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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-03-14 MinutesMINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION A regular meeting of the Fayetteville Planning Commission was held in Room 219 of the City Administration Building at 5:30 p.m. on March 14, 2005. Items Discussed Action Taken LSD 05-1390: Glasshill Carwash, pp 566 Page 4 ADM 05-1441: Westside Storage Extension Consent ADM 05-1442 Brandon/Hash Mall South Page CUP 05-1404: AMP (American Music Pavilion) Page 8 Members Present Candy Clark Jill Anthes Loren Shackelford Alan Ostner Nancy Allen Sean Trumbo James Graves Christian Vaught Christine Myres Approved Approved Approved Approved Members Absent Staff Present Staff Absent Jeremy Pate Renee Thomas Suzanne Morgan Brent O'Neal Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 2 Ostner: Welcome to the Monday, March 14, 2005 meeting of the Planning Commission. Renee, would you call the roll please? Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call all nine Commissioners present. Nominating Committee Report Osmer: Thank you. The first item of business is a report from the Nominating Committee. Commissioner Clark, do you have that report? Clark: The Nominating Committee met just before this meeting and we have come up with a slate as follows: Commissioner Ostner as Chair, Commissioner Anthes as Vice Chair and Commissioner Allen as Secretary. We are ready to vote upon this tonight or we can wait until the next meeting, it is whatever the Commission as a whole would like. Ostner: We can vote on this tonight or we can wait until the next meeting which would be two weeks from tonight. Since the Nominating Committee met tonight we felt it was appropriate to go ahead and present that slate. There is no opinion whether to vote tonight or two weeks from tonight? Graves: I would recommend we wait two weeks simply because I believe some of the people on the slate are up for reappointment and it might be nice to know whether they are reappointed before we decide whether they are an officer or not. Ostner: That is a good point. Is there any other discussion? Allen: I will second. Ostner: At this point we will simply leave the slate in tact and we will vote two weeks from tonight at our regular meeting. Shall we take a vote on the motion to delay the election of officers? Does that seem necessary? Whitaker: It would probably be better for the record to go ahead and have a recorded vote on the motion to delay the election for two weeks. Ostner: The motion is to delay the election of officers until two weeks from tonight. Would you call the roll please? Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to delay the election of officers until the next meeting was approved by a vote of 9-0-0. Thomas: The motion carries. Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 3 ADM 05-1441: (Westside Storage, pp 400) A request to extend the approval of a Conditional Use Permit for additional climate controlled storage units on property located at 1192 N. Rupple Road zoned C-2, Thoroughfare Commercial containing approximately 5.05 acres. ADM 05-1442: (Brandon/Hash Mall South) A request to change a condition of approval for the Large Scale Development (LSD 04-1183) located at Lot two of the Concurrent Plat for the Northwest Arkansas Mall. Ostner: The first item is the consent agenda, which consists of the approval of minutes, ADM 05-1441 which is entitled Westside Storage and the third item on the consent agenda is ADM 05-1442 entitled Brandon Hash Mall South. At this point we will hear any motion to approve the consent agenda. Would anyone in the audience like any of these items removed from the consent to be discussed formally tonight? Would any Commissioners like the consent items heard? Anthes: I move for approval of the consent agenda. Clark: Second. Ostner: Is there further discussion? Could you call the roll please? Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to approve the consent agenda was approved by a vote of 9-0-0. Thomas: The motion carries. Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 4 LSD 05-1390: (Glasshill Carwash, pp 566) was submitted by Mandy Bunch of EB Landworks for property located at the south side of Hwy. 16 East, Huntsville Road, just east of the Hwy. 265 intersection. The property is zoned C-2, Thoroughfare Commercial and contains approximately 1.23 acres. the request is to approve a 3,792 sq.ft. carwash. Ostner: Shackelford: Trumbo: Ostner: Morgan: Ostner: Bunch: Under old business is LSD 05-1390 entitled Glass/Hill Carwash. I need to recuse from this item. I need to recuse as well. Thank you. This property is approximately 1.23 acres. It is located south of Huntsville Road, east of Crossover Road. The property is zoned C-2, Thoroughfare Commercial and is currently vacant. Presently the applicant is requesting approval of a carwash at this site with six bays as well as three vacuums and an ATM. Right of way to be dedicated for this property is in line with the Master Street Plan requirements, which require 55' from centerline. Access to this property will be provided to Huntsville. Along with that, the property owner is coordinating with property owners to the north and the west to create a safe access. They will also be removing the access to Huntsville on the adjacent property to the west and instead installing a cross access between this property and the property to the west. Staff recommends construction of a 6' sidewalk at the right of way. There is currently a 4' sidewalk along the curb which is installed by the State Highway Depaitment. The applicant is requesting utilization of the existing sidewalk in lieu of construction of a new sidewalk. Staff is recommending approval of LSD 05-1390 with sixteen conditions. Condition one is Planning Commission determination of street improvements. Staff does recommend the construction of a 6' sidewalk at the right of way line of the Master Street Plan beginning west of the property to tie into the existing sidewalk. The Subdivision Committee did recommend that the existing sidewalk be utilized in lieu of construction of a new sidewalk. That can be your determination here tonight. Condition two, Planning Commission determination of compliance with Commercial Design Standards. The applicant has worked quite a bit with comments from the Subdivision Committee and from staff to present these elevations to you and staff feels that they are compliant with Commercial