Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
School agrees to give land for new street
FARMINGTON — The School Board gave the OK last week to give about onehalf acre of school land north of Folsom Elementary School for a new street, in exchange for the developer making the street wider and providing a driveway to be used as a dropoff for students.
Mark Marquess with Riverwood Homes and project engineer Geoffrey Bates with Bates and Associates approached the board in November with the request for land. They returned to the board’s Jan. 27 meeting to show plans.
The preliminary plat presented to the board showed a new street from Grace Lane across the northern length of the school property to connect to a subdivision the developer is proposing to build east of Folsom. This new street also would tie into Angus Lane.
The plan showed the street would be 27 feet wide with a short drive connecting to a small parking lot next to the school’s playground area.
Superintendent Bryan Law said a new street could benefit Folsom and allow the school to dismiss kindergarten and first-graders on that side of the school.
However, Law had concerns with the width of the street, 27 feet, as compared to the width of Grace Lane, 37 feet. He said he wasn’t sure the street would be functional as a drop-off area for parents.
“Our concern is whether the street could be widened?” Law told Bates and Marquess.
Bates wondered if the school would be willing to help with the costs to widen the street. Law told him the board didn’t have money for that.
Board President Travis Warren asked if Marquess would widen it from 27 feet to 30 feet.
Law agreed, saying his recommendation would be to widen the street to 30 feet and then for the developer to build a loop so cars could get off the street to drop off and pick up students.
Marquess said he would be willing.
Marquess is proposing a development called The Grove at Engles Mill, which would be built in several phases. His request to have the land rezoned for phases one and two hasn’t been approved yet by Farmington’s Planning Commission or City Council.
A request to rezone the land to a planned unit development was scheduled for the commission’s January meeting but was pulled because the developer hadn’t advertised the request as required.
Bates told the School Board the city is requiring a second access into Phase 1 of the subdivision and the new street would provide the second access. Phase 1, as proposed, would have 77 lots and be east of the school and back up to Countryside Drive and Briar Hill Street.
Phase 2 would be north of Twin Falls. The preliminary plat shows it would have 50 lots. The developer proposes to extend Grace Lane to provide access to both phases.
In other business, two representatives with McPherson
Jacobson executive recruiting and development firm in Omaha, Neb., gave a presentation on how they could provide to help the board search for a new superintendent.
Law has submitted his resignation, effective June 30, to accept a position as director of Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative in Farmington.
The firm’s fee would be $12,250 and includes four phases.
After the presentation, Warren told them the board was not ready to make a decision on how it was going to proceed with the search for a superintendent.