Council OKs right of way

Aldermen made quick work of new city business at Monday's City Council meeting.

After voting to suspend the rules to normally read ordinances three times before voting, the council unanimously approved a 30-foot right of way along Euston Road, just south of the Kingsland Road intersection.

Planning director Chris Suenson said the City annexed the property in 2008, but it had not been properly subdivided. The need to speed up the ordinance process also was due partly to a pending real estate transaction, Suneson said.

"We didn't want to slow things down anymore than we had to," he added.

Bella Vista's Master Street Plan classifies Euston Road as a collector, which defines a street that has relatively low levels of traffic volume (less than 4,000 vehicles a day), is designed to handle speeds of about 20 to 25 mph and caters to residential areas.

Collector streets require a right of way of 60 feet. Code requires that the right of way be dedicated before the subdivision of land is approved. The property owner is required to dedicate 30 feet on their side of the Euston Road center line, according to Suneson's report.

Meanwhile, an ordinance planners hope will spur development in Bella Vista advanced to its second reading. The ordinance would adopt amendments to the zoning code for variance review criteria, building height restrictions, planned zoning districts and landscape maintenance bonds.

Planners have said introducing planned zoning districts 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," Suenson 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."

"It's not really serving as a neighbor or privacy barrier, and it's neither chain-link or wooden," board chairwoman Linda Lloyd said at the time. "This doesn't seem to meet the (city's) definition of a fence."

Moreover, Suneson said in October that outdated elements of the code regarding building height restrictions were hindering development in Bella Vista.

Bella Vista's zoning code was adopted in 2010, three years after the city was incorporated. Suneson said last fall there are "big shortcomings" in regards to how the city can expand.

"For instance, our current building height limit is around 50 feet," he said. "The Fire Department didn't have a ladder truck when the code was written, but now it does. So taller buildings -- and I'm not talking about skyscrapers -- but taller buildings with smaller footprints are possible now."

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 restrictions of 40 feet.

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.