The city board voted on Tuesday night to allow a controversial proposal to rezone a property located at 817 N. Mount Olive St. to move onto its third and final reading during their next meeting on Oct. 2.
Five of the seven directors voted in favor of moving the ordinance forward. Director Brad Burns recused himself from the vote, citing comments he made prior to the ordinance's arrival to the board on July 3, and Director Bob Coleman was not present. Burns represents Ward 2, where the property in question is located.
If approved, the ordinance would rezone the .49 acre property -- which is located at the intersection of Mount Olive Street and East Helena Street -- from R-2 (residential, medium) to R-4 (residential, multifamily). The applicant requesting the rezone, Pruner Properties, has yet to submit preliminary plans for what would be constructed on the property.
Though the company has yet to submit formal plans, plans for nine multi-family, townhome-style dwelling units would likely be submitted if the ordinance receives approval, according to a city staff report. This prospect caused the proposal to receive opposition from nearby residents since it was first received by the planning commission during its June 12 meeting, with Tuesday night being no exception.
Residents who spoke at the meeting cited concerns of safety and privacy, and that such construction would exacerbate existing drainage problems, traffic and noise. A point that arose that evoked a more significant discussion, however, is that this development is inconsistent with the city's future land use map.
"Your own staff stated in the staff report that the proposed R-4 zone is inconsistent with the future land use map," said Anna Batchelor, a resident of East Helena Street. "Actually, this rezoning would allow for double the amount of units than the master plan states would be considered acceptable in this area. This is a very significant change in units. What is the purpose of having a master plan for the city if it is allowed to be contradicted to the benefit of a single individual at the expense of many? East Helena Street has a massive drainage problem, considerable traffic problems on a road that by the city's own definitions is grossly insufficient. The entire neighborhood is opposed, and it goes against the city's master plan, at what point do you say this is a really bad idea?"
City staff acknowledged in their report that the proposal is inconsistent with the city's future land use map. The logic behind their recommendation to approve the ordinance despite this is that the property is located in what has been designated as an H-1 (historic) overlay zone.
Density standards for historic overlay zones allow for housing densities that are actually higher than what R-4 zones permit, according to a city staff report. Therefore, the city's position is that the provisions of the historic overlay should take precedence over the provisions of R-4 zoning regulations. This is something that caught the attention of some board members, such as Director Reid Carroll.
Carroll said he thinks that if the overlay's provisions are going to take precedence over the R-4 zoning restrictions, that the city should work to develop a way of informing anyone buying or selling properties within the overlay of the potential ramifications that could result from doing so. He also urged that city staff look at developing more specific guidelines pertaining to the implementation of the overlay with the various types of zones it covers, so that this type of situation can be avoided moving forward. Director Steve Beers appeared to share a similar viewpoint, and ultimately told fellow board members and those in the audience that he would not be voting in favor of the ordinance during the next meeting.
"One of the things that I did not realize when I started looking at the H-1 overlay, is it is huge," Beers said. "It is not just a few blocks. It is literally the majority of the whole town. So actually if you are not familiar with how big this thing is, I think the west side is Carl (Street), the east side is Hico (Street), the south side is Kenwood (Street) and the north side is Elgin (Street) and Helena (Street). So it is a big space and so I started looking inside of the H-1 and there are numerous different zones already in it. In fact the majority of them might be R-2. So I was just thinking, wow, if we are not careful, if we go down this road too far and use that logic, we could put ourselves in problems in other areas of town."
Beers also said that he could not support the development because after having done his research on decisions relating to rezoning proposals made by the board in the past, one in particular caught his eye.
"In 2015, the board voted yes to a R-2 to R-4, and in that particular place, it was over on Central (Street), over by the cemetery, and actually a lot was split and the board voted yes," Beers said. "But as I dug down deeper into that vote, in 2004, the same property had come to the board and unanimously the board voted no, to not move from R-2 to R-4. And why was that? Because it was going to significantly impact the community of the people who were going to be around it. It was going to create traffic problems. It was going to create drainage problems. It was going to probably, potentially impact the way people saw their own property."
It should be noted that while Beers voted yes on Tuesday, he said the vote should not necessarily be viewed as a reflection of his support for the proposal. He said he cast the vote so that the ordinance could be read by title only, with the rules suspended at the next meeting; as a supermajority (at least 5 of 7 members) is required for that to occur.
The board also had a number of other items on the night's agenda, which are summarized below.
• Unanimous approval of a contract with Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield that will designate them as the city's health and medical insurance provider for 2019.
• Unanimous approval of an ordinance that will remove the incentive -- for future customers -- that offers a permanent five percent discount on the electric bills of industrial scale energy users who own their own transformers.
• Unanimous approval of an ordinance that will rezone the 5.56 acre property located at 1996 E. Hwy. 412 from R-2 (residential, medium) to G-I (institutional).
• Unanimous approval to place an ordinance on its third reading that would vacate certain right-of-ways located on the 500 Block of West Tahlequah Street.
• Unanimous approval to place an ordinance on its third reading that would amend the P-K (parks) zoning code within chapter 102 of the city's zoning codes.
• Unanimous approval to place an ordinance on its third reading that would impose a citywide service fee on all debit and credit card transactions for the purpose of offsetting rising costs associated with credit card processing fees.
General News on 09/23/2018