The Bella Vista City Council discussed the latest iteration of a comprehensive plan to guide the city to 2040 during its Monday, Sept. 21, work session.
The council posted a draft publicly and sought feedback from the general public in June.
The council hired Gould Evans to produce the plan in 2017, and the current proposal is the result of several rounds of revision, including this most recent round of feedback.
Mayor Peter Christie said it's time to make a decision on this document.
"After three years, it's time for us to vote on this one way or another ... We have received good input," he said.
While the plan is an important document, he said, it's important to understand that nothing in it is absolute and it is not necessary for a plan like this to cover every minute detail.
"It's a guide; it's something like a budget. A budget can change if things happen ... it's more to steer our future zoning, our future ordinances," he said. "It isn't the be-all and end-all."
Graham Smith, associate principal with Gould Evans, said that this document is the result of a process to identify officials and residents' priorities.
The plan should provide the right principles to make decisions that are in line with those priorities, he added.
"This is really a framework for you all, as a community, to make decisions," he said.
Because of the city's more complex structure, with multiple bodies exercising different types of authority, this plan was not easy to assemble, he explained.
"Typical is not the word I think of when I think of the Bella Vista comprehensive plan," he told the council.
The council also discussed ordinances to require the removal of dead or hazardous trees and require fences around swimming pools, hot tubs and spas, as well as resolutions to purchase a new police car and a hostage negotiation crisis phone for the police department, authorizing the millage rate for 2020 and approving three appointments to the Board of Zoning Adjustments.
These items are expected to be voted on during the Monday, Sept. 29 regular meeting.