An ordinance planners hope will spur development in Bella Vista is headed for its third and final reading. Aldermen on Monday, April 27, will consider an ordinance to adopt amendments to the zoning code for variance review criteria, building height restrictions, planned zoning districts and landscape maintenance bonds.
The City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. at American Legion Post 341, 1889 U.S. 71.
Planners said last fall that introducing PZDs to the code could help ease the burden on builders.
"Everything is touched by residential in some form or fashion," said Daniel Ellis, chairman of the Planning Commission. "Straight rezoning gives us very little input as to what happens on that project as long as the zoning code is being followed. (Planned zoning districts) also give the public the information that it wants to know about exactly what is going to be built in Bella Vista."
Ellis added, in his experience, getting a planned zoning district approved has been easier than a "straight rezone" because developers and city officials have more flexibility to meet each others' needs.
New language to variance review criteria will make it easier for the Board of Zoning Adjustments to make decisions, Suneson said. Previous height restrictions for buildings and limited options available to builders to finance landscape maintenance guarantees also hindered development, Suneson said.
"The (BZA) board has expressed confusion on how the language of the zoning code is structured for them to evaluate variances," Suneson said in a memo to the council. "The amendments clean up some departmental references and attempts to provide plain review criteria."
In 2014 the BZA wrestled with three variance petitions, one of which was for a resident's fence on Doornoch Lane that exceeded the code's height restrictions. However, board members weren't sure the fence actually matched the city's definition. The wrought-iron structure is 58 inches tall -- 22 inches higher than code allows for a fence -- but surrounds a garden, acting as a barrier from animals.
"Our growth is associated with our commercial enterprise," Suneson said, noting Bella Vista's zoning code was adopted in 2010. "And it's hard to keep up because where we started out is not where we're going."
The ordinance would increase maximum height restrictions in certain residential and commercial districts. R-2, (residential two family), and R-3, (residential multi-family) districts now allow a max height of 50 and 60 feet, respectively. C-3 (central business district) and C-4 (shopping center district) also increased to 50 and 60 feet, respectively.
Both commercial and residential zones had been relegated to 40-foot restrictions .
Meanwhile, the maximum height restriction for both of the city's industrial districts would remain at 45 feet, but a provision is attached to allow buildings or structures to exceed the maximum height "provided each of its front, side and rear setbacks are increased an additional foot for each foot such building exceeds the maximum height."
The amendments also provide additional means of meeting financial obligations for landscape maintenance guarantees. Currently, landscape maintenance guarantees are allowed only through maintenance bonds. Now cash deposit and letters of credit are allowed.
Landscape maintenance guarantees refer to the section of code requiring certain planted or preserved vegetation be maintained by a property owner or developer in adherence to a landscape plan. The guarantees last for a year and names the city as the sole beneficiary.
The council also will consider resolutions to address refurbishing the Police Department's roof, updating the city handbook, condemning a structure near the Visitors Center and amending language in the city's contract with the Bella Vista Animal Shelter.
General News on 04/22/2015