Commission votes against rezoning, annexation
A motion to annex into the city and rezone about 75 acres on Carter’s Dairy Road near Lakeshore Drive and Burchwood Bay Road was defeated unanimously at a Hot Springs Planning Commission meeting Wednesday night.
The proposal is now scheduled to go before the Hot Springs Board of Directors on March 18, according to Kathy Sellman, Hot Springs Planning and Development Director.
The decision by the planning commission conflicts with a city of Hot Springs staff report which recommended the property be rezoned to R- 4, Residential Medium- High Density District, and said such a rezoning “does not present immediate potential negative impacts to the existing adjacent single- family detached residential development because residential
development density in excess of 12 dwelling units per acre requires Planning Commission approval of a specific site arrangement.”
According to the annexation petition, the property owners requesting annexation into the city are Mary Nan Carter, Mary Jane McGregor, Jackie Dykes, Kathy Hood and Ernie Pattyn.
About 10 people urged the Planning Commission to reject the rezoning to R- 4, because the change would open the door to multi- family housing possibilities, such as an apartment complex, being built on the property. No specific plans for the property were discussed at the meeting, but most persons that spoke against the proposal assumed some type of apartment complex would be built on the property if it was rezoned.
“My fear is what is going to be built there if this is zoned,” said Melynda Gidcomb to the commission. “Right now it’s a peaceful neighborhood. I don’t want highly mobile, transient riff- raff around our children in our neighborhood.”
Terry Burruss, a Little Rock architect, said “he can’t respond to emotion,” but the “developers I work for do good projects.”
Burruss said the proposed apartment complex would be an MF- 12 designation, which stands for a maximum of 12 units per acre.
“They want to be good neighbors,” Burruss told the commission. “They want to build in an area where they are wanted. The one we’ve done in Fort Smith we’ve got large buffer areas, intensive landscaping, night sky lighting and that’s the model for what we would propose to do in Hot Springs, whether it’s this property or some other property, because we are interested in developing in Hot Springs.”
District 4 Justice of the Peace Mary Bournival, who lives within 200 feet of the property under consideration, told the commission that “no one that I spoke with objected to the annexation” but that “high density zoning carved into the middle of a wide swath of low, medium and lake residential areas would significantly impact our properties.”
“A default zoning of R- 1 still allows the investors to petition the board for rezoning, but the request would have to be accompanied with substantiating documents, including an impact study,” Bournival said.
“Our position actually protects the investor against the possibility of a denial down the road; unless of course this project is already pre- ordained as some are wont to believe. Truth be told, many people have wondered out loud if this step we are now doing is simply window dressing to fulfill legal requirements needed to give the appearance everything is on the level. People have become justifiably jaded and have a genuine distrust that their elected, appointed, and hired officials who are supposed to serve them far too often abuse the position they have been tasked to fulfill when we expect the process to be equally applied.
“We believe an initial R- 4 designation would be an abuse of authority and a breach of trust with hundreds of city residents as it is clearly inconsistent with your own maps and it is clearly nonconforming with the overall character and use of the surrounding lands,” Bournival said.
Chris Polychron, an executive broker with 1st Choice Realty and the annexation petitioners’ representative, told the commissioners he didn’t think property values would decline if an apartment complex were to be built in the area.
“I know the developer,” Polychron said. “I know the type of projects that he builds. They are maintained well and remain a viable part of their communities. There is a need. In Hot Springs alone we only had right at a hundred single- family building permits in the last three years. In multiple units, we had one development of a 192 units called The Pointe … it’s filled up pretty quick.”
After the public input session, Charles Smith, planning commission member, said, “It gets to me when I’m told that people elected, appointed and hired … too often abuse the position.”
“This is a volunteer position,” Smith said. “I’m not looking to gain anything and I’m not looking to abuse it. Regardless of that, I feel that they haven’t demonstrated compatibility with the surrounding development. I don’t see this as something we should do.”
Polychron said the five applicants for annexation would not agree to annex into the city if it was not zoned R- 4.
“These property owners that asked for ( the annexation) are not going to accept it if it is not R- 4,” Polychron said in an interview after the meeting.
Larry Raney, Planning Commission chairman, agreed with other commission members, saying “R- 4 just does not fit in this area.”
In unrelated business, the planning commission approved a site plan of a proposed new 3,900- square- foot Zaxby’s Restaurant at 4400 Central Ave.