly.
Allen: Can I follow up on that question? What happens if that doesn't work?
Who's responsibility is it if your best laid plans are not adequate and
indeed these people are flooded?
Crafton: How do you mean if it doesn't work?
Allen: Maybe your calculations, the depths of the detention ponds aren't
adequate.
Crafton: There will be a Property Owner's Association that will own the property
and can address any neighbor's concerns in the future. Engineering is
done with the best engineering knowledge we have available.
Allen: It is kind of like a slope that has got to end some place.
Crafton: Each pond is designed to detain enough water to limit the flow exiting the
site to predevelopment flows. It is engineered that way.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 59
Vaught: On Royal Oak Parkway and how it connects to 6`h Street, I am assuming
the out is a right only turn out. How far from that bridge is the entrance?
That is a very blind bridge coming across that.
Crafton: The entrance side, the embankment of the railroad slope comes down and
then we are going to be right at that location. It is a little over 100'.
Vaught: Jeremy, do you feel that that is adequate for sight distance?
Pate: Yes, we have reviewed that. I believe the Arkansas Highway and
Transportation Department has also reviewed these plans.
Crafton: Not yet but they will. We will have to get a permit from the Highway
Department to have that access.
Vaught: That bridge sticks out there almost to the road and it is hard to see around.
Do we have covenants? Typically don't we see covenants of some sort?
Pate: In trying to respond to all of our concerns, as we have it submitted it is a
Large Scale Development, it is not a subdivision. This is condominium
style. In the future we may see an amended PZD. This is a new process,
we have not gone through this before and I think potentially the PZD
ordinance revisions that are upcoming in the next couple of weeks could
address this and allow this to be one process but as we have it on the
books right now in discussion with other staff members and the applicant,
this is the only method we have to process this. In the future we may see
covenants, but as it is, we have the development regulations and the plans
as well as conditions of approval on these drawings that really exhibit
what is required to be built on this property.
Vaught: So a town home structure would require them but a condominium does
not?
Pate: Right. It is typical that a subdivision of land with a PZD would require
covenants.
Vaught: On the parkland, I know this is something that the neighbors have
requested. I'm just looking at access to it for the existing neighborhood.
Would that be Gracewood Drive or is there another means of pedestrian
access to that site?
Crafton: The public access would be on Gracewood at the circle there. I don't
know the progress, the city is negotiating with the owners to the south of
us to purchase that property for additional parkland, which is why the park
is where it is at. It is on the property line because the city had some intent
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 60
to try to purchase additional land to have a larger park there and not only
this park here that you see.
Vaught: Ok.
Ostner: To follow up on that, are you all installing the playground equipment in
this park?
Crafton: Yes. Part of the agreement with the Parks Department was once we knew
what the cash equivalent amount that was going to be required, we
subtracted off the value of what the trail would be and that will be bid out
and whatever that costs to construct the trail will be taken off of that cash
value. Yes, there will be a cash value of approximately $30,000 and it
was an agreement with the Parks Department and the Parks Board that that
$30,000 be spent on this park. There will be neighborhood meetings to
determine what that park equipment is, whether it is playground
equipment or something else but there is some equipment that will go for
that park.
Ostner: I didn't want it to be set aside as some sort of open green. Just to go ahead
and jump into this issue of the 24' or 28' Brooks. There is a discrepancy
between what you would like and what staff would like. I think a 24'
street might be appropriate. I am not sure volume should dictate width of
streets. I think frontage is a much better determinant of lane width. I
believe Dickson Street has a 24' section and it handles tons of traffic
really slow. That is just my opinion. Does staff foresee a bunch of on
street parking? Those lots seem pretty big to me as they are even though
they are not really platted lots.
Pate: More than the surrounding development will utilize this property. We
look at our Master Street Plan, which is a policy document set out by the
City Council and looking at that the volume dictates basically what type of
street we have on the books currently 300-500 cars per day is what the
residential street standards dictate. That is typically a dead end street or
local street as we saw in the subdivision earlier that would connect 10 to
15 lots to that subdivision so it would not be a through street. It is our
finding that this wilt connect to the 107 units proposed at the end of the
street, as well as potentially future development in the future. I think there
is a discrepancy between staff's view of how many cars per day will
access that and the 4% that the traffic representative has stated. That is
basis of our findings meeting our Master Street Plan requirements of a 28'
wide street. It would allow for on street parking on both sides I believe as
well as adequate turn lanes.
Ostner: I understand that that is what the Master Street Plan says. But a 28' wide
street that no one ever parks on is just not good planning and I believe a
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 61
24' wide street will be fine. That is really minor compared to so many
other things that we need to talk about. On the Vacation issue, I
mentioned this at Subdivision, I'm not so convinced that the vacation of
the easement between Hill heading westward to Royal Oak is warranted.
There is a slope there. I think those buildings that face north could face a
public right of way and it would be a street scape. That right of way could
serve that development that is being left out of your plans right now. The
other vacations I'm in favor of and I can understand those. Would you
like to comment on that?
Crafton: As Jeremy pointed out, there is an improved east/west access through the
site with what is named Windstone and that is going through Phase I from
Hill to Royal Oak. It will be a much wider right of way that the city will
receive than the small right of way that is Anderson right now. Even if we
left Anderson where it is within that right of way it would be very difficult
to construct a street to any city standards, the right of way is so small
through there.
Ostner: How wide is it?
Crafton: I believe it is 40'.
Ostner: Ok. I'm willing to let that go. I understand it is constricting. I have a
couple of other comments. On 11`h Street the condition of approval I
believe talks about a maximum of complete curb and gutter on the south
side of I I'h Street, the minimum street width shall be 24' face of curb to
face of curb. Were you all planning on building a 24' section or making
that wider? It is pretty jagged, it could go either way right now.
Crafton: Right. The north side of the street does have curb, gutter and a sidewalk
and so we would just offset that 24' and that would be out line. We would
have a nice straight street through there and would make up the jaggedness
with asphalt.
Ostner: Ok, great. Those are all of my comments. The entry onto 6th Street still
troubles me to have two curb cuts on a major arterial. I understand they
are controlled and with no left turn exiting onto 61h. But visually at high
speeds, which unfortunately, people do speed there. Two curb cuts can be
confusing. I believe one curb cut may be visually safer. As I drove by
there I see that the way you have it is sort of existing now. There are two
curb cuts currently there straddling that white building. Those are all of
my comments.
Anthes: I am referring to the letter you wrote to us, the additional pedestrian
connection, does that appear on the drawing where the second pedestrian
connection is other than the bridge?
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 62
Crafton: It should've appeared on the set of plans that we submitted after
Subdivision Committee. If not, we do have it drawn now and it will be a
part of our plans to do that.
Anthes: It goes through the lower part of the topography with the wash, is that
correct? Has staff made a recommendation about the surface material
there?
Pate: Staff hasn't made a recommendation. We would like to see a hard surface
path. We understand that we are going to be going through primarily the
tree preservation area and mitigation area so cutting and filling concrete
would be difficult in this area. I think just allowing for a secondary means
of access is our real goal here. There is another secondary means of
access with a bridge across the creek.
Anthes: Would any section of that be subject to a lot of flooding that would
undermine any of that concrete and send it downstream if it were hard
surface?
Crafton: That would be possible. There is an existing culvert that that stream goes
under. That is going to control what flow comes through there. Yes, that
is a possibility. This is within the floodplain boundaries.
Anthes: I'm trying to address that question and to me it would be nicer to have a
soft surface because of its location. Where there is a lot of water (that our
residents have talked about) washing through this area. If we had a flood
event, then shredded mulch and landscape timbers would be washed
downstream rather than undermining a concrete or hard surface walkway.
I am not really sure what percentage of walk would be subject to that, but
if we felt like that was a possibility I would rather see the soft surface.
Allen: Back to the width of the street again, I was wondering how many parking
spaces are being allowed for each condominium.
Crafton: Each unit will have a two car garage as well as two places behind the
garage for the people in those units to park. In addition to that, we have
scattered a few parking spaces around the development to allow visitor
parking, two or three parking spaces at a time throughout the
development.
Allen: What is the square footage of most of these condominiums?
Crafton: About 1,600 or 1,700 sq.ft.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 63
Shackelford: I would like a little more input from Commissioners regarding the street
width. I see both sides and believe it or not, this rarely happens, I haven't
made up my mind on what we need to do with this. I have supported 24'
street widths in neighborhoods for safety in lots of developments that we
have seen. However, this in my opinion is a little different than a
neighborhood based on the density of this development and the location of
this development I can very well envision other projects with substantial
density connecting to this in the future. I would like to hear some more
conversation if I could regarding whether we should do a 24' street width
in this location per applicant's request and possibly somewhat of a safety
issue in this neighborhood verses staff's request of a 28' street for
connectivity given the density of this project.
Trumbo: I think it should be a wider street. I am thinking also that there will be
more density built in and that road at some point will have more traffic on
it so I think I would be in favor of a wider road.
Vaught: I wrestle with this too. Just as we did the downtown master plan and how
to change the thinking of on street parking and street widths. To me 28'
has become to mean on street parking on both sides to help control the
traffic flow. If we don't have that it worries me a little bit about having
the race track effect. Even though this isn't a very long distance I could
see it being that way. I wrestle with it too just for those considerations.
Do we really need a 28' street here or will 24' work? To me it becomes
more of on street parking and what is the use going to be with that street.
If it is just a cut through street with one or two curb cuts then I see a 24'.
That is hard for us to tell right now but that's where I'm stuck.
Ostner: That goes back to my difficulty thinking of frontage. These are going to
be old timey 45' lots that is already platted then people are probably going
to park on the street and we need a 28' street. If it is not platted people are
going to be doing 75' lot frontages, it is very unlikely that people will park
on the street.
Shackelford: As the applicant suggested, there are two car garages with stacking behind
the garage per unit, is that correct?
Crafton: Yes Sir.
Shackelford: I don't envision there being a significant amount of on street parking
associated with this development.
Ostner: I'm talking about on street parking with future build out to the south that
has nothing to do with these guys, the area facing Brooks basically.
Vaught: Currently none of this is platted?
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 64
Crafton: There is a platted subdivision. The lot lines that you see there is what was
platted many years ago. It has never been changed over the years. A
question would be if future development did come along Brooks Avenue
would it then not be incumbent upon that developer to widen that street if
that was deemed necessary by the city at that time?
Ostner: That is the issue. If it has already been platted there probably wouldn't be
a developer. There would just be a guy pulling a building permit for his
house. That is where we run into these issues with previously platted
areas. Jeremy, do you have any information on those lot sizes?
Pate: I believe they are about 100' wide by probably 150' deep. They are very
similar to a lot of the lots that were platted in this entire area. I would
mention that currently it is all owned by Pinnacle Foods with a street
configuration through their property. There is potential for the sell of that
property in the future.
Ostner: Thank you. I wasn't aware that Pinnacle owned both sides of that.
Crafton: The lots that you see there are as platted. We have five lots on the east
side and five on the west so we are talking about a total of ten lots that are
existing and there is not a huge amount of additional traffic if those lots
held true in the future.
Shackelford: I am going to make a motion to keep this proceeding. I would like to
make a comment first. We had a lot of conversation and questions
regarding what I consider the engineering side for this project. I don't
know that it is our position to jump into the engineering side. I think that
we have to depend on the professionalism and expertise of the engineer
that designed the project. We also depend on the professionalism and the
expertise of our city engineers and our city staff to review that design and
makes sure that it protects the citizens of Fayetteville. I think that the
standards of this project as well as the other ones that I've looked at in the
six years that I've been doing this. There was a lot of conversation about
that and I think that has been addressed. I have full confidence in this
engineering firm and our city engineers to be able to handle that. The
second thing I want much feel that this is part of the guiding principals of
the 2020 Plan. I think that this is a good step towards revitalization of
south Fayetteville. I think it is a very good looking project and I whole
heartedly want to see this development. With that being said, I am going
to make a motion that we recommend approval of R-PZD 04-1307 with
the specific findings with a recommendation in favor of the vacation of the
right of ways that we have discussed. Condition number four, the
applicants request a temporary sales office recommendation in favor of
that. Condition number five, a determination of off street improvements, I
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 65
am going to agree with all of them, but Brooks can be built at a 24' wide
public street. I believe those are the only specific findings we needed to
make. Otherwise, subject to the 24 stated conditions of approval as part of
the staff report.
Vaught: I will second. I believe the applicant asked in condition number seven to
put a specific dollar amount.
Pate: Staff will include that as it goes forward to City Council.
