Four-plexes, apartments, on horizon in town

Multi-family dwellings are on the horizon for Pea Ridge.

City planners were presented with a plan by John Dye and Joshua Bryant with JC Construction from Rogers for a development on the north side of West Pickens Road northeast of Blackjack Corner and north of the new high school at the Planning Commission tech review Thursday, June 11.

Dye, owner of Dye Hards Gym, presented a plan which included commercial buildings close to the highway with residential north of that. His plans called for a restaurant, a gym and an after-school care facility.

Developer Kevin Felgenhauer, speaking after Dye and Bryant left, said he, too, was wanting to broach the subject of multi-family dwellings.

“Somebody’s going to have to bite the bullet and deal with it — four-unit buildings, fourplexes,” he said. Felgenhauer said he wants to build “quality same as what I’m doing with duplexes now.”

He purchased property north of the current high school and is planning to buy more.

“We own the 40 acres next door to it — the Hall property,” Felgenhauer said. “That’s our property and we would like to start in the fall… I wanted to talk about it; I just wanted to get thoughts on all this, listening to all of this.”

Dye and Bryant asked about streets being owned privately or whether they needed to be dedicated to the city.

“When John (Dye) decided to sell these and the next person buys it, and you’ve got private streets, therein lies the problem,”

Dr. Karen Sherman, planner, said. “You start talking about 15 years down the road and now we have private streets and who maintains them?”

“This is going to be coming down the pipeline pretty soon,” Nathan See, superintendent of the city Street Department, said. “There are developers who are going to be coming in here with three-story apartment buildings … creating work on public streets, but will have privately owned streets.”

City building official Tony Townsend said there would have to be a shared maintenance agreement in the covenants to to with the life of the development.

“I love the concept,” See said of Dye’s plan. “It’s good. It’s needed.”

Bryant said the facade would be similar to the Pickleman’s cafe in Rogers off Promenade.

Patrick Wheeless, planner, emphasized the need for sidewalks and a crosswalk. See said the crosswalk would be determined by the Arkansas Department of Transportation as West Pickens is a state highway, Arkansas Highway 94.

“So, what’s next for us,” Dye asked.

“Get all the details together and present it as a large scale,” Townsend said. Bryant said he plans for Commercial-3 and Residential-2 zoning.

See said the necessary documents are at the Benton County offices for annexation.

One discussion on Felgenhauer’s plan was ingress and egress with planners discussing the safest options.

Felgenhauer said he already has commitments from a builder for the project to construct nice houses and for a pool and clubhouse on the site.

“This is going to be coming down the pipeline pretty soon.”

Nathan See, Street Department superintendent