Planners Will Revisit Vote On New Subdivision

FARMINGTON —A preliminary plat for a single-family housing subdivision denied in February amid concerns about drainage came up for another vote at the Farmington Planning Commission’s meeting last week.

About six or seven people showed up in February opposing the development on Sellers Road. But no one showed up at the March 27 meeting to comment on the subdivision called Farmington Heights. The developer had resubmitted the project to the Planning Commission.

As the Planning Commission prepared to vote, several asked if neighbors were notified about the meeting. Melissa McCarville, city business manager, said she thought letters were sent.

So the Commission unanimously approved the preliminary plat without any discussion.

Later in the week, McCarville said it was believed letters were sent out through regular mail but not certified mail. After discussions with city officials, McCarville said the decision has been made to revisit the development at the Planning Commission’s April 24 meeting.

McCarville said city ordinances do not address how to handle a resubmission or what procedures to follow as far as notification. She said, though, that a legal notification ad will be published in the newspaper prior to the meeting and certified letters mailed to all adjacent property owners to make sure they know about the meeting.

In February, the Commission voted 4-2 to deny the preliminary plat. Ferdi Fourie, project engineer with Civil Design Engineers in Fayetteville, presented the plat on behalf of Lots 101, LLC. The developer is proposing 125 lots on 39.86 acres on the south side of West Sellers Road.

Adjacent property owners said their biggest concerns were storm water runoff and increased traffic on Sellers Road.

The drainage questions were the main reason some of the commissioners voted against the plat.

To help answer these questions, Fourie attended the Commission’s work session March 20 to explain the development’s drainage plan.

Fourie told commissioners at the work session that storm water now flows across the land. Drainage plans for the subdivision would have storm water going underground. The water would then go into a pipe underneath Sellers Road into Goose Creek.

Fourie said information from Fayetteville’s sewer plant on Broyles Avenue shows treated effluent from the plant has minimal effect on flow in the creek and would only increase the flow by 1.5 percent on a 10-year storm. In addition, Fouri said drainage post-development would go down as compared to pre-development flow due to storm water.

Fourie had maps and other information to show the Commission how drainage would work and also brought that information to the Commission’s meeting last week to explain the drainage plan to property owners.

The city’s engineer, Chris Brackett of McGoodwin, Williams and Yates in Fayetteville, also has said the drainage plan for the subdivision meets the city’s minimum standards.

Ashley Swaffar, who lives next to the property on Sellers Road, spoke out against the subdivision in February.

On Thursday, Swaffar said she did not receive a letter that the project would be reconsidered by the Planning Commission on March 27. She said she would be out of town on April 24 and said even if she was at the meeting, she did not think it would make a difference.

“They are going to do it for show basically,” Swaffar said. “I don’t want to waste my time. I don’t think anything a citizen says will change their minds.”

Swaffar said she still has the same concerns about drainage and traffic from the subdivision.