Vaught: I would like to thank the applicant for a great project, not just improving
this one piece but also doing several street improvements and off site
street improvements to hopefully help the neighborhood and areas where it
is greatly needed. I know IIth Street was a street that really needed
improvement for a while. Hopefully, Town Branch Creek, with the hope
that this will help control a lot of those issues.
Shackelford: I would like to add for the record that I appreciate both the neighborhood
association, applicants and city staff. We have been hearing about this
project for over two years before there were PZDs and I really appreciate
the work that everybody has done to get this from concept to where we are
today.
Ostner: I would like to agree with that. I don't think that I have ever seen a
developer and the neighborhood be on such a friendly first name basis. It
is a credit to how you all are doing business. This is very complicated and
takes lots of talking.
Anthes: On Brooks Avenue, the fact that it is zoned I-2 and could be developed
that way by Pinnacle Foods makes me wonder about the 28' street section
actually being more appropriate. Especially since it connects to 12`h Street
that is currently developed at a 31' to 32' street width. I am having a hard
time just because of the size of that property. From staff, what do you
think the likelihood that that I-2 zoning would stick and that that street
would be warranted?
Pate: With regard to the I-2 zoning, I know that this plant recently underwent
some expansion. They do have minimum greenspace requirements that
they have to keep in this zoning district and most of this space out here
acts as that greenspace. It is really hard to tell what would develop, much
as this property has immensely changed from the time that this developer
took it over from mobile home parks and derelict homes to some nice
homes. It has changed dramatically with regard to what is proposed in the
project and what was there two years ago. Currently, this industrial
property to the south has full access to 15`h Street and that is their current
access point. It is a large site that they do have and there is a lot of room
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 66
for expansion. I'm not sure if this is answering your question at all. They
could never get to 15`h through that street so it would never be a through
street if that helps at all. Any traffic would have to go through 12`h and
Duncan which I don't anticipate that industrial traffic and the truck traffic
with that type of development, I don't anticipate they would go in that
direction.
Ostner: What are the greenspace requirements? If they were to sell these lots that
have frontage onto Brooks, would that satisfy their separation or would
their greenspace simply encroach? Would it shrink their allowable
development area?
Pate: Potentially, yes. If you counted this property as greenspace it is shrinking
it just by the developer building the street. Technically this is city
property that is right of way currently so it doesn't count against them.
There is ample greenspace. We recently permitted additions to this plant
and there is well more than enough to meet the requirements with that
regard. They have a lot of property.
Vaught: I think it was also noted, any future development that is placed on this
road we will review a large scale and off site improvements and I imagine
if anything comes in that industrial in nature we probably want to limit
access but industrial is a pretty substantial development and I imagine 28'
might not be enough.
Shackelford: For the record, since I noted that I was debating back and forth, the reason
that I'm recommending a 24' section is based on the answer of the
applicant on what they anticipate the lack of on street parking to be in this
development. Quite honestly, even though this adjoining property is zoned
industrial I have a hard time envisioning it developing industrial given the
growth pattern of our city over the last ten years and where I think this
area is going to go in south Fayetteville with the improvements that this
project, the University of Arkansas and a whole lot of other people are
doing down here in this area. I am still comfortable with the 24'
recommendation based on what Commissioner Vaught just said. If I am
wrong and it develops as industrial we will get a second bite at the apple
to require off street improvements at that time.
Ostner: Could you call the roll please?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to recommend approval of R-
PZD 04-1307 was approved by a vote of 8-0-0.
Thomas: The motion carries.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 67
ANX 04-1334: Annexation (HARPER/TEATER, 101): Submitted by MICHELE, A
HARRINGTON for property located at 5513 GEORGE ANDERSON ROAD. The
property is in the Planning Area and contains approximately 60.37 acres. The request is
to annex the subject property into the City of Fayetteville.
RZN 04-1335: Rezoning (HARPER/TEATER, 101): Submitted by MICHELE, A
HARRINGTON for property located at 5513 GEORGE ANDERSON. The property is
in the Planning Area and contains approximately 60.37 acres. The request is to rezone
the subject property to RSF-4, Residential Single-family, 4 units per acre.
Ostner: Our next item is ANX 04-1334 entitled Harper/Teater. If we could have
the staff report please.
Morgan: Yes Sir. The subject property contains three tracts of property totaling
60.37 acres. This property is located north of Zion Road and east of
George Anderson Road within the Planning Area. Adjacent property to
the west is being developed as the Copper Creek subdivision, as well as
approximately a 12 acre tract recently annexed and rezoned to RSF-4. At
this time the subject property is used for agricultural purposes with pasture
and at least one single family home on the property. The applicant
proposes annexation of this property into the City of Fayetteville. The
current services provided to this property, there are several collector and
minor arterial streets surrounding this property. To the north, south and
west are collector streets and to the east a minor arterial street. Some of
which have been constructed and some have not. At the time of
development these streets will need to be brought up to current standards
along the property's frontage. Improvements to water will be required and
the extension of sewer at the time of development. The Fire Department
reports that this property is approximately four miles from fire station #4
and projected response time is 11 to 12 minutes. The Police Department
finds that annexation of this property will not substantially alter the
population density or create an undesirable increase on police services.
On the request to annex this property, although, it will not create an island
of county property, it will create an extension of a peninsula east of the
approved Copper Creek subdivision. Staff finds however, that there is
quite a lot of development pressure in this area and incorporation of this
property into the city with compliance to our city standards. In addition to
a request to annex this property the applicant is also requesting a rezoning
to RSF-4 from R -A. In addition to findings of services to this area, with
the rezoning the Police Department found that although the annexation
will not substantially alter the population that rezoning will. However, it
will not create an undesirable load on the police services. Staff finds that
the proposed RSF-4 zoning for single family residential is compatible with
adjacent and nearby single family residential use. The General Plan
designates this area for residential use and it is compatible with
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 68
surrounding development. As I mentioned previously, the proposed zoning
is justified to promote orderly as well as consistent development patterns
and make use of existing infrastructure and at the time of development
improvements will be required. The proposed zoning will provide
additional traffic on adjacent streets. All of the streets, as I previously
mentioned, are identified on the master street plan as either a collector or
minor arterial and will be able to carry high volumes of traffic. Staff is
recommending in favor of the proposed annexation as well as rezoning to
RSF-4.
Ostner: Is the applicant present? If you could introduce yourself and give us your
presentation.
Harrington: I'm Mickey Harrington. I'm representing the Harpers and Mr. Teater in
this annexation. Are we taking them one at a time or together? I'm
representing them in both of the matters.
Ostner: They were presented together so we will discuss them together and we are
going to vote on them independently.
Harrington: I'm representing them on both matters. Brian Moore with ESI, the
engineer for the project, is here with me if you have any questions of him.
I think it is fairly straight forward so let me know if you have any
questions or concerns.
Ostner: Thank you. At this point I will open it up to public comment. Would
anyone like to speak to the ANX 04-1334 or RZN 04-1335?
??: I'm an adjacent property owner. I have property approximately Y2 way
along Zion Road, which would be the southern boundary of this proposal
as I understand it. My name is Mark Foray. I suspect I'm in favor of what
is being planned. Certainly I'm in favor of improvements to Zion Road
which now is graveled county road and I assume, as a result of this, that is
going to be paved. I think that is a benefit for myself and for my
neighbors. I talked with some of the neighbors and there seems to be
consensus along that. I have questions and perhaps they will be explained
by the engineer here. They are simple minded things. I don't know where
the power is going to come from. I would be concerned if there were
more overhead power lines in the vicinity of my property. I am curious,
I'm not sure I'm opposed, but I'm curious why the annexation
contemplated does not also include the property that I own to the south of
Zion Road. It seems to me that there will be an area left unincorporated in
the county more or less surrounded by city land with uneven distribution
of city services. I'm not sure I'm opposed to that because there are
advantages to being in the county but I would like to hear that addressed.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 69
Ostner: Thank you. Is there further public comment? At this point I will close it
to the public and bring it back to the Commission. If you have a statement
Ms. Harrington.
Harrington: The engineer is certainly willing to talk about things like power. The only
reason that this gentleman wasn't included in the annexation is because we
weren't aware that he was interested, but I'm sure he is free to annex if he
chooses. It wasn't a thought on our behalf.
Ostner: On the issue of nuts and bolts of development such as overhead power
lines, this is purely a land use issue, whether they should be in the city
limits and whether they should be rezoned. All of those power line issues
will be addressed again here for Preliminary Plat. Most of our power lines
are buried. They are not above 12 kV.
Shackelford: Without getting too far into politics, we have seen tonight on this
Commission the difference in developments within the city and outside the
city. My position, as I've stated many times, is development is going to
occur whether it is in the city or outside the city. Simply, if it is in the city
we have a whole lot more control over how it develops and how it is held
to standards to their neighbors. I think that is a good trade off that the
developer gets city property and we get a little more control. With that
very brief statement, I am going to make a motion that we recommend
approval ofANX 04-1334.
Allen: I will second.
Ostner: Thank you. Is there further discussion from the Commissioners? I have a
comment. I was going to mention exactly what you said. We have seen
both extremes, we have seen infill with Aspen Ridge and we have seen the
dark side of county development with Sloan Estates where the lack of
rules allows a lot of things. I always thought it was unfair that this board
is not supposed to be a political body but we are expected to review
annexations. It is such a policy issue. I suppose we are included in that
decision. Growth is not always the best thing all at once and too fast.
Where to draw the line I'm not sure how much is good and how fast
should it happen. My question about annexing this 60 acres into the city, I
understand the Police Chief has said that they can handle the response
time to this area if they are asked to do so. They tell us every time. They
will do their jobs no matter how difficult we make it. The Police Chief
wanted to request 12 new officers but knew he could only maybe get two.
He only asked for two in the last budget round. That is with the current
state of our city limits. On page 12.3 under these findings, the current
conditions result in a response time of 11 to 12 minutes for fire protection
from Station #4. I believe that the goal of our fire department is 70% of
their calls should be under seven minutes. This is well beyond the seven
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 70
minute range. I am just concerned about city services. I understand that
we can probably cover it but I believe it is a stretch. It is located as
creating more of a peninsula. It is far out. It is not near the bulk of our
city right now.
Shackelford: The only point I want to make is this is near and dear to my heart because
I live very close to this area. There is a joint response agreement with the
City of Springdale on fire and the fire response time from Springdale to
this location is substantially better than the data that you just gave. For the
record, there is that joint agreement with the City of Springdale in these
outlying areas.
Vaught: Our annexation subcommittee that met several times and the ideas
garnered from both Planning Commissioners and Aldermen, this was
definitely an area on everyone's mind as one to be included in some sort
of annexation because of the rapid development in this area. I think
creating a little more of a peninsula is better than getting 60 septic tanks in
an area that is more than likely going to be annexed in sometime in the
future if not today. As stated in the Sloan Estates subdivision, the best
case we get an effluent drip system, the worst case we would have a bunch
of septic tanks in an area that is rapidly developing. I know several other
developments have bought huge chunks of land in that direction. I'm sure
we will be seeing stuff on that at some point in time. To me it makes
sense annexing this area of town in because of the development pressure.
I guess some of the need is alleviated with the city street standards going
out a mile but then we still don't have the water and the sewer standards
that we do if we go ahead and annex it into the city. If this was an area in
the south part of town where it is not rapidly developing I might look at it
a little bit different. I don't know if that is correct or not but that is the
way that I have to look at it. This is probably the tenth annexation within
/z mile of this location that we have seen in the last six months.
Ostner: Right but most of them were fairly small and contained within the bulk of
that Copper Creek area. We haven't jumped like this.
Vaught: Copper Creek created a peninsula.
Ostner: So two wrongs don't make a right. I am simply suggesting that this goes
back to what I previously said. I don't think we are the right body for this.
This is a policy decision where to draw a line. It is very difficult for us, I
believe, because we are not elected and don't have people wearing out our
phones and we are expected to share our part in this.
Vaught: That is why we make recommendations to the City Council and they can
shoot us down or over turn us.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 71
Williams: I think you all are probably aware too that the City Council and
Administration is looking at relocating the west fire station after they
locate the one into the old Mexican Original on Hwy. 16, they plan to
move the one that is on the south side of Hwy. 45 and move it
significantly north in order to try to make these response times better. I
think the Administration is trying to respond to what you have been
recommending in annexations and rezonings in order to get the fire station
out there where there is too long of a response time. They are trying to
react to what you all are doing right now.
