LIVE UPDATES: City Council Recap: Aug. 2, 2016

On the agenda

  • Rezoning 99 acres at the former Razorback Golf Course site.
  • Selling a portion of the West Avenue Parking Lot.
  • Accepting a donation for a new music playground at Wilson Park.
  • Approving a matching grant agreement with the Rotary Club for a new playground at the Regional Park.
  • Approving a variance in the city’s single-family infill standards.

» Download the agenda

A meeting of the Fayetteville City Council begins at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016 inside room 219 of City Hall, located at 113 W. Mountain St. in Fayetteville.

Listed below are the items up for approval and links to PDF documents with detailed information on each item of business.


Roll Call

Present: Adella Gray, Sarah Marsh, Mark Kinion, Matthew Petty, Mayor Lioneld Jordan, Justin Tennant, Martin Schoppmeyer, John La Tour, Alan Long
Absent: None

» View current attendance records


Consent

Consent items typically are approved in a single, all-inclusive vote.

1. Approval of the July 19, 2016 City Council Meeting Minutes
Pass 8-0

2. Utility Service Company, Inc. Change Order No. 3 (Details): A resolution to approve change order No. 3 to the contract with Utility Service Company, Inc. in the amount of $22,736.00 for structural repairs to the Baxter Water Tank, to approve an additional project contingency in the amount of $56,675.50, and to approve a budget adjustment.
Pass 8-0

3. 2016-2017 Justice Assistance and State Drug Crime Enforcement Grant (Details): A resolution to authorize acceptance of the 2016-2017 Justice Assistance and State Drug Crime Enforcement Grant for federal and state funding of the Fourth Judicial District Drug Task Force in the amount of $242,610.00, and to authorize Mayor Jordan to sign all necessary documents to receive the grant funds.
Pass 8-0

4. Icon Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a CivicPlus (Details): A resolution to approve a one (1) year amended contract with Icon Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a CivicPlus for website content management system services in the amount of $18,228.55 for the first year with automatic renewals for three (3) additional one (1) year terms with a price increase of five percent (5%) each time the contract is renewed, and to approve a project contingency of $5,000.00 each year the contract is in effect.
Pass 8-0

5. Audio-Visual Renovation (Details): A resolution to approve a budget adjustment to move funds from various audio-visual sub-projects to Master Project 13004 City Hall Audio-Visual Renovation.
Pass 8-0

6. Off-street Parking District and the Dickson Street Improvement District parking revenues (Details): A resolution to approve a budget adjustment recognizing increased parking revenues in the off-street parking district and the Dickson Street Improvement District.
Pass 8-0

7. Arkansas Historic Preservation Program Grant Agreement (Details): A resolution to approve a grant agreement with the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program for a certified local government grant in the amount of $9,030.00, and to approve a budget adjustment.
Pass 8-0

8. 2017 Employee Benefits Package (Details): A resolution to approve the 2017 Employee Benefits Package.
Pass 8-0


Unfinished Business

1. RZN 16-5442 (2514 W. Lori Rd./Razorback Golf Course) (Details): An ordinance to rezone that property described in rezoning petition RZN 16-5442 for approximately 99.10 acres located at 2514 W. Lori Road from R-A, Residential Agricultural; RSF-1, Residential Single Family, one unit per acre and RSF-4, Residential Single Family, 4 units per acre to NC, Neighborhood Conservation; R-A, Residential Agricultural and NS, Neighborhood Services.
Tabled Indefinitely 8-0*

Notes: Property owner Ron Caviness has withdrawn his request to rezone the land. In a memo sent to the Fayetteville City Clerk’s office on Monday, Caviness said developer Bart Bauer had terminated the real estate contract for the property. This item was tabled indefinitely. Here’s our story with more information.