Design Standards. Thank you Ms. Morgan. Is the applicant present? If you could introduce yourself and give us your presentation. My name is Mandy Bunch, I'm with EB Landworks. I'm here tonight representing Glass/Hill LLC. Bob Hill is the owner/representative here Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 5 with me tonight. Suzanne has very adequately covered our proposal. The main point of contention as I understand it, is the sidewalk. The owner is requesting a waiver of the Master Street Plan requirements. In this particular case we are actually reconstructing almost 200' of driveway to allow for a safe access in this location. The sidewalk is about 2 1/2 years old. It was put in with the widening of Hwy. 16 in this location and we feel like we are really approaching an issue of marginal utility. Several projects in the past, where we have talked about these sort of things at this level, it has been a requirement to construct those and things have happened during construction where it is ultimately realized that the utility is really negligible at that point and we are respectfully requesting that that waiver be granted tonight. As far as the elevations are concerned, this is our third iteration and we feel like we have really come up with a good project here that meets and addresses all of the concerns of Commercial Design Standards. We are here to address any questions that you may have. Ostner: Thank you. At this point I will take public comment concerning this LSD 05-1390. Seeing none, I will close it to the public and bring it back to the Commission. Anthes: Staff, would you restate your position about the sidewalks? We talked about this at Subdivision Committee and we concurred with the applicant's request in that we don't see any reason to cause them to pay for an additional sidewalk when one was there already that seems to do the same thing. Is there a reason that you want to move it? Pate: A portion of the sidewalk will have to be reconstructed irregardless because of the closing of the driveway that exists and reconstruction of a new driveway. The Sidewalk Administrator has visited this site with the old grocery store, which is now a medical office building, certainly with the businesses to the west of this property, the sidewalk does come back closer to the Master Street Plan right of way and would be more consistent with what our Master Street Plan requires, which is what we are directed typically, to recommend. That is the basis of staff's recommendation for this. You are entirely correct, the Subdivision Committee did tend to lean towards leaving the sidewalk in that location. For the record, that is the way that Subdivision Committee tended to lean. Anthes: I generally like to support the Sidewalk Administrator and staff but in this case, I do feel like the applicant has gone a long way to redesign this building and to give us a carwash that is going to be attractive and has been very compliant with a lot of our Commercial Design Standards. In this case, I just don't see that shifting the sidewalk a small amount is going to serve us really well so I would be in favor of letting them keep it. Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 6 Ostner: Commissioner Clark, do you have any further Subdivision Committee input? Clark: After Agenda Session when we talked about the Sidewalk Administrator's request, I went back and looked at the parking lot and sidewalks and I have to concur with Commissioner Anthes, I just don't think it is utilitarian to make them tear out brand new sidewalks and put new ones in again just a few feet from the original. They are doing a lot of improvements to that whole area, especially getting rid of a very confusing entrance and exit that is very dangerous. I think they are doing a lot on the property already. I hate to disagree, like Jill does, with staff but I think in this case I am going to stand by what we recommended at Subdivision, which is not to have them redo the sidewalks. Ostner: Thank you. Is there any discussion or insight on Commercial Design Standards from the Subdivision Committee or from the Commission? Clark: This project has gone through three different phases and we really think they have made improvements with every phase. It was our opinion that they met Commercial Design Standards. Allen: Pate: I think it looks great. It is about the best looking carwash I've seen. I don't quite understand, could you explain once again your position on the sidewalks? The Master Street Plan calls for a principal arterial in this location, which requires 55' right of way dedication from centerline in this area. That plan also calls, as a policy document and something to utilize for ordinance requirements, requires a sidewalk for any new development to be located at the right of way line. This would move the existing sidewalk, which was placed by the Highway Department, who does not necessarily comply with our Master Street Plan requirements, it is approximately 2' to 4' off of the existing street. This will move it about 20' to the south, which is where the Master Street Plan right of way is. If you look at your site plan from the west, it would tie that sidewalk in instead of tying it down next to the street it would move it back off of the street. There are no sidewalks to the east of this property. Therefore, if this property did develop to the east, the sidewalk would then be established at the right of way line as opposed to the street, the property to the east, for instance, this is conjecture, if the property to the east developed they would likely be tying to a sidewalk that is next to the street, a principal arterial, which is 110' right of way and potentially a four to five lane section in the future for this area. That is why we are recommending that sidewalk with the Master Street Plan be relocated back so far from the street. Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 7 Allen: Would it mean that an existing sidewalk would have to be torn out in order to build the project? Pate: Parts of it would. There is a new driveway that would be constructed so 24' or 28', however wide that driveway would have to be torn out at least for that distance. Ms. Bunch could probably tell how much sidewalk would have to be removed for this project exactly. Yes, there would be some removed for that. Allen: What percentage of the sidewalk would have to be removed Mandy? Bunch: Probably about 25%. If you look to the west on the site plan, we are actually having to construct a fairly substantial amount when we are closing that driveway and additionally, constructing 180' of a 24' wide drive to accommodate this. The reason that the sidewalk is setback now from the highway like it is further to the west is because there is a very large drainage structure. They encumbered a sidewalk in that location and that is why it came further away from the road. It was more of a cost effective issue than it was a design issue at that point. There is about 2' of greenspace between the curb and the sidewalk as it exists today as the Highway Department constructed it. MOTION: Ostner: I am going to go ahead and make a motion that we approve LSD 05-1390 changing condition of approval number one, basically striking the first sentence. Condition of approval number one would read: The existing sidewalk will be utilized in lieu of constructing a new sidewalk at the right of way. Clark: I will second that. Ostner: Is there further discussion? Seeing none, I will call for the roll. Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to approve LSD 05-1390 was approved by a vote of 7-0-2 with Commissioners Shackelford and Trumbo recusing. Thomas: The motion carries. Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 8 CUP 05-1404: (AMP, pp 134) was submitted by Dan and Amy Mack White for property located on the Northwest Arkansas Mall parking lot in the southwest corner of the JC Penney Lot. The property is zoned C-2, Thoroughfare Commercial and contains approximately 100 acres. The request is to allow an outdoor music venue in the C-2 Zoning District. Ostner: The next item on our agenda is CUP 05-1404 for the Arkansas Music Pavilion. Pate: This property is located in the Northwest Arkansas Mall parking lot in the southwest corner of the JC Penney lot. The property is zoned C-2, Thoroughfare Commercial and contains approximately 300 acres. The applicant is requesting to allow an outdoor music establishment within a C-2 zoning district. An outdoor music establishment is a Conditional Use in any zoning district in which it is allowed. Those districts include C-1, C-2, C-3 and C-4. Therefore, under the C-2 zoning regulations, this is an allowed Conditional Use within the zoning district. The request is for approval of an outdoor entertainment pavilion called the Arkansas Music Pavilion, or AMP as we will utilize tonight, within the C-2 zoning district. The structure is to be constructed for this venue as a canopy centered structure that will have a seating capacity of approximately 2,500 patrons. A 28x28 stage, outdoor picnic areas, 30 vendor areas. They will be selling tickets in approximately April and be in operation from June to September in the first year of it's operation. Should it continue to operate the second year it will be proposed from May to September. Their hours of operation anticipated are from 7:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. There are a variety of events at the AMP. During the presentation you will probably get more information tonight so I won't go into everything. For the public's knowledge and the Planning Commission's knowledge if it doesn't come up, these include big screen events, movie nights, things like family entertainment, girls night out, children's entertainment, after school specials and things of that nature. Custom special events such as weddings are potentially uses that could utilize this facility as well as full capacity concert type venues. Approximately two to three programs per week are planned for the venue. Obviously, not all of these programs will bring 2,500 people per event. Some of the smaller ones are anticipated to bring in approximately 200 to 300 people maximum. Obviously, the complex area will max out at 2,500 people if it is successful. The applicant has been told in meetings with staff that ultimately if this is a successful business venture to please provide a permanent venue of similar nature for an outdoor music establishment serving both Fayetteville and the overall region. All parking that is required will be provided on site with the existing mall parking lot. The structure will be located on the parking lot of mall property. The existing parking contains roughly 625 spaces. Just the size of the drawing and the use would require about 400 spaces, which is well taken care of within this lot alone. Additionally, the Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 9 hours of operation are set from 7:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Most of the operations within the mall do close at 9:00 p.m. so those overlaps would not be too much of a problem. The site is accessible from two different locations on College and south Mall Avenue and Steele Blvd. Traffic will be able to move around the mall parking lot but during the hours of operation for this particular establishment there will be gates to block the outer loop road. The Planning Commission did tour this site and looked at the configuration of traffic that would be different in those times that it will be open. Staff does not anticipate a parking conflict or a traffic conflict with this. There are private roads that circle the mall and we do not anticipate any problems with that, with the plan in place as this applicant has presented. Emergency vehicles will be able to access in times of emergency. With regard to findings, this is sort of a unique request. The only other outdoor music establishment that I remember that this body has seen is the very much smaller Foghorn's 8x8 stage, which is much different in scale. It took a different approach and there are obviously, more materials here to review for this type of outdoor music establishment. There is an extensive written application and material presentation requesting this Conditional Use Permit. The applicant has met all notification requirements notifying all adjacent property owners that are directly adjacent to this property. Staff finds that granting this Conditional Use will not adversely affect the public interest with the proper controls in place to waive the potential impact associated with outdoor music establishments. In fact, they are trying to be a wonderful use for this type of area. This area is a regional attraction. It attracts a regional customer base and a regional tourism base in this general area. The overall 300 acres for CMN Business Park, which is directly south of this, was rezoned to a Thoroughfare Commercial type use by the City Council in