Ostner: I'm not saying I'm completely opposed to annexation, I'm just trying to
address my concerns. We are not going to see these back off. We are
growing quickly. It concerns me. I am not sure all growth as fast as the
applicant wants to bring it to us is what we have to do. That is why we are
here and that is why the Council turns down annexations once and a while.
Shackelford: My only comment, I don't want to get into a political debate, I think
property is going to develop whether it is annexed or not. I don't think not
annexing it into the city is going to stop that property from developing. I
think it simply gives us more control over the type of development and the
type of amenities and the rationalization of how it fits in with the
neighborhood. That is my only comment and I'll leave it alone.
Ostner: Right, but if it is going to develop whether we annex it or not why are they
bothering? They are bothering because we offer a tremendous slate of
services, trash, sewer, controls that if they were not annexed they couldn't
offer their potential buyers. It is not necessarily going to develop whether
we annex it or not. It might develop in a completely different way. I'm
not so sure about that. We have a motion and a second, is there further
discussion?
Thomas: Before I call the roll, let me just let everybody on the Commission know
that there are annexation task force minutes that are available for all of
you to read and the police and fire department were there and they have
significant comments that would address all of those issues.
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to recommend approval of
ANX 04-1334 was approved by a vote of 7-1 with Commissioner Ostner
voting no.
Thomas: The motion carries.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 72
Ostner: Our next item is RZN 04-1335, we've already heard a staff report. We
have already heard a presentation by the applicant, is there further public
comment? Seeing none, I will close it to public comment and bring it
back to the Commission.
Shackelford: Based on the recommendations for annexation, I think the logical rezoning
request to RSF-4 is in compliance in association with the other
development around so I am going to make a motion that we recommend
RZN 04-1335 for RSF-4 zoning on this property.
Trumbo: I will second.
Ostner: Is there further discussion on RZN 04-1335? Would you call the roll
please?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to recommend approval of
RZN 04-1335 was approved by a vote of 7-1 with Commissioner Ostner
voting no.
Thomas: The motion carries.
Ostner: Before we carry on, there was a mistake I made earlier tonight. On item
ten, a Preliminary Plat for Craig Harper subdivision, we were talking
about George Anderson Road and Albright Road. When I made my
motion I didn't thoroughly restate the condition of approval #2 on page
10.2 in the packet.
Williams: I think all you need to do is just to clarify it for the records and I think that
will be good enough. You just omitted one phrase. Your intent was I
think to adopt that entire condition as stated by staff.
Ostner: Yes. My intent when I made the motion on PPL 04-1308 was to
completely in it's entirety accept condition number two talking about
George Anderson Road and Albright Road. I stated parts of it and it was
an incomplete statement and I would like to completely accept condition
number two.
Williams: If there is no objection by the Planning Commission, the minutes should
reflect that that was his motion.
Ostner: Is there any objection by the Commission? The minutes are hereby
changed.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 73
RZN 04-1329: Rezoning (HOGEYE, INC., 595): Submitted by KEVIN SANTOS for
property located at THE N SIDE OF HWY 62, ACROSS FROM OZARK
MOUNTAIN SMOKEHOUSE. The property is zoned R -A, RESIDENTIAL -
AGRICULTURAL and contains approximately 3.35 acres. The request is to rezone the
subject property to C-1, Neighborhood Commercial.
Ostner: Our next item is RZN 04-1329 entitled Hogeye, Inc.
Morgan: This property is approximately 3.35 acres. It is currently vacant located
north of 6`h Street and northeast of the Ozarks Smokehouse. This property
is used as pasture land and is zoned R -A, it is affected by the floodway
and floodplain in the rear of the property or to the north of the property.
The property to the north, east, and west is also zoned R -A with R -O and
RMF -24 to the south. This 3.35 acre tract of land was created in 1993
with approval of a lot split to create this tract as well as a tandem lot to the
north. The applicant is currently requesting a change of zoning to C-1 as
reflected in the staff report. This property, as well as many of the
properties in this area, are identified on the General Land Use Plan as
mixed use. Staff finds that a R -O zoning rather than C-1 is more
consistent with this land use plan and compatible with the land uses in the
area. At this time, many of which are either non -conforming or are
residential usage in this area. As for existing services to the site, the site
currently has access to Hwy. 62 However, improvements to the right of
way including dedication of right of way, pavement, curb, gutter, storm
drain and sidewalks will need to be considered at the time of development.
This site does not have access to public water nor does it to sanitary sewer.
Both of those things will need to be addressed with development. This
property is located fairly close to Fire Station #6 with an approximate
response time of three to four minutes. It is the opinion of the Fayetteville
Police Department that this rezoning request will not substantially alter the
population density. However, access will need to be addressed with
development to ensure no dangerous traffic situation. Staff finds with
regard to the type of zoning that a R -O zoning allows for development of
residential dwellings, office buildings, as well as eating places with
approval of a Conditional Use. Rezoning the property to R -O will allow
for a mixed development compatible with surrounding residential uses and
it will also avoid strip development which is discouraged in the General
Plan 2020. Staff also finds that the allowed uses within the C-1 zoning
district are not compatible with surrounding uses nor the zoning at this
time and will only further encourage large, strip development along 6`h
Street. The size of the subject property will limit substantial increase in
traffic danger and congestion due to it's size, 3.35 acres. However, traffic
volumes in this area are high and increasing and any future development
on this site must address safe access and cross access concerns. It is
therefore, staffs recommendation that this property not be rezoned from
R -A to C-1 however, staff would support a recommendation to the City
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 74
Council to rezone this property to R -O. The applicant has indicated
information that they may wish to revise their rezoning request for a R -O
zoning designation. I will let the applicant's representative further address
that.
Ostner: Thank you. Is the applicant present? If you could introduce yourself and
give us your presentation.
Santos: I'm Kevin Santos. The owner is Cliff Slinkard. The reason we asked for
C-1 zoning is Cliff wants to build an office park. He has photos. He does
very good work and he wants to replicate the photos that you have of an
office park that he built in Rogers. We wanted C-1 so we could have
eating places in there and make it truly mixed use as the land use plan
calls for. He wanted a Subway and a coffee shop. We are perfectly
willing to take the staff recommendation and amend our petition to
rezoning to R -O. That makes it nice and easy. I'm three acres instead of
60 and a three minute response time instead of 15 and I'm already in the
city.
Ostner: At this point I will open it up to the public. Would anyone like to come
forward?
Wilkes: My name is Gretchen Wilkes. My property is currently our home sits
directly behind the property that is in question. Staff mentioned, the
property was at one point one large tract. When we bought the land in
1993 we were the ones that did the lot split. The land is very close
together, our home to this requested C-1 property. Recently someone told
me that if we didn't like the development that was happening around us or
the traffic that was going up and down 6`h Street that we should move.
This is not an option for my family. We have 100 year old trees on our
land. Blue Herons nest every year on our creek and have babies. You can
hear coyotes behind our house still. We love this land and we care about
this community also and we are not going to walk away. We want to
continue to be part of the dialogue and the decision making process that
happens as we shape the growth of this community. As part of that
dialogue, we met with Mr. Slinkard last week and spoke about this
development. He showed us the architectural plans for an office that was
designed and built in Rogers. He indicated that he wished to construct a
similar unit in front of us. While commercial zoning was not necessary
for a project of this type he wanted it so that he could put a fast food
restaurant in his complex. A restaurant means for us a business that is
open in the evenings and has evening traffic. It means too the lingering
smell of food and cooking odors and food refuse that is bound to draw the
numerous skunks, rats and coyotes that live on our property. Given that I
have counted no less than 23 restaurants between Razorback Road and the
City of Farmington, all of which are no more than a 10 minute drive from
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 75
this property, I don't think that having a restaurant calls for C-1 zoning.
Commercial zoning is not good for us. Not only does it allow fast food
restaurants, it provides for car lots or gas stations or Quick Marts and once
the zoning is granted we will have very little recourse as to what is built in
front of us, virtually in our front yard. As home owners and tax payers
and long time members of this community we are absolutely opposed to
C-1 zoning and we hope that you will be also. Thank you.
Ostner: Thank you. Is there further comment from the public? I would just like to
make a note that the applicant is asking for R -O zoning now.
Wilkes: My name is Steve Wilkes, I'm Gretchen's husband. We live at 4188 W.
6`h Street. I am very pleased that you are doing that. That was certainly
the argument that we were going to make tonight. I do understand, I want
to make sure that I understand this correctly, R -O does allow conditional
placement of a restaurant, does it not?
Ostner: That is correct.
Wilkes: We still want to make the argument that restaurants or any business that is
dependent upon foot traffic, customer count, turning people through the
doors, that is what we are opposed to. That is the kind of business that
leave to trash. We are isolated there and we like being isolated. We really
don't want any kind of development directly in front of us, I could literally
throw a rock through what is going to be built from my front porch. We
don't want to wake up in the morning and find where folks have been
sitting on our bridge over night having a beer. That is what we are afraid
of. We want to make sure that whatever is developed is developed for
daytime use and once you allow a restaurant to come in, restaurants don't
close at 5:00, they close at 9:00 and 10:00. Restaurants have dumpsters
and dumpsters smell and they have trash pick up at 4:00 a.m. and we don't
want trash pick up at 4:00 a.m. right across from our fence line. Those are
my concerns. I am very pleased that Mr. Slinkard is going to ask for R -O.
That tickles me pink. I am not opposed to proper development in front of
us but there is lots of land on either side of us where restaurants would be
more than welcome and not any homes. Thank you.
Ostner: Thank you Mr. Wilkes. Is there further public comment?
Sharp: My name is Sara Sharp and I'm the daughter of Steve Wilkes. I too am
very happy to hear there might not be any restaurants. In case they could,
I just wanted to add in, I have three small children under the age of five.
This is somewhere that our family gathers for Christmas, Thanksgiving,
mothers day every year, and it is generally, always outside. This is
somewhere that my kids can go and run around. We go on walks, we look
at nature. There is a creek. My husband and I were concerned that if there
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 76
was a restaurant brought in with a dumpster wind could blow trash into the
creek down into the parts that we go on walks and things like that.
Another sentimental thing is this is where I got married almost six years
ago. To see a dumpster or gas station lights or what have you in front of
the place that I got married would be kind of heart breaking to me. That is
really all I wanted to say was more about the environment of the property.
It is just somewhere very nice where my family and I gather together.
Thank you.
Ostner: Is there anyone else in the public who would like to comment about this
rezoning issue? Seeing none, I will close it to the public and bring it back
to the Commission for further comment.
Shackelford: As I look at this property with the staff findings, I'm in agreement. I think
R -O is a proper zoning for this property. For the record, R -O does not
allow restaurants. If there was a restaurant requested it would have to
come through as a Conditional Use. All adjoining land owners would
have to be notified. That Conditional Use would take the same approval
from this board as the recommendation to City Council for a rezoning
does. For the record, that is pretty much taken off the table unless they
want to come back through the process. That being said, I am going to
make a motion that we recommend RZN 04-1329 with the specific
rezoning designation of R -O for the property in question for approval to
the City Council.
Allen: I will second.
Ostner: I have a motion by Commissioner Shackelford and a second by
Commissioner Allen. Is there further discussion? Please call the roll.
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to recommend approval of
RZN 04-1329 with a zoning designation of R -O to the City Council was
approved by a vote of 8-0-0.
Thomas: The motion carries.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 77
RZN 04-1330: Rezoning (DUNNERSTOCK DEVELOPMENT, INC., 361/400):
Submitted by DAVE JORGENSEN for property located at THE W SIDE OF RUPPLE
ROAD, N OF WEDINGTON DRIVE. The property is zoned RSF-1, SINGLE
FAMILY - 1 UNIT/ACRE and contains approximately 19.88 acres. The request is to
rezone the subject properties to RSF-4, Residential Single-family, 4 units per acre.
Ostner: The next item on our agenda is RZN 04-1330 for Dunnerstock
Development. Can we have the staff report please?
Pate: Sure. This property is located on the west side of Rupple Road north of
Wedington Drive south of Mt. Comfort Road. The property was part of
one of the overall large tracts of 254 acres that was brought in as one of
the island annexations this summer. You may remember, this property is
due east of the Hoskins rezoning that was approved a couple of meetings
ago. It does have frontage onto Rupple Road and is south and east of
Bridgeport and west of Willow Springs subdivision. As I mentioned, this
is part of the property that was zoned to RSF-1 when it was annexed by
the City Council in the summer of this year. The property is currently
undeveloped, it is primarily old agricultural land. The applicant is
proposing a rezoning of the subject property to facilitate a future
development of a single family residential subdivision at a higher density
than that allowed with the RSF-1 zoning district. Adjacent surrounding
properties are primarily RSF-4 with the exception of RT -12, which is
Willow Springs subdivision. This is developed as a single family
residential subdivision however, and RSF-1 which is the remaining
portion of the island that has not been rezoned. The property does have
access to water and sewer along various streets. You may note on your
maps on page 15.12 it does have a stub out from Plum Tree Drive, which
is the Willow Springs subdivision. The expectation there is to connect to
that drive to alleviate some traffic at that location. Additional expectations
will be some improvements along Rupple Road and potentially off site
improvements that are not directly adjacent to this property. Much of the
property being developed does not have access onto Rupple Road and
therefore, we will have to look at that based on our rough proportionality
evaluation. The property is located about .8 miles from Fire Station #7 on
Rupple Road. Fire response time is adequate at three minutes. It is the
opinion of the Fayetteville Police Department that this rezoning will not
alter the population density and thereby undesirably increase the load on
police services. Staff finds that this zoning is consistent with land use plan
objectives for residential use in this area. It is justified and needed in
order to allow for a similar density and lot configuration as the
surrounding single family developments. As I mentioned, there is a
finding specific to the traffic danger and congestion and staff finds that
connectivity in the form of street stub outs will be expected to ensure a
safe and adequate means of access allowing for traffic to disperse in a
maximum number of ways. A traffic study may be required with future
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 78
development, depending on the development that is proposed. With that,
staff recommends approval of this rezoning request to RSF-4.
Shackelford: Thanks. Would the applicant please introduce yourself and share anything
you would like to add regarding your project.
Brackett: I'm Chris Brackett with Jorgensen & Associates representing the owners
of this property. I don't have a formal presentation but I would be happy
to answer any questions that you might have.
Shackelford: At this point I am going to open it up to public comment if anybody here
would like to address RZN 04-1330 please come forward at this time.
Ziegler: My name is George Ziegler. I am a property owner that owns several
properties next to this rezoned property on Plum Tree which is going to be
stubbed into the area. I faxed you comments today. I have three
comments. This rezoning is a further increase in construction as well as
domestic traffic along Rupple Road. Rupple Road is an embarrassment to
the City of Fayetteville right now. It is a safety hazard and it needs to be
straightened out before any kind of construction or change is made to the
zoning around there. The problem is that it is not sized right and most of
the development that you have already approved has caused major
problems in there. It just needs to be fixed before this is approved. It
hauls a lot of children to the school and also to the Boys Club out there.
Something needs to be done about that. The second item I have in there is
there is a large tree line along our property and this rezoning and with the
rezoning it is going to cause more of a sight problem and it is going to
increase the density there. We ask that those trees be retained along the
property line. The last comment may seem a bit strange but this rezoning
is going to cause an increase in problems and the rezoning should not be
issued until some kind of P.O.A. is established because there needs to be
covenants here because of the increase in population. It is going to require
covenants anyway because there are going to be retention ponds required
on the rezoning area if it is approved. We ask that these items be done if
possible, I may be speaking out of turn here, before or while you issue this
rezoning if you are going to rezone it. I think the developer can
accommodate most of these things anyway. We ask that you consider this
now rather than letting this go into the second and third stage. Thank you
for staying up late and listening to me.
Ostner: Thank you. Is there anyone else from the public who would like to speak
to this rezoning? Seeing none, I will close it to the public comment
section and bring it back to the Commission.
Pate: I can address a couple of those concerns. The tree line between Mr.
Ziegler and this property we would of course, be looking at at the time of
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 79
development. The minimum requirements of the tree preservation
ordinance that we do have in affect and we will definitely take a look at
that. I have walked this property with the developer and there are several
nice trees, especially along the draw through the property. That is
something that we will definitely take into consideration at the time of
development. With regards to the POA being established, the City of
Fayetteville does not require covenants, we have not reviewed those and
are not a third party to those unless, of course, there is a Planned Zoning
District subdivision. However, someone is responsible for maintenance of
facilities. That is typically a P.O.A. noted on the Final Plat and we
typically would request if covenants are going to be established for a
subdivision that we see those as well to have those in our files. With
regard to Rupple Road, staff agrees that it is a problem at this point. We
are looking at every means the city can to try and address that. Until
recently this was not in the city and we had absolutely no means to address
that. It was a county road. We have not seen the development in the city
since it became city property, this will be the first. I don't expect all
problems to be fixed with this development by any means, I wouldn't
want to put that on the applicant, I don't think the Planning Commission
would either. However, as I mentioned in our findings, some off site
improvements may be warranted by this developer. He is the first in line
for development.
Ostner: Thank you Mr. Pate. Commissioners?
Vaught: The break between the two pieces of property, was that with the prior
rezoning?
Pate: Yes. That was a portion with the prior rezoning. It is an access easement.
Shackelford: Mr. Ziegler brought up some very good points, these are things that need
to be considered, Rupple Road improvements, tree preservation, all of
those sorts of things are development issues. No specific business will be
done tonight, we are simply making a recommendation for rezoning to the
City Council. I by no means want to belittle those comments because they
are important to the development of this property and they will be
addressed. This, unfortunately, is not the time to address those. With that
being said, the specific request before us is a rezoning request to an RSF-4
rezoning, which I think is pretty much in line with the development we
have seen in this corridor. With that being said, I am going to make a
motion that we recommend approval to the City Council RZN 04-1330 to
RSF-4.
Ostner: Thank you Mr. Shackelford. Is there a second?
Graves: Second.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 80
Ostner: My question, we have sort of touched on this. On the Rupple Road issue,
I noticed Rupple Road is slated to be moved by the Master Street Plan, is
that something on down the line that this developer may expect to pay for?
Pate: Based on the size of this development I don't expect that there will be a
recommendation to realign Rupple Road at the time of this development.
I know that the city does have in it's CIP plans to improve Mt. Comfort
Road, specifically a portion of Mt. Comfort Road at this intersection. I
don't think that that will be the realigning of that property. That would
take purchasing the right of way and the realignment of a new bridge as
well. Potentially there would be a bridge assessment. That is something
that we are going to have to look at in terms of the development that is
proposed. All of those are definitely considerations based on the
development proposed.
Ostner: Rupple is slated to be moved eastward to line up. I have a motion and
second, are there further comments? Would you call the roll please?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to recommend approval of
RZN 04-1330 was approved by a vote of 8-0-0.
Thomas: The motion carries.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 81
RZN 04-1331: Rezoning (BALE, 596): Submitted by LISLE LAW FIRM for property
located at 3513, 3515, AND 3517 W. 6TH STREET. The property is zoned R -A,
RESIDENTIAL AGRICULTURAL, and contains approximately 0.80 acres. The
request is to rezone the subject property to C-2, Thoroughfare Commercial.
Ostner: The next item is RZN 04-1331 for Bale. If we could have the staff report
please.
Pate: The subject property for item number sixteen is located at 3513, 3515 and
3517 W. 6a' Street. The property is currently zoned C-2, Thoroughfare
Commercial and R -A, Residential Agricultural and does contain
approximately 0.80 acres. It is directly west of the Medley rezoning
request that just went before City Council. I did include it as part of your
history here. The applicant directly to the east, Mr. Medley, recently
requested a change in zoning from R -A to C-2, much like the current
applicant is requesting. Staff did recommend denial of this request based
on it's incompatibility with the land use plan and policies along with other
findings with regard to our findings for a rezoning. I did attach those
minutes for your review. The Planning Commission voted seven to one to
forward that request to City Council with a recommendation for CA as
opposed to C-2. The applicant was before Council on December 7`h and
was approved for C-1 zoning. That is just a little history on the property
directly to the east. This request is also for a C-2 zoning. The surrounding
properties are zoned primarily R -A and C-2. Much of these properties
were developed and/or zoned prior to 1970 when our current zoning
regulations went into affect. Therefore, there are a lot of non -conforming
structures and non -conforming uses in this area. This property contains
three non -conforming structures and would be a non -conforming use were
they in use. The structures have been vacant for more than six months.
Thus, only uses permitted within existing R -A zoning district area
allowed. The entire property is also located within the 100 -year
floodplain, much like the property to the east. This is approximately .15
miles west of the Lowe's PZD on 6th Street. Properties in this area have
experienced flooding in the past due in part to the existing development
located within the floodplain and floodway constructed prior to our current
drainage and floodplain regulations. As noted in the zoning maps attached
in your staff report, mainly page 16.11, you can see a strange shaped piece
of R -A property. The auto salvage yard you see there is zoned C-2. It is a
non -conforming use in the C-2 zoning district. Meaning it would not be
allowed today in that zoning district as it is developed. This request is not
that entire R -A piece. Essentially, it is the rectangle piece, .80 acres
around those three structures that you see there that we did visit on
Thursday at agenda session. The site does currently have access to public
water. It does not have access to sanitary sewer. Any redevelopment of
this property would require extension of sewer lines to serve this
development. The property is located 1.4 miles from Fire Station #6, fire
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 82
response time is approximately 2-3 minutes. Staff is recommending
denial of the C-2 zoning request based on the policies found in our
General Plan 2020 land use plan. This plan designates this site for mixed
use, as many of the projects that we have seen recently have shown.
Rezoning this property to C-2 staff finds is not consistent with the land use
plan. Many of the same findings are actually found in this report as with
the last report. We treat each one of these individually but the
circumstances here are much the same. Our 2020 Plan does state strip
development along heavily traveled areas has been a common pattern.
However, if Fayetteville is to retain it's identity as a unique place, strip
development should be discouraged. That is a quote out of General Plan
Chapter 9. The existing zoning land use decisions for nearby properties
were made under at least three different General Plans and reflect a wide
variety of the policy in the city. Several surrounding properties have, for
the most part, existed as they are for over 30 years and consist of many
non -conforming uses that were established prior to 1970, which was when
the current zoning regulations were adopted. Staff finds also that the
proposed zoning is not justified or needed. The applicants stated intent is
to rezone the property to allow for a new use in the existing non-
conforming buildings. Rezoning the property however, will not create a
conforming structure. It will change the uses, the setbacks, the bulk and
area requirements allowed on the subject property however. A more
intensive use pattern would be allowed on this property. Additionally, the
property is located entirely within the 100 -year floodplain and will have
certain restrictions imposed upon redevelopment on this site. Access to
this property from the police department states a concern because the road
system on W. 6`h Street. The speed and road type are of concern to the
Fayetteville Police Department. However, they do not believe that this
should prohibit the rezoning request. As I mentioned, staff is
recommending denial of this rezoning request and finds that there are no
peculiar or extenuating circumstances which justify this zoning which we
find is not compatible with our land use plan.
Ostner: Thank you Mr. Pate. Is the applicant present?
Bale: Good evening, my name is Pat Bale, I own the property that we are trying
to get rezoned. My husband and I acquired this property in 1979 and we
have been in business down there since then. I am being represented by
Mr. Franco here.
Franco: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name is Gino Franco, I work
with the Lisle Law Firm in Springdale. I know it is late and I have sat
through these things for a long time in Springdale too so I'm going to try
to be brief. I will try to go as quickly as I possibly can so that we can to
get to the question. We are requesting a C-2 designation. Ms. Bale and
her husband have been business residents of Fayetteville for 42 years.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 83
They have had Advanced Floor Company. They were in what is now the
Federal Building. They moved from there out to College Avenue where I
believe Edward D. Jones is now. They were then on the square near
Guisingers on Mountain. They were in Westgate Shopping Center and
then we have been in this property on Hwy. 62 since 1979. They have
constantly had their carpet business in one of the buildings as I noted in
the packet I gave you with photographs. They have been running their
business out of that building since 1979. The property, as was described,
if you look at Exhibit "3" and in conjunction with Exhibits "1" and "2"
show the areas that we are talking about here. If you will notice from
Exhibit "1" buildings two and three are about '/2 C-2 right now. Building
three is '/z C-2 right now. Building three is where Ms. Bale runs her carpet
business and has since 1979. Building two is not empty, it is not vacant.
