Hot Springs BZA to consider BGCHS lot split variance
Separate actions are pending in the coming week that will affect the future of the former Hot Springs Boys & Girls Club property.
On Wednesday, the Hot Springs Board of Zoning Adjustment will consider granting a variance under the zoning code for a proposed land division of the club building and its baseball fields at 109 W. Belding.
The lot split is part of the process of dissolving the nonprofit organization that formerly operated the club and the fields, according to a letter to the BZA from James Montgomery, a BGCHS board member.
On April 13, the BGCHS and Champion Christian College boards of directors announced a plan to reopen the building by next month, with Champion reviving the after-school care the Boys & Girls Club offered.
The BGCHS board also announced it had voted to separately donate the baseball fields to the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission, which will decide Monday whether to accept the offer.
The BGCHS board is asking the BZA to grant a variance on the maximum floor area ratio for the current zoning classification of R-4 Medium/ High Density Residential.
Under the lot split, there will be a shared ingress/egress/parking easement between the two tracts — the building parcel has an easement on the baseball field parcel to use the parking lot east of the building, while the baseball fields parcel has an easement on the building parcel to use the parking lot north of the building.
While the R-4 setbacks are within the zoning code under the lot split, the maximum floor area ratio is not. The building floor area is plus or minus 32,195 square feet, which under the zoning code means the tract of land should be plus or minus 91,985 square feet, based on a 35-percent floor ratio. However, the proposed tract would be plus or minus 79,416 square feet, which would be a 40.54 percent floor ratio.
Montgomery, in a letter to Kathy Sellman, planning and development director, said the BGCHS board is seeking a variance of plus or minus 5.54 percent.
The variance is needed, according to the letter, to maximize the baseball field area to accommodate future planning and development of baseball fields.
The city staff’s recommendation to the BZA is to approve the variance “because the application demonstrates compliance with the requirements of such requests according to Hot Springs Code and such action will be in keeping
with the spirit and intent of the provisions of the zoning code.”
The staff also noted that the request, if granted, “will not disturb the existing character of the area as the building and site improvements already exist and would maximize the area of Tract 1 to accommodate future planning and development of baseball fields on this site.”
The BZA will meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall.