Several city directors wanted to know how the commercial development proposed for the corner of Airport and Weston roads would affect traffic and nearby residential areas before they would approve the owners’ rezoning request.
A majority of the Hot Springs Board of Directors didn’t get the answers it wanted, voting 4-3 Tuesday to deny the commercial zoning request for a 0.36-acre piece of a 1.46-acre parcel. The larger piece fronting Airport Road is zoned regional commercial/open display, or C-4. The smaller piece on the back is zoned low-density residential, or R-3.
Adnan Dervesh asked that C-4 zoning be extended to the entirety of the property. He represents a company that’s considering putting a convenience store on the vacant parcel. The company’s engineer told the board the end caps of the proposed development could be leased to other businesses.
The board’s 4-3 vote overruled the unanimous recommendation for rezoning the planning commission made at its Jan. 12 meeting, making it the third planning commission item the board has rejected this year. Mayor Pat McCabe cast the deciding vote Tuesday, joining director Marcia Dobbs-Smith, District 3, Dudley Webb, District 4, and Karen Garcia, District 5.
McCabe, who lives in the residential area behind the proposed development, said putting another business on the busy stretch of Airport Road posed a public safety issue for drivers turning left onto the highway from Weston Road. Three residents of nearby condominiums expressed similar concerns to the planning commission.
“You’ve got a project here that’s going to add a tremendous amount of traffic,” McCabe told Mark Redder, the engineer the company hired to present the rezoning request. “You’ve got two additional units available for lease. It’s already a busy place with a road system that’s not designed to accommodate it.”
McCabe and other directors asked why a traffic study wasn’t submitted with the application.
“This isn’t the forum to deal with the traffic problem at this request level,” Redder said. “We’re just looking to get the property zoned to one zone.”
He told the planning commission in January that patrons of the proposed development would be encouraged not to turn left onto Airport or Weston roads. He said the adjacent shopping center to the west asks the same of its patrons.
“I envision this as being a right in, right out type of place,” Redder said.
Planning and Development Director Kathy Sellman told the board the city’s engineering and public works departments didn’t request a traffic study. She said one would be required when the owner applies for a building permit.
Sellman told the board based on the preliminary site plan submitted with the application, the proposal wouldn’t require planning commission approval. Several directors expressed concern that the site plan and building permit would be an administrative process not subject to planning commission or board review.
“When someone comes in with a development plan there is the same level of scrutiny at the staff level that there would be if it had to go to planning commission,” Sellman said.
“All of the questions you’re asking tonight will be asked, and the answers have to be correct,” she said.
“This project will have to comply with requirements of zoning but also engineering, traffic, utilities and have the same level of scrutiny as it would have if it went to the planning commission.”
She said the preliminary site plan indicated the commercial development could be contained to the commercially zoned part of the property. Extending commercial zoning to the back piece would simplify the administration of land use rules and make a barrier between the commercial and residential pieces unnecessary, she said.
Garcia noted that photos the planning and development department took showed trash strewn across the back of the property. Redder said having the property developed would prevent illegal dumping.
“On properties like this, if they remain undeveloped, they’re a nuisance,” he said. “People dump there. People hang out there. It’s our goal to put something viable there that’s well taken care of.”
District 1 Director Erin Holliday, part of the three-director minority, told the board it was getting ahead of itself. She said the question before it was whether to rezone the back part of the property, not to consider a specific land use.
“What’s on the site plan has nothing to do with the zoning of the parcel,” she said. “Everybody seems to be going back to what it might be used for and really this is whether we want to keep a parcel split zoned or one zone.
“It’s already C-4. There’s going to be traffic issues. All of these other bits and pieces, while they impact later on, this is not what’s before us.”
Print Headline: Board rejects rezone for proposed convenience store
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