It is now and has been a warehouse storing fixtures for IGA food stores for
over 15 years. It has been used for that for over 15 years. I have kind of,
if you look at Exhibit "I", those are the setbacks from the side of our
building on every side to about the property line. That is where we are at
right now. There is about 63' of setback from the roadway and I don't
think we measured that from the right of way, I think we measured that
from the edge of road. We have that much up front. We have the setbacks
on the back are 18' on one corner, 41' on the east corner and we have 24'
on the side between what is noted as building one, which would be the
eastern boundary of our land. These three buildings, when Ms. Bale and
her husband bought these three buildings, like I said, building number
three in photograph number one has been Advanced Floor Company since
1979. Also, up until December of last year they also sold trailers there,
horse trailers, flat beds, all sorts of trailers were sold out of that business
also. Building number two, as I said, has been used and is still being used
for warehousing fixtures for IGA. It is not vacant. Building number one
has been a series of businesses, which I listed from the time that we
acquired this property. It was Freight Sales Furniture. It then was
Kawasaki Motorcycle Dealership and Service, which I believe has now
moved out to I-540 north. It was marble art at one time, they
manufactured marble and had a sales and showroom plus did the
manufacturing of the marble in that building. After that we became
Superior Vaults for a while. They sold tombstones and burial vaults. After
that they were Furniture Connection, so they were another retail furniture
sales and then until August of this year it was Baceys Roofing. It was a
satellite office and storage building for a roofing business out of Rogers.
Building number one became vacant in August of this year. Until then it
has been constantly in use off and on through that entire time. This is a
commercial situation. I have also given you a couple of the letters from
surrounding land owners. The other photographs, if you look through
them, photograph two is property just across Hwy. 62 and just to the east
of us, they have automotive repair. Right across the street from us is Wild
On, the bar at this time. They have their bus there that they pick people up
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 84
with. Of course photograph number four is the auto salvage with our
buildings to the left and then finally is a view from the other side showing
back down the auto salvage. You can just barely see the property that was
rezoned, Mr. Medley's property. I know staff, from doing this and being a
part of rezonings in the past, I know that these people work really hard and
I know that they are not out to stick it to the land owner. We have to
disagree with them. We do not agree with several points that they have
made. We have water to the property. We have sewer to the property, at
least we get charged for sewer each month. I am not certain where the
problem with that is. The buildings have been in continual use the entire
time that we have had it and building one until August of this year. We
have an individual who is ready to sign a lease right now, he is going to
put in a pawn shop. That is when we first found out that we weren't zoned
to do this. He went down to get his license or whatever and they told him
no, you're not zoned for that. You are zoned Residential Agricultural.
We have been under the impression all along that we were zoned C-2.
This property is unique. It is significant and we have to respectively
disagree with the Planning Department. It is significant because Yz of our
buildings are already C-2. Residential Office in this area, the concerns
about mixed use are all very well taken by us. We understand that but this
plan came along long after we bought it. We are stuck with what we have
got and we are in the 100 -year floodplain. Residential Office is going to
do us no good even when Hwy. 62 Salvage decides to do something
better. It is not going to do us any good because that land as R -O is not
going to produce enough income to justify the development that the
floodplain requires. We understand that we are in the floodplain and we
understand that if we ever decide to develop it or if somebody else is
going to come to develop it, they are going to have to put a lot of money
into it to satisfy the requirements of the floodplain and they are not going
to be willing to do that if they are sitting on a piece of property that is
zoned half R -A and half C-2 or a lesser zoning. That is why we are
requesting that you all recommend this to the City Council as a C-2. Like
I pointed out, we are unique. We are in a situation where over time the
city has decided we don't want a complete strip of C-2 up and down that
highway. We are going to come back now and not try to work against
these. That may help and that helps the folks up from the road from us
that we just heard from. That helps them and they are ok with that. We are
not because we are stuck with 1/8 of an acre smack dab right on one of the
busiest roads in Northwest Arkansas. It screams to be C-2 because that is
the only thing that we can justify. That is the only thing that this property
can continually be used as in the future. If somebody is willing to lay out
the money to develop that property there has to be a back end of it. That
back end is it has to be profitable. It is not going to be as profitable if we
put in a doctor's office or a dentist's office from the standpoint of putting
money out. The doctor may go home with some money or the dentist may
go home with some money but the property itself making money for the
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 85
owner, not to mention with the surrounding areas around it, we would
request that you recommend C-2 on this property. We have no plans at
all, other than what was stated with the individual who was willing to rent
one of the buildings. We have no development. We are not trying to
develop it. We just want to be like everybody else is right around us. If
you will look at Exhibit "1" you will see that pretty much all around us is
now C-2. You have 1/8 of an acre here right next to us has been rezoned
to C-1, you have us Y2 C-2 and our land becomes useless if we are
anything other than C-2. We can't use it to it's best ability. It becomes
almost arbitrary to say you can be C-2 and you can be C-1 because now
we want it mixed up and down through here. We are unique and I think
the only thing that we can do is C-2. That is the best way we can use our
property. We appreciate all the work that the Planning Department does
and appreciate your time in letting us speak. If you have questions for me
or Ms. Bale we will be happy to answer them. I don't think there is
anybody here against us from the public. We are ok with everybody
except getting this through you guys. I don't think we are doing anything
out there that is going to decrease anybody's values. We are not going to
increase the noise or traffic or anything like that. We just want the rest of
our lot to be what maybe Y4 of it is right now.
Ostner: Thank you for your presentation. At this point I am going to open the
floor up to the public if anyone would like to speak about this rezoning
issue, RZN 04-1331. Seeing none, I will close it to the public and bring it
back to the Commission.
Shackelford: Staff, if you go to page 16.15 and take my comments with regards to the
property next to this they pretty much apply to this property. Where are
we, or has the City Council looked at that C-1 proposed zoning that
adjoins this property?
Pate: It was approved last Tuesday night by the City Council.
Shackelford: Asa C-1 zoning correct?
Pate: Correct.
Shackelford: Would a pawnshop be allowed in a C-1 zoning?
Pate: I don't believe so. I would have to check the use units but I don't believe
it would be. The C-1 zoning district is more neighborhood commercial.
The use units listed here are office, studios and related services; eating
places; neighborhood shopping; gasoline service stations; drive in
restaurants; and professional offices.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 86
Shackelford: I make that statement because obviously, if you read the minutes from the
previous meeting, a lot of what I said applies to this property as well. If
you all go out and look at this property I think it definitely has a
commercial feel to it. I don't know that Residential Office will work here
in particular with the floodplain issues as we addressed in October on the
adjoining property. I will let other folks comment but I think that I am
going to come along pretty much on the same lines as the property that is
adjoining this property back in October that we looked at.
Vaught: I feel the same way and my main question was why not C-1. Is the pawn
shop the only use that would not be allowed that is currently done on this
property? Do some of the other uses not be permitted under C-1? The
carpet business, would it be allowed in a C-1?
Pate: Most of the uses that were here prior to this development are continued
uses that were there, they were existing non -conforming uses and
therefore, they could continue as long as they weren't in operation for
more than six months. I believe that the applicant stated there was a
period there where they were not in operation. I don't have the exhibits in
front of me and we weren't given that so I'm not sure what buildings were
referenced. We did check water records for the City of Fayetteville and
there were some uses that were not served with water.
Vaught: I was just curious what the thrust was and I guess the main reason is that
they are not allowed a pawn shop in a C-1 is that correct?
Pate: Many of the uses actually that were mentioned would not be appropriate
for a C-1 district but rather for a C-2.
Vaught: Would they be allowed by a Conditional Use?
Pate: Not likely with C-1. C-1 is more neighborhood commercial.
Vaught: What are the use units in C-1?
Pate: Use Unit 12, Offices, Studios, Related Services; Use Unit 13, Eating
Places; Use Unit 15 is Neighborhood Shopping, Gasoline Service Stations
and Drive in Restaurants and Professional Offices. C-2 adds hotel, motel
amusement facilities; trades and services; commercial recreation small site
and large site; adult live entertainment clubs or bars and liquor stores as
permitted uses. Just to mention, the trades and services use unit is
probably one of our largest categories. The impact from trades and
services is quite extensive. Use Unit 17 includes anything from used car
lots to manufactured home sales to marine craft sales/service, parts and
accessories, packing, crating, rug cleaning.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 87
Vaught: What are the Conditional Uses in a C-1?
Ostner: Under C-1 Conditional Uses are Unit 34, Liquor Stores; Unit 35, Outdoor
Music Establishments; Use Unit 36 Wireless Communication Facilities.
The ones allowed by right are Use Unit 13, Eating Places; Use Unit 15,
Neighborhood Shopping; Use Unit 18, Gasoline Service Stations and
Drive in Restaurants.
Vaught: The pawn shop would fall under Use Unit 16 Shopping Goods?
Pate: Either Use Unit 16 or Use Unit 17, that Trades and Services.
Vaught: I'm like Commissioner Shackelford where most of my comments on the
neighboring property apply. Where I'm torn is I understand it is a
developed site. It is different because these buildings are here. Non-
conforming uses could continue so it is not affecting the current business
and operations. This is basically to allow a pawn shop. I'm torn in our
responsibility in what we think this property should be not affecting
existing businesses and setting it as C-2 so one business can operate in this
location. Do we rezone the whole thing so they can have a certain
business in one of the buildings or do we set the zoning with what we feel
like complies with the master plan and leave non -conforming businesses?
Ostner: In my opinion a rezoning is a land use issue, not a business issue. If they
wanted that business they could either go somewhere else or they could
rezone but when they rezone they can't claim we have to rezone because
of this business. It is the other way around. In order to get the business
we have to rezone. It is almost not the issue. The issue is all the things
that we are allowing in C-2, which I don't think are appropriate. I think
Mrs. Warrick stated it best in October when we were talking about the
same issue Mr. Shackelford was talking about. On page 16.14 "1 believe
one of the primary things that you are going to have to be looking at in the
future is access. Access to this site is very important. What we are trying
to do is to regulate 6rh Street, not to become College Avenue, which is
what everyone points to and says we are not willing to do that again
because we feel there are too many problems inherent with that type of
development. Access management is one of the key points we will have
to look at for any type of development. As far as land use, you can't grant
a variance on zoning but you can look at Conditional Uses that are
specified as the types of specific uses that you can request under any
zoning district." I would be in favor of R -O here. I agree, this is a
commercial area, it is not a residential area. R -O is a different animal. It
is not solid cars, customers, which is strip development. I don't think we
are imposing the master plan. They came to us. They want a new zone so
they can do something different. The rules of the community change as
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 88
time goes on. I am opposed to C-2 and C-1 but I would be amenable to R -
O.
Vaught: I don't think R -A is correct right off the bat. I think C-1 would be
appropriate in this area. I don't think the adjoining properties would get
C-2 if they came through today. At the time the ordinances were way
different and as we update our ordinances they try to fit them as best as
they could into the new zoning regulations. I think this area a C-1 makes
sense. We had the same conversation back in October. I think that it
would be unfair of us to look at the two sites any differently. There are
several uses in a C-2 by right that I think this area would not be correct. It
doesn't match, it doesn't meet.
Myres: I know it's late but I need something clarified. I am confused about the
non -conforming structures and businesses that are currently on this
property. If it is rezoned to one designation are those grand fathered in
basically? They can continue to operate. But what happens if down the
road somebody wants to open up something that is non -conforming again?
Pate: As Chairman Ostner read, there are not variances in zoning that are
allowed. Conditional Use requests deal with land issues to a certain extent
but only within that zoning district that they are allowed in. With regard
to the structures, I believe the structures based on our Master Street Plan
requirement of 55' right of way from centerline with an additional 50'
setback, I seriously doubt that those structures meet these requirements as
they were there prior to our Master Street Plan that is in existence at this
time. For the uses, I believe that the whole issue has come up simply
because there was not a use established there for at least a period of six
months that could be proved that was established there. A request was
made to reuse one of the structures but that use could not be permitted
because it was not a use by right or even by Conditional Use in an R -A
zoning district. Were it rezoned to C-1 any use that was permitted within
the laws of the zoning district would be permitted. Expansion would have
to meet the zoning district setback requirements and parking requirements.
This site in almost it's entirety is non -conforming with regard to access,
parking and all the other typical development standards.
Myres: Any future development on the site would have to conform?
Pate: Yes, it would not necessarily take an entire redevelopment of the property
just to conform. Our ordinances allow for a sliding scale based on the
additions proposed. If the entire lot is the lot that is under question there is
no room to expand on this .80 acres that goes from side to side essentially.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 89
Vaught: I really don't think you are going to get C-2, if we would forward it as a
C-1 or R -O would you want us to continue or would you want to
withdraw?
Franco: No, we request that you vote on C-2 at this point.
Vaught: Up or down on C-2, you don't want to amend it at all?
Williams: Let me make sure the applicant understands. This is just a
recommendation going to the City Council and you can appeal an adverse
or whatever is going up.
Vaught: We can modify if we see fit?