years past for regional types of uses. The establishment of this type of outdoor music venue in Northwest Arkansas will provide opportunity for more community and entertainment in the Northwest Arkansas region. The applicant is currently meeting with City Administration regarding the noise levels with the concerts at this venue, which is, obviously, probably one of the bigger items of discussion, which is noise generation with any outdoor music establishment. If an outdoor music establishment did not have this problem it would not be a Conditional Use and that is why it is before you as a Conditional Use request. As of this date, I have received one phone call from a lady living several miles away who did express concern with potential noise generated with this type of use. She lived about seven to eight miles away and was just concerned about potential noise generated by this type of use. I believe the applicant has provided adequate information to alleviate some of those concerns and I was able to answer most of her questions but she did ask me to let you know that as well. With regard to noise, the location of the structure and speakers that are involved for a concert series or entertainment venue of this nature are located so that the sound is Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 10 projected toward a natural landscape berm. It is situated essentially southwest toward the earthen berm that is on this southwest portion of the mall. City staff will be able to monitor the music levels during each event, if necessary, to ensure that it does meet an acceptable decibel level. The applicant is requesting a variance, which is not in the purview of this Planning Commission, it is established by the Mayor alone, for a variance from the noise level. They are requesting an expected level of 85 to 102 range without excess of 105 decibels. 75 is the maximum allowed in this commercial zone for this time of evening. There are some comparisons there that I'm sure you have looked over. The applicant is coordinating with the Police Department regarding sell of alcoholic beverage on the site. I'm not sure if there is someone here to address that tonight. Again, that is not really within the purview of the Planning Commission, but they are coordinating to have those activities as well. The specific roll in relations regarding outdoor music establishments, forgive me for going on about this, but there is quite a bit of information with regard to this application. There are adequate means of access. Lighting should not be a problem. Staff recommends that no additional lighting be installed for this project with the exception of special event lighting, which does not include spot lights or beams that do direct attention to this property, those are not allowed by ordinance. There will be a contract for removal of all garbage collected on the site. Utilities currently serving the existing development will utilized to serve this as well. The proposed site in which this facility will be located is not adjacent to any street right of way. Therefore, no screening is required. However, we feel such a use with the security measures that need to be in place, that there probably should be some sort of screening around this use. The applicant is proposing to install a chain link fence with a green mesh to screen their site by controlled access points. This is allowed by ordinance. Staff basically recommends that any fencing should be adequately addressed to provide compatibility with the color scheme of the overall development proposal. That is in order to keep those Commercial Design Standards in tact. Signs within this property, the mall itself, which is also the same property, has in the past, been granted several variances from the Board of Sign Appeals and therefore, no further on site freestanding signs are permitted by ordinance for this property. There are certain creative ways that the applicant can utilize to have variance signage and event types of signage. Those are outlined here in the packet as well. With that, staff is recommending approval of this Conditional Use request with eight conditions. Item number one, the proposed outdoor music establishment shall be in compliance with the noise ordinance or any variance granted thereof, of course by the Mayor of the City of Fayetteville. Two, a Conditional Use Permit shall be issued for a period of one year. Upon expiration of a Conditional Use Permit, it were approved tonight, the Zoning & Development Administrator shall have authority to renew the Conditional Use Permit for the same period as originally authorized every Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 11 year thereafter. If the Zoning & Development Administrator has received justified complaints or opposition from residents of this neighborhood. He or she may refer any proposed renewal of the Conditional Use Permit to the Planning Commission for final decision. Three, necessary building permits shall be obtained prior to construction. Item number four is regarding lighting, portable restroom facilities and dumpsters, containers for trash, shall be located and screened such that they will not be visible from the street or adjacent properties. Item number six, all utilities do need to be screened. Item number seven talks about the fencing to be adequately designed to go with the overall concept and theme of the development. Item number eight is regarding signage. I have also added an additional condition. It essentially states that the Conditional Use Permit granted shall be for the proposal as it is described herein including hours of operation, the site plan, general layout. Essentially what we are looking for is general compliance with the application that is presented. That doesn't necessarily have to be a condition of approval because the application here is what we would be looking for at the time of permit to ensure that everything is there. I am not going to touch on every single thing that they have applied for but for the public record, I think that is important to include. That is all I have unless you have any questions. Ostner: Thank you Mr. Pate. Would the applicant come forward and introduce themselves and give us your presentation. White: My name is Dan White. I'm with the Arkansas Music Pavilion. We have reviewed all of the conditions today and we have agreed to all of the conditions that have been set forth. We will also talk a little bit about that. We want to make sure that