Commission supports changes to city code for micro structures

There were no local residents in attendance at a public hearing Tuesday afternoon regarding an ordinance to change a city law to allow micro structures be placed in trailer parks.

The hearing was held at city hall and followed by a meeting of the city’s planning commission.

Forrest City Mayor Cedric Williams opened the meeting before asking for public comments. The only people in attendance were planning commissioners, James Tracy and Forrest City Councilman Lowry Astin.

After no public concerns or comments were made, Williams closed the hearing.

Following the hearing, the Forrest City Planning Commission met to recommend the ordinance be presented to the city council for final approval.

According to the ordinance, for manufactured home parks, the zoning rule changes would now include front yard setbacks of a minimum of 10 feet to the front lot line of the mobile home park and at least 10 feet from all internal drives and access routes through the mobile home park so as not to block the view of ingress or egress.

Also added was verbiage for "dwelling single-family spaces" which shows the spaces should consist of a minimum of 2,000 square feet for each space, be at least 40 feet wide and clearly defined. Spaces also must comply with all other existing design standards in the manufactured home park rules.

Forrest City Fire Chief Shane Dallas explained to commissioners that the public hearing was a required step in the ordinance process to change the zoning code.

“This is pretty much what you have done before, but we just had to do it over in the proper procedure," said Dallas.

Ben Wynne, planning commission chair, encouraged all commissioners to visit the Stuart Springs Manufactured Home Park to tour an example of the micro structures that would be considered single-family dwellings.

Tracy, owner of the park, told the group there is currently one structure set up for viewing but asked commissioners to keep in mind that it was a previously-owned structure and is being renovated to code. “It will give you a better idea of the space and what we are doing," he said.

After the meeting was adjourned, commissioners traveled to Stuart Springs Park where they toured the structure Tracy is remodeling.

The council will now consider the ordinance, which requires three public readings before it can be adopted.