Williams: Yes, you can recommend a different rezoning than they request, just as
you did with Mr. Medley.
Anthes: The staff report on page 16.2 at the top states that the structures have been
vacant for more than six months and thus, only uses permitted within the
existing zoning district R -A, are allowed. The applicant has stated that in
fact, one of these structures has been continually in use, how does that
change how we look at this or does it?
Williams: That is simply a proof problem between the staff and the applicant about
who is correct on that. If an activity has gone on and has not been
suspended for six months then that activity would be able to be grand
fathered in. It is once the activity ceases for a period of six months at that
point the grand fathering of this non -conforming use ends and they have to
come back, even if they want to reestablish the same use. I don't know
who is correct. That would be something up to the fact finder to decide
who is correct on that.
Ostner: It is completely separate from the zoning issue.
Williams: I would not consider that in this zoning request.
Anthes: They do the investigation and the title search and doesn't that tell what the
zoning is?
Williams: I don't think that that is usually a part of a title or a deed. It is actually
records kept right here in the city. We have a zoning map and there are
zoning ordinances for that. If they wanted to know their zoning they
probably would've come down to the city and taken a look.
Anthes: That burden of proof is on the owner to provide that or to know what they
are buying when they buy the property. Is that what you are saying? They
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 90
are not provided with anything that directly tells them what the zoning is
but that burden of proof is on them when they are purchasing the
property?
Williams: If they wish to know what their zoning is then yes they would need to
come down to the city. I can tell you sometimes property gets rezoned.
When I had my rezoned here back to R -A I wasn't aware for a while that
some of my property was zoned RMF -24. They wouldn't be the only ones
that did not know exactly what their property was zoned.
Anthes: I guess with this I'm saying that it appears that the zoning has not changed
since this property owner owned the property. It appears that the zoning
has been in place since before they purchased the property. That is the
zoning is R -A. I am looking at the buildings as they currently exist and
thinking about which zoning would better bring the existing buildings into
conformance with our ordinances. It looks to me as I'm looking between
C-1 and R -O that the setbacks that currently exist on the property as stated
by Council here, do not meet the setback requirements in the C-1 district
but they do meet the setback requirements in R -O. Even if there is not
going to be additional development on the property it seems like being
those buildings into conformance and the development into conformance,
an R -O zoning would do that.
Ostner: I would just like to interject that a land use decision and a rezoning issue
really supercedes all of that.
Anthes: They are trying to use their property.
Ostner: I understand that but even if they won't utilize these things we are
granting them. We are granting these different use units and that carries
with the property and not with them. No offense.
Anthes: I'm agreeing with you and I'm saying that the use units that I think are
appropriate and meet our General Plan 2020 also bring the existing
structures into better conformance at an R -O.
Shackelford: Here is my take on it. This is a rezoning request which I think we are not
looking to bring non -conforming property into conforming property. I
think that we are looking at basically future land use. The rezoning is
going to out live the existing structures. You just get to a common sense
point of view. We have to figure out what is the best future land use for
this property. We have a big issue that is somewhat unique to this
property because it is in a 100 -year floodplain. I think that affects the
ability to rationally believe this property will develop with an R -O
development. We also have a situation that part of this property is
currently zoned C-2. Again, I'm going to go back to where we were in
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 91
October when we looked at these same set of standards in the property that
adjoins this. I think the proper land use given the restrictions unique to
this property are in the future land use will be a C-1 zoning. I think that
that is going to be a development that this property can withstand and I
think that it is a good fit for this area given the conditions and uses for the
properties adjoining and the surrounding property. With that being said, I
am going to make a motion that we recommend to the City Council RZN
04-1331 with a specific recommendation of C-1 zoning on this property.
Vaught: I will second.
Ostner: I have a motion by Commissioner Shackelford and a second by
Commissioner Vaught for a C-1 zoning.
Anthes: A clarification for Commissioner Shackelford, I don't think I understood it
quite the last time and I would like for you to explain it this time. The
implications of the 100 -year floodplain and why you think that particular
finding makes a difference with the R -O verses C-1.
Shackelford: The 100 -year floodplain substantially changes the development costs of
property, what it takes to build structures on that property. Second, it is
going to change the insurance value and what it costs to carry property. A
more expensive building will usually not be located in a floodplain. A
Residential Office building with the high end finish out with the materials
and all the furniture and stuff like that is somewhat prohibitive for flood
insurance. The main thing is the development cost. In order to get the
base elevation up you need more density and a little more cash generation
potential to develop property in the floodplain.
Anthes: Do we determine land use based on development cost?
Shackelford: I think we determine land use based on unique characteristics that are
associated with properties just like we do with tree preservation and many
other aspects that will go into the development density that we allow on
the project. I think that that is a unique aspect to this property to be taken
into consideration.
Ostner: I appreciate that perspective but I would disagree that land use discussions
with rezonings be compared to development issues such as nuts and bolts,
trees and stuff like that. Because land use issues are big. We have to look
at this piece of property and fit it in a long ways away. Where does it fit
with the interstate? Where does it fit with the traffic coming out of
Farmington?
Vaught: Along those lines, I do think C-1 is a good step down from what you see
closer to the highway. I think that it will allow for a few more uses, not
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 92
many, eating places and a couple of others are the difference. It will
provide some variety. Closer to the highway is definitely a more intense
use and it needs to be. This is a transition area. In 20 or 30 years down
the road I imagine that those three structures will be replaced including the
salvage yard and hopefully that will be staged down as well. I would like
to see R -O a little further out. In this location it is in close proximity of
several large commercial developments and neighborhood commercial I
do feel is appropriate. It is a transition zone.
Ostner: The other draw back to C-1, if it is not clear, I don't think C-1 is
appropriate. With C-1 nearby it can all be absorbed as one big C-1 lot and
it can be developed by right. When there are different zoning districts a
developer who is going to absorb different lots has to rezone again. He
has to either do a PZD or put more scrutiny if lots are absorbed and get to
be larger, which I foresee as being probable. It is very difficult to sell and
be able to develop a .8 acre lot. With the zonings different if this were
developed R -O with all the C-1 next to it most likely we would see a PZD
or we would see another rezoning where they were trying to straighten out
their zones so they could develop which if it were a larger lot, would give
a great opportunity to use the floodplain area for something that wasn't
built. I am in favor of R -O. I think it is best for the city. I think it stops
strip development and I think plugging this C-1, finishing out the strip is
just throwing up your hands and saying we can't do anything to stop strip
development.
Vaught: If you look at the zoning map though it is not all C-1. It is all C-2. What
we are doing is a step down and the only other C-1 it abuts is the little
piece that we just saw, which is a similar size, all in the floodplain. It is
surrounded by R -A behind it and C-2, a large auto salvage yard, which
someday will be redeveloped I'm sure. These two at C-1 will more than
likely combine with the adjoining C-2 and we are going to see it all again
as some sort of development or rezoning or PZD probably. Who knows?
It could be 20 years down the road. Like you said, any commercial
development on that small of a site gets difficult. I don't think that we
should set land use just to ensure that we get to see it again 10 years down
the road. I think that we should establish what is a proper use for this
piece of property if it were redeveloped. That is what we have to assume,
that it will be developed on it's own. I think just as the piece next to it, C-
1 is proper, but I also know that you didn't agree with that at the time.
Allen: I would like to call for the question.
Myres: Second.
Ostner: Please call the roll.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 93
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to forward RZN 04-1331 with
a recommendation for C-1, Neighborhood Commercial was approved by a
vote of 5-3 with Commissioners Allen, Anthes and Ostner voting no.
Thomas: The motion carries.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 94
RZN 04-1332: Rezoning (J.B. HAYS, 373): Submitted by CRYSTAL GOEDEREIS
for property located at 1760 STARR DRIVE. The property is zoned RSF-1, SINGLE
FAMILY - 1 UNIT/ACRE and contains approximately 5.99 acres. The request is to
rezone the subject property to RMF -12, Residential Multi -family, 12 units per acre.
Ostner: Our next item is RZN 04-1332 for J.B. Hays
Olson: This submittal was for property located at 1760 Starr Drive. It is zoned
RSF-1 and contains approximately 5.99 acres. The request is to rezone the
subject property to RMF -12. This property was annexed as part of the
island annexation that occurred last summer and at that time it was zoned
RSF-1 when it came into the city. Staff has received numerous comments
and concerns with the requested zoning from surrounding property
owners. Most of those concerns were in the realm of density and
compatibility, access and traffic concerns and such. The applicant
proposes to develop this as multi -family residential with one access
provided by Arapaho Drive from the Barrington Park subdivision to the
east and possibly another access from Madison Drive to the north. The
surrounding land use is primarily RSF-4, Residential Single Family, four
units per acre and some R -A property to the south. For infrastructure,
streets, at the time of development Arapaho Drive would need to be
extended and constructed to city standards to access the proposed property
including right of way dedication, pavement, curb and gutter, storm drains
and sidewalks. The site has access to water from an 8" main to the east in
Barrington Park subdivision. This water service would need to be
extended to the property at the time of development. Additionally, the
sewer would also need to be extended to the property at the time of
development. Police response, it is the opinion of the Fayetteville Police
Department that this rezoning will substantially alter the population
density and thereby undesirably increase the traffic danger and congestion
in the area. The load on police services, we already have concerns about
excessive speed and increased traffic from the school on this road and this
area is one of the most congested in Fayetteville. Given the community
concern expressed from citizens in the area we do not feel that we can
recommend the density required for this area. We do not feel that the
current road system can handle the increased traffic generated from the
proposed development. Staff does recommend denial of the requested
rezoning to an RMF -12 zoning district. However, in speaking with the
applicant, they have noted that they may be willing to change their request
to a lesser density. I will let the applicant speak to that.
Goodereis: Thank you Mr. Chair and esteemed commissioners. My name is Crystal
Goodereis. I presently live at 1760 Starr Drive. We are the ones who
submitted the application, myself and JB Hays. We have since had a
meeting with the P.O.A. of Barrington and we have decided to change it to
a RSF-4. That confirms all the land use that is on the 2020 Plan. It would
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 95
also alleviate the congestion. It would alleviate the problem with the
police response time and over bearing them. We do recommend that we
change our application to a RSF-4. In so doing that we would also
recommend that we would have our entrance in through Arapaho and not
have to worry about Madison which is one of the things that Barrington
had wanted done. We would have a future stub out to the west for future
land use going out towards Starr. I am not going to take anymore of your
time. I graciously appreciate you being so patient with us. I will be happy
to answer any questions if anyone has any. Thank you.
Ostner: Thank you. At this point I will open it up to the public for public
comment. I would just like to reiterate that the proposal is for RSF-4.
Davidson: My name is Jay Davidson. I represent the Barrington P.O.A. First of all, I
would like to thank Crystal and Dr. Hays for cooperating with us and I do
have some additional letters for staff. The majority of the letters are in
opposition to the RMF -12. We are very pleased with the RSF-4
designation and again, as it relates to the Madison connectivity, the
proposed residential development will go down Hartford which goes
through the Barrington Park subdivision. Madison, I do not believe is
possible. I believe it is a dedicated park so that wouldn't be possible. I
just want to appreciate our appreciation for Dr. Hays working with us.
Thank you.
Ostner: Once again, I would like to note that this is a land use issue and any
development would have to come forward as a Preliminary Plat and go
through the whole process again where we talk about Arapaho and
Madison. Is there any other public comment?
West: My name is Deborah West, I live at 3511 Madison Drive and I had left
some letters and people who were not able to attend signed them opposing
the rezoning. I just wanted to give these letters, there are about 59
signatures and 35 letters. Thank you.
Ostner: Thank you. Is there further public comment? I am going to close off the
public comment and open it up to the Commission. Commissioners?
Shackelford: I would like to thank the applicant and the neighborhood association for
working together, I think RSF-4 is much more appropriate than the RMF -
12 based on the surrounding land uses. Staff, I assume would be in favor
of the RSF-4 zoning designation. I am going to make a motion that we
recommend approval to the City Council RZN 04-1332 with the specific
recommendation of RSF-4.
Myres: I will second.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 96
Ostner: There is a motion and a second, is there further discussion? Call the roll
Renee.
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to recommend approval of
RZN 04-1332 was approved by a vote of 8-0-0.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 97
RZN 04-1333: Rezoning (J.B. HAYS, 373): Submitted by CRYSTAL GOEDEREIS
for property located at 1882 N STARR DRIVE. The property is zoned RSF-1, SINGLE
FAMILY - 1 UNIT/ACRE and contains approximately 5.73 acres. The request is to
rezone the subject property to R -O, Residential Office.