everyone this evening is comfortable with what we are bringing forward because we plan to be a part of the community for a long time. We are pleased to bring the proposal to the City of Fayetteville after a lot of hard work from the people in the City of Fayetteville and some of the other folks that I will mention. It is myself, Steve Brozsky who is with the Entertainment Design Group. Leonard Cannay who will be our venue manager, Kelly Rork and other private investors and we have also worked with the city's economic development depaituient, public safety, the Chamber of Commerce, Northwest Arkansas Mall. The Entertainment Design Group, Intense in town, and the Advertising and Promotion Commission. We have done a lot of work to get here this evening for you. We also want to thank Steve Rust for helping us along. We wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for his hard work on bringing us into the City of Fayetteville. We will show a short video and do a short presentation and review any questions. One of the things I want to make sure that the community understands is that this is a collaborative and not competitive event that is in the region today. The way we got here was through careful research of about 22 pavilions across the country and when we looked at this area alone we looked at a gap Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 12 between 1,200 seats and 10,000 seats. We recognized that gap and thought there was an opportunity in this area to bring outdoor music and a seating gap that exists today across the region. The second piece to understand is that it is organic and intelligent growth. There has been a lot of conversation about music pavilions in the past I'm sure, this is something that is successful and doable economically today. This is a test to see what happens in the area and what the opportunity is before anybody goes ahead and builds bricks and mortar for a permanent pavilion in the area. The second element is looking at it as economically viable with the economics that we have put together for the overall pavilion so it is something we want to make sure everyone supports. It has programming for everyone. We talked about kids programming, we talked about movie nights and then we will have concerts with Christian, country and adult contemporary music. There are 2,538 seats, 52 tables or roughly 200 seats will be cabaret style seating that will be fully catered tables. This is something that was taken from Chastain Amphitheater in Atlanta. The Design Group is one of the folks that run that pavilion. The long term plan, this is a solution set for today, we also think that every vibrant mountain town should have a mountain town that might look something like this. We modeled this after Breckenridge, Colorado and the Universal Lending Pavilion in Denver, Colorado. Looking at why we did what we did, the interesting part about this is how we got here. We are not City of Fayetteville natives. We have actually gotten here like a lot of people who have gotten here, as of recent. We thought it was interesting and thought it better for you to understand that we want to invest in the places where we live, work and play. That is part of the excitement about this for us is that it will kind of be lived here and also to bring something new here, invest in the area that we are part of. As far as economic development goes, there is increased tax revenue, driving citizens to the area during off-peak times, particularly during the summer months. This will promote drivers to the area for business. We are going to ensure that everybody affiliated with AMP from a sponsorship standpoint and from a city standpoint is successful. From a cultural standpoint, we have worked on this collaboratively and respectfully with the Walton Arts Center so they understand and let them know what it is that we are doing. Creating jobs for top production resources to fill a gap that exists in a city for everyone kind of behind the scenes of an artist so the artist production community, which generally speaking, is on contract. What we are doing is bringing production support for those types of folks and opportunities for those folks year around. Providing a fabric for an outdoor seating pavilion. We will bring more national performers, things won't just stop over anymore because they happen to be on the road from Kansas City to Oklahoma but purposely coming here to Northwest Arkansas. We are getting support from the city to plan for a permanent pavilion so we are funding it and we are taking a look at how it should be successful. Continuously drive Fayetteville's cultural district status. It is locally Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 13 owned and operated by citizens of Fayetteville. Economics delivered from that is important. It is also part of the success for the Walton Arts Center to make sure that every business around it does well as well. Locals only promotions, when possible we will feature local artists as opening acts and also feature local artists that would be down on Dickson Street after the show. We plan to close at 10:30, '/2 hour prior to the noise ordinance. This is a people's pavilion for events so it will be available for other events and programming and it is a true city business and cultural partnership right from the beginning. Some of you know the statistics and if you take a look at what it looks like here, it is a 2,583 semi-permanent pavilion and we have some of the seating plans there. It is fully catered service for this area inside. In the summer months only so this year it is from July until September. We plan to extend that season out in the subsequent years and Northwest Arkansas' Summer entertainment venue for right now. It is a pretty good looking place. All of the seats are covered within it. There is a grand entrance that comes off of the Mall parking lot area and that will be red carpeted all the way through and there is an outdoor projection screen that is available for certain shows. As far as the rest of the venue, this pavilion is currently used by the Vancouver symphony and the Buffalo symphony. It is used by the Lexus pavilion for new car launches as well as BMW and then it is used for the Athens Olympic hospitality. It will also be used in Canada for the Olympics. 