Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Farmington Planning Commission Votes Down Preliminary Plat
REZONING REQUEST DRAWS OPPOSITION FROM RESIDENTS
FARMINGTON — Local residents showed up in force last week to oppose two items being considered by Farmington Planning Commission.
The Commission’s April 24 agenda included a request to rezone property on Double Springs Road from residential to multiple family and a request to approve a preliminary plat for a subdivision called Hillside Estates on North Garland McKee Road.
The Commission voted against the preliminary plat by a 2-3 vote. Commissioners Howard Carter and Jay Moore voted in favor of the preliminary plat. Commissioners Gerry Harris, Judy Horne and Bobby Wilson voted no. Members Matt Hutcherson and Toni Bahn were absent.
The engineer requesting the rezoning on Double Springs Road pulled the item from the agenda after residents spoke out against the request and presented a petition signed by 71 people asking the Commission to deny the rezoning. If the Commission had rejected the rezoning request, the developer
would have been prohibited from bringing it back for one year.
Double Springs Rezoning Request
Engineer Ferdi Fourie with Civil Design Engineers Inc., in Springdale, presented the rezoning request on behalf of property owner Home Star Rentals LLC. According to the Arkansas Secretary of State’s website, Home Star Rentals was incorporated Feb. 12 and Melissa Sims is listed as incorporator/organizer.
The request proposed to rezone 5.6 acres at 65 N. Double Springs Road from R-1 to MF-2.
A drawing of the proposed complex showed nine buildings with a total of 38 units. It also showed two entries and exits, one from Double Springs Road and another from Sugar Pine Place at the end of Northridge Subdivision, a single-family residential subdivision.
City Attorney Steven Tennant gave commissioners a site plan that showed the present land use of the area around the undeveloped property is residential.
Melissa McCarville, city business manager, handed out the city’s land use plan which showed a future use of land near the property could be high density residential.
“My feeling is this is not a bad placement for high density,” McCarville said. “It’s not my decision but I’m just telling you it’s what we have approved in the plan.”
About 18 people raised their hands showing they were at the meeting because of the rezoning request.
Barbara O’Brien of 336 Ridgeway Drive in Northridge Subdivision spoke on behalf of many residents and presented the Commission with a petition signed by 71 people who live to the north, south, west and east of the property.
O’Brien said rezoning the property to MF-2 would not be compatible with the city’s zoning ordinance, which spells out the purpose for having zoning regulations for the city of Farmington.
Specifically, O’Brien said, safety would be compromised because of the additional traffic from a multi-family development located near three different schools and property values would be negatively impacted.
What’s being proposed, she said, is to go from a single family residential zone to the highest density allowed in Farmington.
The character and stability of the single family neighborhood would not be protected as tenants living in the apartments would use Northridge subdivision as ingress and egress, O’Brien said.
“The appropriate and best use of the property would be a development of single family homes that would be connected to Northridge Subdivision,” O’Brien said.
After hearing the comments, Fourie, obviously surprised by the opposition, said the developer probably needed to reconsider the proposal.
“I don’t think anyone is going to vote for this,” Fourie said.
He pulled the request from the agenda, saying he would like to speak with the residents to see how he could address their concerns.
After the meeting, O’Brien said, “I couldn’t be happier. We were very, very concerned.”
Hillside Estates Subdivision
Engineer Jorge Du Quesne with Blew & Associates of Fayetteville presented the preliminary plat for Hillside Estates Subdivision on behalf of Lots 101 LLC.
This property has come before the Planning Commission in the past. The commission turned down a request from Tom Sims with Lots 101 to rezone the property from agricultural to residential estate in May 2016.
Property owners in Meadow Sweet subdivision, which is across the street from the property, opposed rezoning the land to residential because of concerns new construction would reignite flooding problems that have plagued their neighborhood in the past. A major drainage project completed by the city in 2012 has alleviated some of the flooding in Meadow Sweets subdivision.
Lots 101 appealed the decision to Farmington City Council and the Council voted 5-4 to overturn the Commission. Mayor Ernie Penn cast the deciding vote. The City Council approved an ordinance in June 2016 to rezone 7.26 acres of the land from agricultural to a residential estates district, RE-2.
Lots 101 then applied for three lot splits to create three one-acre lots along Garland McKee Road and these were approved administratively. However, the company wanted to create additional one-acre lots and this required Lots 101 to submit a preliminary plat for a residential subdivision.
The preliminary plat shows six lots. Three of the lots are one acre in size zoned RE-1 and located along Garland McKee Road. Two are much larger in size going up the hill — 19 acres and 36 acres — and are zoned agricultural. Another lot is a one-acre dry detention pond located up the hill.
About 14 people raised their hands to show they were attending the meeting to voice concerns about the
“The appropriate and best use of the property would be a development of single family homes that would be connected to Northridge Subdivision.” Barbara O’Brien Farmington resident
preliminary plat. Several property owners spoke and their concerns were the same ones presented during the rezoning request last year.
Russell Pease of 11047 Rosebay said he has been in flood waters up to his knees and contended the detention pond was in a location that would not help with flooding.
“Water comes diagonally off the hill,” Pease said.
Several others made the same comments, wondering how the pond would help.
Commissioner Jay Moore asked the city’s engineer, Chris Brackett with McGoodwin, Williams and Yates, if he felt comfortable with the drainage plan.
Brackett said the preliminary plat met the city’s drainage standards. According to city requirements, storm water drainage from a development cannot exceed pre-development. Brackett said about 8½ acres would drain into the detention pond and the overall effect meant that stormwater flow from the project would not exceed pre-development.
Brackett acknowledged a lot of water comes off the hill and drains into the creek going beside Meadow Sweet subdivision. He told commissioners the city cannot make Lots 101 solve the drainage problems in Meadow Sweet, reminding them the subdivision was developed before it was annexed into the city of Farmington and was not developed properly to take care of storm run-off from the hill.
Thursday, McCarville said Lots 101 planned to make some changes and would resubmit a new preliminary plat for review by the Planning Commission at its May 22 meeting.
Other Action
The Commission approved a preliminary plat for Farmington Heights subdivision on Sellers Road and approved a fireworks stand next to Farmington Fire Department for the July 4 holiday.
Planners also discussed a conceptual subdivision layout plan for two acres on Southwinds Drive behind Jim’s Razorback Pizza. Keith Marrs, owner, presented the conceptual plan to put in eight single family homes on the two acres. He said the development would be built on one parcel and homes would be considered rental property.
Lastly, the Commission set a public hearing for its May 22 meeting on an ordinance regarding existing parking lots and paving. This ordinance has not been developed yet.