Ostner: The last item on our agenda is RZN 04-1333 for JB Hays.
Olson: This is another portion of the same property that was brought in with the
island annexation. This property is zoned RSF-1, it is located at 1882
Starr Drive. It is approximately 3.35 acres and currently there is a dental
office that exists on this piece of property. It is an existing non-
conforming use right now with the RSF-1 designation. The applicant is
requesting a zone change to R -O, Residential Office to bring this dental
office into conformity. Staff has received some comments and concerns
from surrounding property owners. Most of these include the type of use
allowed with the zoning request. The possible future expansion of the
current facilities, access with the parking, buffering and screening and
things of that nature. The surrounding land use again, is primarily RSF-4
and R -A. However, at the corner of Mission and Starr Drive there is an R -
O designation with an existing bank facility there. This site has access to
Starr Drive. At the time of any future new development this street would
need to be brought up to current standards along the property frontage. It
does have access to public water. It has access to public sewer. The
police department is of the opinion that this rezoning will not substantially
alter the population density nor create an undesirable increase in police
services. For this rezoning request staff does recommend approval for the
R -O designation.
Goodereis: My name is Crystal Goodereis again. This is a little bit of a different
nature of a beast. What we are dealing with here is we were forcibly
annexed. The dental clinic has existed for over 16 years. It has always
been there. What we have done is we have segregated that part out and
said we needed to make it R -O. I live at 1760 Starr, which is probably two
stones throw away from the dental clinic. Currently right now we have
our animals out in the front pasture. The ground is not going to change,
the use or anything else. What we are doing is protecting our rights, if it
went vacant, as you just heard a discussion, for six months or so that we
could still use it as a dental clinic or whatever we deem necessary in that
space. Starr is also slated to be a collector road, which means that it is
going to be a 70' wide road. In doing so, it would take out a lot of the
parking for the front. Therefore, that is why the R -O designation for
further up for parking for the dental clinic is necessary. We don't see any
problems with it. We are not planning on changing that as long as I live at
that property there will be nothing developed in the front of it. All we are
going is bringing a non-compliant into compliance which we were forcibly
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 98
annexed to do so. If you have any questions I would be glad to answer
them.
Ostner: I will open it to the public. Would anyone like to speak to this rezoning
request?
Long: My name is Larry Long, I am the president of the Starr Drive association.
We are a long standing association of about 60 homes that obviously, go
along and around Starr Drive. I did not bring all of the letters and emails
but my neighborhood association has met both face to face and
electronically and I guess all of us can be very thankful that I didn't bring
all of those tonight to read to you. In fact, I will try to be brief. I can give
you the essence and you are just going to have to trust me that I'm an
honest person. They were strongly and uniformly opposed to any type of
development in our neighborhood that is inconsistent with the character of
the neighborhood. We felt that both of these proposals on this property
were indeed inconsistent with the character of our neighborhood. Our
association was honored to come before this body about 10 years ago on
another proposed development in our area. You were kind enough to
listen to us for almost an hour and a half as we made presentation after
presentation and engineering studies. It all came down to does this
property fit? Is it compatible with the other homes and the properties in
the area? The commissioners voted overwhelmingly that it was indeed,
not. It was denied. The truth be known, either one of these proposals
tonight are far less compatible than this one that was denied 10 years ago
by this body overwhelmingly. However, we are not against the RSF-4.
We think that is fine and we are happy to invite that type of development.
We expect it. Our primary concern is with the R -O designation. To
expand anything that is commercial smack dab in the middle of a
residential, almost rural neighborhood, for those of you who may or may
not have visited our location, is probably inappropriate. Driving by there
the other day I saw 12 cars in front of the dental clinic. To be honest with
you, I was unaware that it was a dental clinic. I thought it was a facility
that manufactured dental apparatus so I would like some clarity on that
and what is allowed in the R -O designation. I think it is our opinion that if
you are going to have this type of property and expand it, this would be a
two, almost three fold expansion of a property that already has 12 cars
working in an apparently light manufacturing type of environment. Are
we talking about 50, 60 or 100 cars in the near future? These of course,
are our fears. Would there be another location in Fayetteville somewhere,
a light industrial area, an empty mini mall that might be more appropriate
for this kind of an activity. We understand that there was a dental office,
Dr. Stanberry did operate there for many years but that was a dental office
with one, or for a short while, two dentists were there. It was very, very
light activity. Perhaps this whole discussion is premature. It invites a
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 99
PZD. We certainly want to know what is going to happen before anything
transpires. Thank you very much.
Ostner: Thank you Mr. Long. Is there further comment about this rezoning issue?
Hopmann: My name is Cheryl Hopmann, I live at 3551 Madison Drive. I have a
question about two concrete structures that were started that are directly
behind my house, about 10' from my fence and go the entire width of my
property and onto the properties on both sides of me. My question is just
how do the zoning decisions that you are going to make tonight, how do
they affect those structures? Will they be completed or will they be left as
they are? That is my question.
Ostner: I will try to get to that when we close the discussion.
Marx: My name is Ronnie Marx, I live in the 1600 block of Starr Drive with my
family, which is barely two blocks from this proposed change. We believe
that this thing is properly zoned single family one and should remain that
way. The dental office did not pose an issue for us when it was a dental
office. I don't know what it has transpired into today since it has new
ownership but in the past as a family dental thing it has not been an issue.
I don't see why a family dental place can't continue to exist with this
zoning. We believe that this is correct. It is right smack in the middle of
single family and we are very concerned with R -O and what it could bring
in the future with new ownership of the property or even this ownership of
the property. People change their minds. As you mentioned earlier,
things change. That is what we are concerned about. Almost seven years
ago we were drawn to this area because of large lots with the houses. We
had a little breathing room, a place for our kids to play baseball in the
front yard and things like that and we believe it should remain that way
and ask that you please tonight let this remain the way it is. Thank you
very much.
Yang: We live at 3437 E. Madison Drive, right behind the dental office. We are
glad that the dental office was eventually annexed into the city because in
March when they first moved in there was a lot of noise. We found out
there was nothing that we could do at that time because it was in the
county. They wanted to build an internal driveway coming up north of the
house which comes against our property. For some reason they
abandoned it because I think the water storage kind of cut it off. This
summer when they annexed, we had a lot of concerns, the same as Larry
mentioned. Once we rezone that into R -O it kind of opens up a new
avenue for a lot of things. The irony of that, if we don't approve that, if
we oppose it what difference does it makes? They are grand fathered in as
a dental office so it doesn't matter if you approve or disapprove. I do not
know. This is a fundamental question I have regarding what we can do
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 100
into making a difference. I guess that would be a fundamental issue for
the development. Also, I think if we have no commercial development at
all and no office expansion particularly coming towards the north, which
is our property because there is not much room there anymore. Also, I
would like to find out what they are going to do with the north part of the
internal driveway. I hope that they can simply abandon that because it is
coming up real close to the property and they have plenty of space south
going down Starr Drive to expand. That would be our concern also is how
they reuse the land and what will happen with this property.
Taylor: My name is John Taylor, I'm a member of the Starr Drive association. I
am here to tell you that Larry Long didn't lie. There is a large group of
people that are opposed to this application. I am one of them. That area,
as you all know, is a residential area. It is best as a single family home
area. Those that have bought homes in the area and continue to live there
believe that. I believe it as well. The staff did mention that there is R -O
on the corner of Mission and Starr, that is almost Yz mile away to the north
and it is on Mission, it only happens to be partly on Starr. Starr Road, as
you all know, is primarily single family dwellings or agriculture. I request
respectively that you maintain our single family neighborhood and reject
the R -O application.
Ostner: Thank you. Is there further comment from the public?
West: I am Steve West and I live on Madison Drive. We bought our house a
year and a half or two years ago. I know that there is an empty field
behind us and I'm not fool enough to think that it is going to be like that
forever. We were told that that is zoned for residential and so we rolled
the dice on that. We thought that if they were to build something we
expected houses. I never envisioned that there is a possibility that I might
be looking back at an Appleby's or an insurance office. That is what
really bothers me about this. It was zoned for residential and I would
expect that it be kept as residential.
Ostner: Is there further public comment?
Seaton: I'm Tonya Seaton, I live at 1132 Huntington Drive. Our property is just
south of the Starr Drive property that we are talking about tonight. I agree
with everyone else here but I just wanted to be heard that this property has
no business being zoned R -O. It is strictly residential. My concern, I
don't know if anyone else mentioned this tonight, that is a scary road that
we live on, Starr Drive. There is a hill right there where that property is if
you have ever been out there. As you top that hill if there is some kind of
office with lots of cars there, there are going to be some accidents. We
need to consider that road there. We don't need anymore cars on it than
what are already there. We have a school there now and I pray every day
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 101
that there is not an accident. Cars just fly through there. The police are
right. They can't control it enough and they can't handle anymore
businesses out there. They have no business to be in there. We just like it
the way it is. Thank you.
Ostner: Would anyone else like to speak? I am going to close it to the public and
talk to the Commissioners. I have a question for staff. These reports got a
little mixed up at this point. Is this the report that I'm supposed to be
reading where you all are recommending R -O?
Pate: Yes.
Ostner: If you could just shortly explain that.
<Laughter in Public Forum>
Pate: Staff's recommendation for this property, speaking with the applicant, it
was annexed as an island and the City Council voted that the future land
use plan does show this specific area to be residential. North of this is to
be mixed use. Approximately 350' based on the scale of this plan is R -O
property. Directly to the west of this property, adjacent to it was a
property that was developed as a P.U.D. several years ago in the 90's as a
two family residential development. South of this property is the St.
Joseph's school that was recently constructed. There is an existing
mixture of uses in the surrounding area. Granted, directly to the west
there are single family residences. To the east, on this property proper
there is an agricultural type of use. The other requested rezoning and
Barrington Park subdivision to the east. Staff feels that the use is
consistent with our General Plan and the Future Land Use Plan. Those the
impotence for this request is to bring the use into compliance, obviously,
we have to look at it further than just the use as we looked at the other
request tonight. We believe that this use is compatible with this area. A
Residential Office use does not necessarily dictate it has to be an office
type of use. It can be purely residential, it can be single family residential,
two family residential and we have gone over the other uses that would be
allowed by right within the R -O zoning district. Just to reiterate, they
would include single family dwellings, two family dwellings, office,
studios, related services and professional offices.
Allen: I would like to know if the applicant has met with the neighborhood
association and tried to way lay any of their concerns in any manner.
Goodereis: Mrs. Allen, I have lived on that road for a year and two months and I
never knew they existed. I have redecorated, re -landscaped and
everything else. We met with Barrington because we knew they were
there. Honest as I stand here I did not know a Starr Drive association was
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 102
there. I met with the neighbors on Cherokee because I did know some of
them so we have talked with some of them. As far as it goes with
alleviating some of their fears, we are not planning on doing anything.
First of all, Starr is on the future street use as a 70' collector. Before
anything was done out there you would have to go ahead and improve the
streets, as you have pointed out all night long. It is not feasible to do that.
All we are trying to do is to bring a non -conforming use into a conforming
use. I understand some of their concerns and I too share them.
Allen: I think so often just conversation can take care of things and I just
wondered if those efforts have been made.
Goodereis: I did post my phone number at a friends house for anyone who had any
concerns. Nobody called me. I did not know that there was an organized
person nor did I know Larry Long or I assure you that Dr. Hays and I
would have met with them the same as we did with the people at
Barrington. We are not here trying to hide anything or say anything, we
are doing it just exactly by the book as we were told that we needed to do
it. We are certainly not afraid to hear comments or concerns just as we did
with Barrington and we came up with what we think is an admirable
solution to that situation.
Allen: That wasn't my indignation. I just think that so often people's concerns
can be tended to with some face to face conversation.
Goodereis: I agree whole heartedly but I'm telling you standing here living for a year
and two months at 1760 Starr Road I never even knew there was one that
existed.
Allen: Then I wanted to ask staff if this rezoning were pulled and they had a
Conditional Use could you have a dental office there?
Pate: Not in the RSF-1 zoning district.
Vaught: What about the RSF-4?
Pate: A dental clinic is located under Use Unit 12, Offices, Studios and related
services, which is not a Conditional Use in either one of those zoning
districts.
Ostner: The compromise to me would seem to be a PZD which is not really being
proposed. That is the juggling area between the residential and
commercial that more angles are scrutinized.
