Bella Vista City Council tables amendment

BELLA VISTA — The City Council sent a proposal for accessory structure regulations to the Planning Commission for review Monday.

“We had a lot of discussion about this,” Mayor Peter Christie said.

The options, he said, were to discuss the proposal further or send it to the commission for review.

The council voted 5-1, with council member Linda Lloyd voting against the measure, to table the proposal until March, allowing the commission will review it.

Linda Lloyd, who proposed the amendment, said she was primarily concerned with the regulation’s impact on where property owners could build accessory buildings, in particular for homes on curved streets.

Under the current regulation, a structure may not be built past the home’s front plane, defined as an imaginary line running across the lot, even with the home’s front door.

Lloyd said she believed the line would remain parallel with the road, but has since learned it doesn’t. She’s met residents, she said, who were unable to build on their lot because of this and she wants to provide them relief as soon as possible.

“The reason I opened up this now can of worms is to resolve what I thought was in the original ordinance,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd said she’s concerned sending it to the Planning Commission could make for a more significant delay.

Council member Doug Fowler said he made the same assumption when the council voted on the regulations earlier this year, but he would prefer to have the commission look at the proposal. He doesn’t believe it will take another year, he said, and he believes the commission has people with relevant skills and abilities to help inform the final decision.

“Going to the Planning Commission I think is the right thing to do,” Fowler said.

Staff attorney Jason Kelley said the law allows the City Council to refer the proposal to the commission, but it also allows the council to recall it if the commission takes too long, or give the commission a finite window to look at it.

The council agreed to table the proposal until the March meeting to give the commission adequate time to look at it.