Planning commission approves shopping center

Development plans for a shopping center on the south end of town got the planning commission’s conditional approval during the Monday, Jan. 14, regular meeting.

The commission voted unanimously in favor of the large-scale development, with the condition that a stub-out be built to potentially connect to the neighboring property in the future.

The shopping center, titled the Shoppes on the Trail, will sit off U.S. Highway 71 on a 1.75-acre lot between the existing Crye Leike building and the Walgreens store, just north of the highway’s intersection with Benton County Road 40.

Plans for the site show three sections of the building designated for retail and one designated for a restaurant.

Associate planner Sarah Bingham said that the plans had been revised to comply with city staff concerns, including an increase to 18-inch drainage pipes across the board.

The proposed development meets parking requirements for the city, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act, she said,

and landscaping is adequate for city code.

The lot is zoned C-4 commercial and meets all building setback requirements, she said.

Nate Bachelor with CEI engineering, the firm that designed this development, said the property will include a sidewalk, but builders could not secure permission to create

cross-access with the neighboring Crye Leike office.

Staff attorney Jason Kelley said that a stub to allow that connection satisfies the city code’s requirement to include a connection.

The commission also approved two lot splits in the city’s planning area — one on McMillian Road and the other at the intersection of Rolling Hills Road and McNelly Road — and tabled a request for a waiver allowing two driveways for a house on Granshire Drive after the applicant requested to withdraw his request.