Goodereis: I agree completely with you Mr. Chair. Unfortunately, you don't have a
non -development PZD. We are not developing any of it. Therefore, we
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 103
cannot defray the cost on something we are not developing. That is why
we couldn't go with a PZD. We waited around and tried to wait, Jeremy
knows I waited three months to submit this, but it is hard for us to even get
insurance with a non -complying in a situation since we have been forcibly
annexed into either the dental lab or anything. Insurance companies do
not want to insure you when they are not sure that you are going to be able
to rebuild. All of these issues have hit us head on too. The PZD, we
would love to go with a PZD but we can't. We are not developing it. We
can't do a conceptual PZD. We have to do an actual one. There is
probably approximately 17 acres of this ground that is not going to be
touched from RSF-1 because we want to maintain our grandfatheringship
and be allowed to have our R -A there. If we change the zoning and go
with a PZD we could get into a technical situation with that.
Ostner: This is extremely difficult because I completely agree with the residents
that the flavor is purely residential. I can also see staff's saying that there
is a mixed use in the area. There really is. Starr Drive is a collector but it
doesn't have to be expanded or built upon without a development
proposal, not a rezoning proposal.
Anthes: As we learned earlier this evening, as long as this business remains in
operation without a six month lag in time in this zoning are they allowed
to continue a business as this dental office or a similar use as long as the
building is maintained and rented continuously?
Williams: As long as they are continuing to use it, yes. However, this is the same
sort of situation that Jeff Collins faced when be asked for a rezoning
because he had built a structure that was a non -conforming use because we
had made a mistake and did not have the land labeled properly. He has
insurance problems, refinancing problems and things like that. That
would remain although his business, as long as it continued, did not have a
six month gap, could continue to operate and be grand fathered in as a
non -conforming use.
Anthes: I guess I don't see it the same as the Collins property because number one,
this wasn't a zoning mistake and number two, I don't think it has the same
sort of adjacency as that property. However, we do have a school that is
right by there that has a large parking lot and a lot of activity and people
coming back and forth. It is not absurd to think of neighborhood
commercial centers around schools and that kind of thing developing as
we have in other parts of town. I am kind of alarmed however, that
whenever I look at this I see that it is nearly six acres of property. I think
about how much development that would be allowed by right on nearly six
acres if we rezoned out of hand. As staff pointed out, the R -O designation
doesn't necessarily mean offices will develop but it would allow multi-
family and right on the same piece of property we just stepped down a
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 104
request for multi -family zoning and said that was inappropriate, it needs to
be single family.
Vaught: I think it is only 3.35 acres, is there a typo in the report?
Anthes: The report says 5.73 acres.
Graves: It got corrected.
Shackelford: Is it 3.35 or is it 5.73 acres?
Olson: What has happened is the legal description that we were given earlier
actually split the dental office and so the applicant came back with a new
property description, which we have the right maps however, the acreage
at the beginning is not accurate.
Pate: It should be 5.73 acres. Just to clarify, Use Unit 26 is not an allowed right
in this zoning district.
Anthes: Duplexes or a mobile home park would be by right.
Allen: If the applicant has no plans to build and the business stays exactly the
same and is grand fathered in then I don't see the need to rezone.
Goodereis: I guess Ms. Allen, the only reason that we have the need to rezone is our
insurance issues and our assurance that if the clinic burned down we could
rebuild it because right now under present zoning it couldn't be rebuilt.
As Brenda Thiel pointed out, when we were forcibly annexed in we asked
to not be annexed, to leave us alone. They couldn't do that. Then we
asked that we please address these issues right then and there. The City
Attorney may remember back, they would not do that for us because they
said they needed to bring all of the bodies in as one zoning but if I had any
problems I could always go through the zoning to get it rezoned and they
assured me that that would be no problem because it is a non -conforming
use because it has been there for 16 or 17 years. That is the reason. If it
burned down tomorrow we could not rebuild, not even under the grand
fathering clause if anything happened to it. We are just trying to bring it
into the way that the city brought us in to be conforming with the property
use. The reason that someone had a question about the 5.73. Dr.
Stanberry owned both pieces of property, he did not acquire them from the
same person. When he went to build his clinic the legal for the first piece
of ground, the little bitty corner, the 1.59 that he had gotten, he just
acquired that so that he could build his clinic. What he did is he built it
right on the property line. It divided that dental clinic, as staff pointed out,
exactly in half. All we did was make it a triangle. One of the reasons that
we did that was to protect the parking. When Starr, not if, but when Starr
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 105
becomes a collector street that is on the future road map we will need the
extra space up above for parking because you will alleviate our parking
lot. There will be no place to go. We just took a rectangle. I believe staff
included a map in that so that you can see exactly what we are proposing
and how we are proposing it. When Starr moves out to that 70' collector it
will take and cut almost all of the parking lot out so the parking will be
forced towards the school.
Shackelford: This map that shows the specific triangle that we are rezoning, I'm
confused between 3.35 and 5.73 acres, what we are being asked to rezone.
Here is where I'm coming down on this. I am in somewhat agreement that
this is comparable to the situation we had in west Fayetteville where we
had a zoning mistake. It is not a zoning mistake on this but there is a
forced annexation. As I look at this property is it purely residential,
probably not. Is it mixed use? It is getting to be that. Will Starr look
significantly different in the future? Absolutely. It is designated to be a
collector and this area of town is going to change. My concern is are we
rezoning more of a node here to R -O than what we need to rezone? That
is what I'm wanting to look at. Specifically what tract, this triangle that
I'm talking about, I'm confused. Can you point me to a page?
Trumbo: I see rectangles, I haven't seen any triangles.
Goodereis: The confusion that you are having is coming from asking if it is going to
the full boundary. No it is not. The boundary that it is set for is if you can
see on the aerial pictures, where Cherokee is, what Mr. Jenkins surveyed
out was a direct rectangle starting right approximately at the Cherokee line
and heading north towards the end of our property. That makes a direct
rectangle. It only goes back into the property approximately 200' and that
just encompasses the back of the dam off of that part. It is just a plain
rectangle.
Allen: Could you just rezone an acre of it?
Goodereis: An acre wouldn't encompass the dental clinic. It was on 1.59 acres.
There you go again, we will still have the issue of the parking. That is
why we did what we did. When Starr becomes a collector, as you can see
from that aerial, Starr right there is narrow. When it becomes a collector it
will take out our parking. We went straight up to Cherokee and made a
straight rectangle and back down.
Anthes: I'm looking at this and it looks like if we come out Cherokee Drive and
come out straight and make a rectangle that Crystal is talking about the
access to the existing house will go through this new tract of land. Would
there then be an access easement through the property? Are we splitting
that? I'm confused. How do we rezone just a piece of it?
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 106
Shackelford: By legal description. There are two legal descriptions associated.
Goodereis: We are not wanting to change the rest of it because we will not get rid of
the animals. We were forcibly annexed in. Therefore, we are keeping the
animals. As I said before, the PZD is not an option.
Trumbo: My question is why are you asking for over five acres to rezone just a
small dental office?
Goodereis: The dental office isn't so small. If you could actually see it you would
understand. It is situated on the piece of ground in a pie shape, I don't
know how else to better describe it. Therefore, it takes out a huge chunk
right there. The almost three acres that it sat on before, that was divided
completely in half. Therefore, we had to extend the boundary back further
and go up. All we are trying to do is do this one time in order to get our
driveways and everything in there for when Starr becomes a collector. We
know that it is going to. We just don't know when. I can stand here as
sure as I'm standing here and tell you there is no future development
planned for that.
Anthes: We understand that. You have to understand though that these land use
rights convey with the property. You can sell this tomorrow and
somebody else could have a very different idea. We have to look at that.
Goodereis: I agree totally but you asked why we asked for that and that's why. When
we went to get it surveyed we didn't want to pay for a survey. We were
satisfied with just doing it with the property the way that it was, that
wasn't an option because staff called me up and said hey, it is going right
through the middle of the dental clinic, we can't divide a structure. That's
when we had to pay a surveyor to come out and resurvey it and that is why
the easiest option was to go with a rectangle. We had 24 hours to do that.
Pate: Mr. Williams, I know that it is not appropriate for the Planning
Commission nor the staff to require or request a Bill of Assurance limiting
develop on this property. However, we would be happy to speak with the
applicant to see if that is something that she would like to offer limiting
development on this property.
Williams: I wouldn't even want to suggest it. It is something that has to be totally
voluntarily given. You just need to make a decision as the Planning
Commission on what has been presented tonight by the applicant.
Although you can change a rezoning request to a different rezoning you
can't make it smaller. You can't do a lot split for them and say we will do
part of it but not all of it. Keep in mind too that obviously, the City
Council is going to make a final decision on this. You are just giving a
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 107
recommendation to the City Council and they will get to listen to the
citizens again one way or the other and also Dr. Hays and Crystal also. I
would encourage you, since it is almost midnight, to go ahead and make a
decision on the request that has been requested tonight and if the applicant
wants to change something in the interim by talking to the Planning
Division they can certainly do that. I don't think we can do any changing
for them.
Anthes: I took a note here when one of the neighbors was speaking and there was
something here about some additional structures that were under
construction that were left incomplete. Is that on this property?
Goodereis: Yes, it is on the property that is not being addressed. That is going to be a
garage. It complied with and confirmed with the county at the time. We
were told being as we were annexed in, that would not stop us from
building.
Anthes: That is not on this property?
Goodereis: No.
Anthes: That is what I was confirming.
Shackelford: Based on the City Attorney's opinion and the fact that anything we do is a
recommendation to an elected board that will make a final decision I am
going to make a motion. As I stated earlier, this was a forced annexation
that brought this property into the city. Also, as I stated earlier, I don't
think rezoning is the responsibility of fixing non -conforming property. I
think a rezoning is more towards the future land use of the property. The
big question is is this a mixed use area or is this a purely residential area?
There is basic argument for both sides to be made. Where I am going to
come down is that the property has been used as a Residential Office in
the past. There is mixed use in this area and it is on a road that is
designated to be a pretty significant road in the future. With that being
said, I am going to make a motion that we recommend approval of RZN
04-1333 with the specific designation of R -O.
Vaught: I will second. Thank you for the citizens who turned out and held in there
through a very long meeting. My encouragement would be to me this is in
a way another policy decision we talked about earlier. Please contact your
council members and let them know your feelings. This will all be
addressed at that level as well. I would encourage the applicant to
continue to meet with the neighbors and maybe find other ways to help
alleviate some of the fears of what could happen on this property. I think
there are other means necessary.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 108
Allen: You certainly know that there is a neighborhood association available
now.
Shackelford: I would also like to add for the record that part of the reason I'm making
this recommendation, the property has a pretty significant easement
through the middle of it to meet the existing house and there obviously,
would be a lot of off site improvements that would be required. I think
that if this property were to develop prior to Starr Drive being improved it
is going to be somewhat cost prohibitive. I think we are somewhat lucky
by the situation that the infrastructure or lack thereof is in such dire need
that likely if any development happens on this property it will be years
down the road when I think that this part of town is going to look
significantly different.
Allen: Commissioner Shackelford, I wondered other than the school, where you
are seeing this mixed use from driving out there I am not aware of where it
is.
Shackelford: The P.U.D. across the street, the multi -family uses, obviously, the school.
Ostner: The P.U.D. is not across the street, it is further down.
Shackelford: I think the school is primarily.
Vaught: The P.U.D. is directly across the street, look at the map and also the R -O
on the corner of Mission and Starr.
Tr umbo: I am going to vote against this based on Use Unit 11. This is significant
acreage to me and Use Unit 11 allows manufactured home parks and even
though I don't believe there is anything planned here and there is nothing
underhanded, that is not an appropriate place for that use and for that
reason I am going to vote against this and let the aldermen fight it out.
Ostner: I am going to fall on the nay side of this. I don't think R -O is quite
appropriate here. I know we have a P.U.D. across the street. It looks like
a residential P.U.D. to me. Just because it is a P.U.D. to me does not
make it mixed use enough to warrant the uses that come with this R -O
zoning district in this particular space so I am going to vote no. We have a
motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Could you call the roll
please?
Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to recommend approval of
RZN 04-1333 failed by a vote of 3-5 with Commissioners Graves,
Trumbo, Allen, Anthes and Ostner voting no.
Thomas: The motion is denied.
Planning Commission
December 13, 2004
Page 109
Ostner: With a rezoning request I have seen the option for a different zoning.
Williams: The petitioner can appeal to the City Council or look at a different zone.
Ostner: Are there any announcements? We stand adjourned.
Meeting adjourned: 12:10 a.m.