20,000 sq.ft. put together, 30' peaks, no crane setup or anything like that to get it up there. Outdoor food and beverage, major production stage and kid's movie and music, as we talked about. We submitted plans to the city for noise management, public safety management with all of the respective parties on it. We have submitted our pavilion regulations and then also submitted our beverage service regulations for alcohol. We have consulted with the following people, City of Fayetteville and CMS and Fire & Police. All of our public safety plan and our emergency plans are overstaffed to accommodate what we are trying to do here. Again, it is out intent to be part of the community for a long time and we want it to be a successful and safe venue. It is important for economic development, Chamber of Commerce. We have consulted with House of Blues Concerts, a national concert company and also with the Entertainment Design Group. Some of the questions that you may have about the area is why we have chosen where we chose and we researched over a dozen locations up and down I-540. One of the things that becomes readily apparent for the Northwest Arkansas Mall is that 5 million visits a year can't be that bad of a place to be. It is easy access. It is the right place for the community support. They have had community support from the beginning so we know that the Northwest Arkansas Mall has been a member of the community and has done a lot for the community so far so we felt like they would be good partners. What we plan to do is transform that experience in the mall parking lot, like you would see in Breckenridge. That essentially used to be a back alley which is now a Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 14 beautiful area. Universal Lending Pavilion is in the Pepsi Arena parking lot in the back of the parking lot. Those are two places that have been transformed successfully. Provide a somewhat screened, accessible area. Logistically and financially most of our shows will have ticket pricing at $20 so everything will be approachable by the general public and then they go up from there obviously. Many of our shows will also be $5 per show, depending on the type of programming that we are putting together. The main thing is to make sure that we have an entertainment venue that is as memorable as the entertainment itself. This is the site plan that we have prepared and gone back and taken a look at some of the provisions in the detail around that as far as where we would stage public safety and so we have some of that for you to take a look at. This is our indoor pavilion seating plan and shows generally speaking what sound direction and where people where be located. Just to quickly review, our compliances based on the recommendation with the city. Compliant with the noise ordinance, we submitted an aggressive and proactive plan for noise. We worked with a top neighborhood production company. They manage the Chastain Amphitheater in Atlanta, which is right in a neighborhood. They have experience with sound direction and engineering. Zoning and Development, we have plans to be a long term partner, as we talked about before. Business permits will be obtained. As far as lighting, no additional lighting will be installed. Temporary lighting for food and vendor areas will be downward under the tents in area where there might be darkened areas back there where we would want to light for public safety. Screening for restrooms. All of the pavilion will be screened. The screening, we know there is a lot of sensitivity with port a potties so we want to make sure those are in good areas. We also have heated and cooled bathrooms being brought in with baby changing stations so everybody is comfortable in some areas too. Not everybody will have to use a port a potty. With regard to utilities, we met with SWEPCO out on the site and spoke with them and make provisions for ground utility. Fence screening, I will give an example of what that looks like. There is a consistent green mesh that will be across all of the fencing on the outside. We will make sure that that meshing is clean and neat in appearance at all times. Directional signage for parking, which isn't under the conditions for sign permit. A construction or coming soon sign and then beyond that, we will be in compliance with the rest of the no freestanding signs. We will post venue rules and regulations outside for legal requirements. This is an event, we will release that tomorrow. We won't release anything that hasn't been approved. We have been careful about doing that for general public concerns so far. That is the way we plan to do it in the future. I will open it up to any questions. Ostner: Thank you. At this point I will open it up to the public. If anyone would like to speak to this issue, CUP 05-1404 please step forward and share your comments. Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 15 Rust: I am Steve Rust, President of the Fayetteville Economic Development Council. I certainly would like to speak in favor of this. I guess it was about two months ago that I first found out about this. Immediately I arranged a meeting with Tim Conklin because it was important to get it to the Planning Commission in time for you to make a decision so that they can go ahead and make the rest of their contracts. I think the thing that really impresses me about this is the tremendous professionalism that they have here. From an economic development point of view you can you can go after the big elephants and recruit some people in or you can do some backyard gardening in your own community. That is really the best way to go. This is not a company from Atlanta or somewhere else bringing this venue to us and taking it out of the community if they make any money, I think they will eventually. These are people right here in the community. They are our citizens. They are building a wonderful venue. They are going to increase the awareness of what Fayetteville is all about. I just would like to thank them for giving us this opportunity and I would like to thank the Planning staff for the professional way they brought this forward and the Planning Commission for taking time to go out and actually look at the site. I think that is a credit to all of you and I encourage you to support this and approve it tonight if at all possible. Thank you. Ostner: Thank you Mr. Rust. Is there further public comment? Please step forward and introduce yourself. Church: My name is Alice Church and I am the Senior Manager at Northwest Arkansas Mall and I would just urge you to support this. I will echo what Steve talked about. These are the most organized people