2. Proposals for Development of South End of West Avenue Parking Lot (Details): A resolution to clarify and extend the timeframe to solicit proposals for development of the West Avenue Parking Lot and to consider parking neutral proposals for sale of smaller parcels on southern end.
Tabled Indefinitely 7-1*

Notes: Alderman Petty moved to table the item. He said the city does not yet have an anyalsis of future parking demand that was expected to be released in advance of the full findings of an in-progress parking study. Petty told aldermen at a previous meeting that he would not seek a final vote until that portion of the study was in hand, and he wanted to honor that promise. Alderman La Tour said he wanted to see the item move forward, and was the only council member to vote against the tabling. Here’s one of several stories we’ve published with more information about this item.

New Business

1. Bayyari Music Playground Donation (Details): A resolution to accept a donation in the amount of $30,000.00 from Fadil Bayyari to construct the David Lyle Bayyari Music Playground at Wilson Park, and to approve a budget adjustment.
Pass 8-0

Notes: Consider reading our original story about this item from July 12.

2. The Rotary Club of Fayetteville Agreement (Details): A resolution to approve an agreement with The Rotary Club of Fayetteville regarding the funding for and naming of the Rotary Club of Fayetteville Playground at the Kessler Mountain Regional Park, to approve a budget adjustment recognizing a donation from the Rotary Club of Fayetteville and its members in the amount of $150,000.00 for the project contingent upon receipt of the funds, and to express the City Council’s intent to provide matching funds in an amount of $120,000.00 toward the playground project contingent on approval of the 2017 budget.
Pass 8-0

Quick summary: The Fayetteville Rotary Club has donated $150,000 to help construct a playground at the new regional park in southwest Fayetteville. The group asked that the playground be named after the club. The item was unanimously approved.

3. VAC 16-5494 (3641 W. Wedington Dr./Ozarks Electric Co-op) (Details): An ordinance to approve VAC 16-5494 submitted by Crafton- Tull Engineers, Inc. for property located at 3641 W. Wedington Dr. to vacate a portion of a utility easement.
Pass 8-0


4. Amend §164.23 Single-Family Infill Standards (Details): An ordinance to authorize the City Council to grant a variance in the Single-Family Infill Standards to support attainable, affordable housing.
Left on the second reading

Notes: The proposal is to allow the City Council to grant a case-by-case variance to the city’s rule that garage openings on the same side of a single-family home as the front door shall be recessed at least 5 feet behind the principal facade if the home has 46-69 feet of street frontage (read that section of city code here).

(For what it’s worth, this rule came about after residents complained about vehicles blocking sidewalks. Since some people use their garages for storage instead of parking, the idea was to make sure there was still enough room in the driveway for residents to park cars without blocking the sidewalks.)

Some developers who construct affordable housing – including Mark Marquess of Riverwood Homes, LLC – said this rule increases the price of a home by several thousand dollars – an added cost that is ultimately passed on to the home buyer.

City Attorney Kit Williams said the current variance process for this rule is handled by the Planning Commission, which must adhere to very strict requirements to determine a need for a variance. Because one of the council-approved City Plan 2030 goals is to “create opportunities for attainable housing,” Williams said he thought the council was better equipped to handle these specific types of variance requests.

Alderman Petty said while he appreciates the intent of the proposal, he doesn’t think it’s the right approach. He said he understands that the Planning Commission has a very limited set of considerations it can discuss when determining the need for a variance, but said Planning Commission members are much better equipped to make design-based decisions. Petty said he would rather see an ordinance that gives the Planning Commission more freedom to grant variances instead of writing a new rule that allows developers to bypass the standard process.

Alderman Kinion agreed, and suggested sending the proposal to the council’s Ordinance Review Committee for further discussion.

Alderman Tennant, who chairs the Ordinance Review Committee, said he would place the item on a future committee meeting and announce a date in the next few days.


Announcements

– A Ward 1 meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4 at the Fayetteville Senior Center.
– The final Gulley Park Summer Concert is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4.


Adjourned

This meeting was adjourned at 7:08 p.m.