The Bella Vista Planning Commission examined a preliminary subdivision plat and four related waiver requests for a proposed Forest Hills second subdivision during its Thursday, July 1, regular meeting.
The proposed subdivision, located off Forest Hills Blvd. just north of its intersection with Little Drive, would cut the 26.73-acre R-1 single-family residential lot owned by Cooper Communities into a 38-lot subdivision with two cul-de-sac streets running north across ridges.
Senior planner Derek Linn explained that the planning commission would have final approval for this preliminary plat.
"Y'all are the last stop," he said.
If the commission approves it, he said, the developer will still need approval for its water, sewer and street plans from the city and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, after which the commission could expect to see a final plat, which will then have to go to the city council for final approval.
"City council's going to be determining if they want to adopt the streets, etcetera," he said.
The requested waivers were for block length, or the distance between two streets; sight distance, tangent length, or the distance between two curves; and stormwater discharge.
"There are some small areas that they're not showing that they're catching in their drainage report," Linn explained.
It's also worth noting, he said, this is the fourth iteration of these plans the city has seen as the applicant has worked to address comments from the city's engineer.
Ernie Deaton, construction and development lead for Cooper Communities, told the commission that the property's topography informed design decisions that have required these waiver requests.
The block length waiver, for instance, is required because these two streets would need to be steeper without the waiver, which could be less safe.
Further, he said, he doesn't expect heavy traffic because there's no real reason to cut through the neighborhood, and the speed limit is low so it should be relatively safe.
In regard to the concerns about tangent length, he said, the curves are on a short, low-speed street and should not be dangerous.
"In our opinion, it's more of a traffic calming device," he said.
With drainage, he said, it's difficult to capture every potential bit of flow.
"It's very difficult to build many, many drainage detention basins," he explained.
Deaton argued that, while there were sections that would see flow, the proposed detention basins would be overbuilt to mitigate that.
"We actually slow the runoff leaving the entire site by about 10% past what is there now," he said. "We're actually going to retain water longer."
Linn said he's not sure that city staff believes this measure will actually compensate for the areas that are not as well checked.
"At the end of the day, does overcompensation at location A make up for missed compensation at location B?" he asked.
Planning commission chair, Daniel Ellis, said he's very concerned about this issue, noting that he has seen the commission consistently deny waiver requests related to drainage.
"Staff and the Planning Commission feel very strongly about enforcing our drainage," he said. "I really would look to see we're meeting this requirement in some form or fashion."
The commission also looked at a rezoning request for a property off Hiwasse Road, a large-scale development to add employee parking at Highlander Plaza, and a conditional use permit for the Trailhead Tap Tavern on Oldham Road.