that I have ever seen in my whole life. The attention to detail just blows my mind. I know that there will not be any problems and I think anytime that we are looking at letting someone come on the Mall property and do something along these lines, we are really careful about who we allow to do those things. I feel totally comfortable that whatever issues that come up that these people will handle it in the way that they need to. This is great for Fayetteville. We talk more and more about all of the competition going on in the market and I think it is important that this area remain vibrant and by bringing something in like this, it is going to help with sales tax. The people are going to come to the mall, they are going to shop, they are going to go to a concert and we have even talked about ways to co - promote some of the events that are going on and bottom line, that is going to mean more money for the City of Fayetteville, which can't be a bad thing. Please do support this. It is very important that you do. Thank you. Ostner: Thank you. Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 16 Hefner: I'm Marilyn Hefner with the Fayetteville Advertising & Promotion Commission. The prospect for tourism for this project is just gigantic. I know that first we want to serve those that are in the neighboring counties but I think that when we bring in some of the acts that they are looking at, we have the potential of bringing people from Kansas and Oklahoma and Missouri and Texas to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Those people are earning their money someplace else and then coming and spending it in Fayetteville. In addition to that, it is an industry that we can bring in and so I would encourage you to support this program tonight. Thanks Ostner: Thank you. Is there further public comment? Seeing none, I am going to close the public comment section and bring it back to the Commission for discussion. Shackelford: First of all, I would like to make a comment that I agree with the statements that have been made here. I think this is a wonderful project and I think it adds a lot to the culture and the life that we have here in Fayetteville and I'm very excited to see it. I do have one specific question. Condition number eight states no additional freestanding monument signs are to be allowed. Some of the drawings that have been brought forth tonight show what I'm questioning, are those signs as they show here, would they be permitted under that condition of approval? Pate: It is not likely, no. Commissioner Shackelford, this is really for graphic purposes to kind of illustrate the design and intent of the overall development. It is obviously not all going to be grass. I think it is more for just graphic representation of what we are looking at tonight. Shackelford: The applicant is aware that the proposal, as it is written, won't allow any sort of signage? Pate: If I may interject. There are some sorts of signage that are allowed. There are just specific types that are not allowed because of the number of signs already on this particular piece of property. Shackelford: Right, it allows for four wall signs, although, there are not a lot of walls to put signs on with this project. Vaught: Just to clarify, I am excited about the project but I just want to make sure that we all know the rules. Something like the outdoor projection screen that faces out of the project, that is not disallowed under our lighting ordinance, there is no kind of variance that we need to make so they are sure they can do that? Pate: It is not. It is considered part of the overall development with this Conditional Use request tonight. We don't technically have a lighting Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 17 ordinance in affect at this time so we rely on what we do, which is generally, three statements in our current ordinance and they will be compliant with that. Vaught: None of those would address it? Pate: That is correct. Clark: Noise is, of course, something we talked a lot about at agenda. Have we heard anything from the neighbors directly adjacent to the project? Pate: Clark: This applicant was required to notify all property owners directly adjacent to the property. In addition, the city put this in the newspaper at least twice and there was a sign posted on the site as well as this agenda is put in the paper as well. Within that period of time that we have been looking at this project, which is a standard Conditional Use request time period, I have received one phone call from the lady that I mentioned earlier who was upset about any type of noise produced by outdoor music establishments in the City of Fayetteville. It was not specific to this site. Other than that, I have not received any other public comment. I was very impressed the day that we went out on agenda to the site and talked about it. As we talked about this project I got more and more excited about it. It turned my bad mood into a pretty good one. Every question we asked we got an answer to. They were very forthcoming with information. I think that they have made a great effort to work with the neighbors and with the mall and I think they will be a great addition to the Fayetteville business community, not to mention, a definite need within the Fayetteville entertainment community. We have the University up the hill that has a theater department that has a lot of skilled and very good crafts people who now can give employment with some of the events that I hope you are going to be bringing in. I see it as a win/win. Stopping the noise at 10:30 I think would rule out a lot of the questionable issues with noise, traffic, etc. Unless somebody else has a comment... Anthes: I have a comment. From a Planning perspective, I feel like the shared parking arrangement is a bonus on this site. We bring in a pavilion with no additional asphalt needed, that the street infrastructure is in place that services this site well for the region and that a venue like this will build Fayetteville's economy and expand the cultural activities in the area. I think it is great. MOTION: Clark: I will move that we approve CUP 05-1404 with all condition stated. Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 18 Shackelford: I will second. Allen: I was just curious to know the closest one of something of this nature. Is it in Colorado? White: As far as the drawings that we looked at, probably the closest pavilion to this is Universal Lending Pavilion in Colorado. That was the Fleet Boston Pavilion that sits on the Boston Harbor. That was removed and a similar structure was placed there. Both are owned by Clear Channel Entertainment and both of those are probably the best and most representative of what we are trying to do. Allen: Which makes it all the more unique and more of a draw for it to be quite a distance from something similar. Thank you. Ostner: I understand that the noise issue will be handled with the Mayor's office. For my information, a few years ago there was an event at the mall, a special event in the summer, and it proved to be problematic. Could you share the specific differences in your project that would separate yourself from what happened during that issue? White: I will have someone from our production company to come up and talk about that a little bit. We have put together a specific plan. One of the major differences between that event, which we also attended, and it was loud. It was also probably not as well organized as it needs to be. It needs to be about planning ahead of time for the first part and the second part is that that is a one time event. We are going to do 17 of them and then we hope to come back again the next year. It is important that we do things the right way. If you do one event you can have a bad event and go away but we plan to be part of this community for a long time with this type of venue. The other thing that I would like to mention that is distinctly different is the difference, this is a blended solution between a festival and a brick and mortar pavilion. A brick and mortar pavilion has seats in it. A fair and festival has a bunch of people that relies on general admission and relies on making a lot of money on food and beverage sales. You will see in our alcohol plan that less than 10% of our overall revenue will come from food and beverage. What we rely on is a seated pavilion, distinctly different. The other thing that I will mention, we expect this to be more of an evening entertainment than a concert entertainment. That should give you a better understanding of some of the events that we are trying to bring to the area. People will be seated, have a good time, and leave. Those are the distinct differences between a festival and a venue. In our proactive and reactive plan I can address some of the noise issue. We have taken a number of different measures on our proactive plan and then also on our reactive plan. The biggest thing about noise is that some someone complain to somebody? Can they let someone be known and can Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 19 they be heard? We made plans to do that. One of the most important parts for us to understand is that our venue manager will be living in the apartments right across the way. He needs to meet with the neighbors too. We have contacted Bristol Apartments to let them know about what we are doing here and we just want to be good neighbors with everyone that is in the area. Brodsky: I am Steve Brodsky with the Entertainment Design Group. We are very excited to be here and working with Dan and his team and all of you all. One of the things that we found out as we went through this bid process, is that they have done an amazing amount of work and a countless amount of hours in researching these kinds of things. One of the reason that they chose us was that we had experience with this specific question. We manage a number of different pavilions in Georgia. One of them has had a specific problem with this in the past. That is Chastain Park Amphitheater. It is in the north part of Atlanta right up by Hwy. 285 for those of you that are familiar with Atlanta, and it is right in the middle of probably 50,000 houses around it. We went out there and did some research and found out that in 2003, 2004, and 2005 they have invented in the world of sound, they have invented directional sound now. We have all of that equipment. We are able to make sure that the sound goes a certain way. It used to be when we were younger sound just went everywhere. Some of the research that we have done about what happened here, is first, that event was late at night, very late at night. I think it was 11:30 or 12:30 at night. The second thing is that type of equipment is people that came in and came out. They had the typical rock and roll equipment. That is not the kind of equipment that we have. We have systems that actually direct, you can dial in where the sound goes. Randy Cannay is going to be our venue manager here. We will have sound engineers on property during every event and we will train the staff here to make sure that we have decimeters. We know that it is very important that we stand with the community and make sure that everybody that lives around the venue and works around the venue is happy with the venue. That will be our charge, to make sure that that happens. Allen: I did have another question. You made several references to bricks and mortar, is that a long term goal? White: When we first approached the area with this we looked at another music pavilion that was being planned out in Siloam Springs. We took a good hard look at that and we said that's not an economically viable proposition for today. Long term, potentially it is. For today it is not. When we were talking with the City of Fayetteville one of the things that they talked about was looking at the South Pass project as a potential area for a permanent pavilion. We would sure work with the City of Fayetteville if that was an opportunity. Planning Commission March 14, 2005 Page 20 Allen: If that should happen Jeremy, would that come back through the Planning staff? Pate: It really would depend on what type of event if it would still be an outdoor type of event or establishment or if it would be an indoor facility. If it was on a different property though, yes, it would come back through with an additional Conditional Use if it was in the City of Fayetteville. We would anticipate seeing that as some sort of development as well. Allen: Thank you. Trumbo: It is my understanding that the Mayor has the authority to grant a variance for the 120 decimals. I would like to be on the record stating that I hope he approves that. Osmer: Is there further discussion? We have a motion and a second. Could you call the roll? Roll Call: Upon the completion of roll call the motion to approve CUP 05-1404 was approved by a vote of 9-0-0. Thomas: The motion carries. Announcements Meeting adjourned: 6:44 p.m.