Benton closer to narrowing street right-of-ways

The Benton Community Services/animal Control Committee approved a measure that will amend the current subdivision ordinance street right-ofways guidelines.

The measure has been heavily discussed for some time in the Benton Planning and Zoning Commission meetings and although the committee approved the measure during Thursday night’s meeting, the measure will still need to be approved by the Benton City Council.

According to Community Development Director Brad Jordan, who joined the meeting by phone, the discussion concerning the revisions has been underway for four to five months. Originally, there was a plan for broader changes in the subdivision ordinance itself and Jordan said that he feels that still needs to happen, however, at this time, the only proposed changes concern street right-of-ways.

“The small change that we would like to make tonight would be to reduce the right-of-way just for those local streets in subdivisions,” Jordan said.

According to Jordan, the changes would not apply to the main thoroughfares in the subdivisions but only the secondary local streets.

“We believe that giving this option to developers will help spur development,” Jordan said.

Jordan also said that by giving developers more options that it could create some more affordable housing options within the community and help fill out some of the land in the downtown area.

“We think that this is a small change to make that could have really broad implications and something that could be really good for our community so we’re asking tonight for a good vote on this,” Jordan said.

Alderman Jeff Hamm asked Jordan to explain the reasons behind asking for the changes.

“Ever since (Benton) Mayor (Tom) Farmer came into office, we have strived to be developer friendly and strived to be just friendly all around,” Jordan said. “We think that making some of these small incremental changes will go a long way. We’ve really sat down and listened to these developers, engineers, surveyors, the people out there doing the work…we think this is a good thing.”

Jordan said it will help community members because with the narrowing of the right-of-ways, development costs will be lowered and those savings will be passed down to the buyers. He also said that with the current wording in the ordinance as it stands, there are no options for developers and that while exceptions can be made, the process of having to go through Planning and Zoning and city council is too burdensome and even then, few exceptions can be made.

“The people in the community, Alderman Hamm, should know that we don’t want to be so stringent in our rules that we can’t move left or right,” Jordan said.

“We want to have a little more room to have some of these different developments.”

Hamm said said he wasn’t opposed to the changes in any way, he just wanted the public to know and better understand the subject under discussion.

Alderman Shane Knight said he thought the changes were phenomenal, but did question some of the wording. He proposed changing it from “any such reduction to these requirements shall have the approval of both the Benton Planning and Zoning Commission and the city council” to “any such reduction to these requirements must have the approval of both the Benton Planning and Zoning Commission and the city council.”

Jordan said we was completely fine with that request.

Alderman Frank Baptist was not in favor of the changes and spoke about the section that refers to the restrictions on any onstreet parking saying that unless the Benton Police Department was involved that there was no way to enforce that section. He gave examples where some residents have 18-wheelers and boats parked on the streets. By narrowing the streets even further, if the street department has to do work in narrowed areas, traffic jams could be created due to the on-street parking.

“Unless the homeowners decide that they will go ahead and comply, there’s no way a POA can make sure that these people will go ahead and comply,” Baptist said.

Jordan said that he and Farmer had discussed those points and that signage in the affected areas would be posted stating that no parking would be allowed. He used Hurricane Lake as an example saying that parking on the street is not allowed, but if you do go through the area, you will see a lot of on-street parking.

“What’s missing there is the signage,” Jordan said. “... I see where you’re coming from there. We are trying to do everything we can do ... if we put these rules in place we hope that people would abide by them.”

Baptist also took exception with the fact that changes seemed to be only benefiting developers and that, “no one is speaking up on behalf of the people who will buy these lots and build homes on these lots.”

Baptist said the felt that those people had no input in the decision and that he was speaking up for them.

“I’m just not in favor of this at all,” Baptist said.

He also added that signage is good, but it’s only good if the people obey what the sign says. He used the example of the fact that he has a no soliciting sign at his home, but he still has to deal with solicitors.

The measure was passed with the wording change as suggested by Knight with only Baptist voting against the measure. The city council will consider the measure during its January meeting.