FAYETTEVILLE — Issues with drainage and questions about potential street connectivity prompted the Planning Commission to hold a development plan for a mixed-use project at the former site of the 112 Drive-In.
Commissioners voted 9-0 Monday to hold until March 27 the development plan for the Aronson, the planned future home of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema + Drive-In. The plan also shows two other commercial buildings and 214 residential units on a portion of a 31-acre piece of land southeast of Van Asche Drive and Arkansas 112. Residences include three apartment buildings, a mix of single-family and multifamily units and a management building.
Alamo Drafthouse plans to open next year, according to a news release. It is a cinema-eatery chain based in Austin, Texas, that would have its first permanent drive-in theater in Fayetteville.
Little Rock developer and cinema enthusiast Dave Anderson and his partners bought the property for $5.5 million in August, according to Washington County property records. The 112 Drive-In operated for 42 years before featuring its final showings with “Grease” and “Footloose” last summer.
Engineering Services Inc., in Springdale, presented the proposal to the commission and asked for four variances to code, three of which had to do with the size and number of parking spaces. Staff supported the requests so that the 45 stalls in front of the drive-in screen could have adequate room for servers to go to and from cars. City code allows 243 parking spaces for the theater, and the proposal asked for 256 including the drive-in stalls.
City code also encourages traffic access between adjacent developed properties. The northern portion of the site would be residential and use private drives and therefore not required to provide street connectivity to adjacent property. However, streams run south and east of the commercial portion of the development, and street connections on either side would not be feasible, according to staff.
Staff supported not requiring street connectivity to nearby properties, but planning commissioners expressed a desire to get some sort of street connection. The Arkansas Department of Transportation is planning to install a roundabout at Arkansas 112 west of the site. Commissioner Andrew Brink said without a street connection to the east, the roundabout effectively will dead-end within the development.
Commissioner Jimm Garlock said having no street connections would landlock the forested property to the east, which is owned by David Nelms.
Most of the discussion focused on discrepancies in the plan the city’s engineers identified relating to drainage. The property lies within a large drainage basin, about 544 acres, said Josh Boccaccio, engineering development review manager. Most of the property lies within a floodplain. The city’s rules on development within floodplains say there can be no adverse impact to surrounding properties, he said.
Boccaccio said the pond as proposed in the plan appeared too small to handle the amount of water if Clabber Creek were to overflow, and that staff had other outstanding questions about the plan’s drainage calculations.
“I’m not doing the design, so I can’t speak specifically, but in conversations between staff we’re not certain the overflow here as designed is going to function correctly,” he said.
Preston Locher with Engineering Services Inc. said the company will work with city staff and clarify the information in time for the commission’s next meeting.
Brink said flooding is an issue that needs to be considered reasonably.
“In this scenario, it seems like there’s a lot to consider, especially with how large that drainage basin is,” he said. “I’m glad the applicant and staff are working together.”
Commission action
Fayetteville’s Planning Commission met Monday and considered nine requests for short-term rentals, approving all but one. The one the commission rejected by a 9-0 vote was at a townhome on Fletcher Avenue northeast of Dickson Street. Commissioners previously rejected short-term rental requests for two other units in the same development, both of which are in the process of being appealed to the City Council. The commission cited compatibility issues in its decision.
Source: Fayetteville
Print Headline: 112 Drive-In plan held to fix issues
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