City of Fayetteville
Residents who were planning to attend the March 6 City Council meeting to hear a discussion about a proposed rezoning near Rolling Hills Drive will have to wait a little longer.
A request to rezone about 22 acres east of Butterfield Trail Elementary School was pulled from the agenda after a deficiency in the application was discovered.
City Attorney Kit Williams said the item should never have made it through the standard planning procedure.
“Even with apparent defect in the rezoning application, the planning department unfortunately placed this on the Planning Commission agenda which voted to forward it to the City Council with recommendation to enact the rezoning requested,” Williams said in a staff memo. “Can the City Council now pass this property owners’ rezoning request despite the incomplete application for rezoning? I do not believe so.”
Williams said the applicant’s letter to the city did not state why the proposed rezoning is compatible with the surrounding land uses. Despite the fact that it’s up to the commission and council to make the final call, he said the city’s application form clearly asks for that information and states that the request will not be placed on an agenda until all information is furnished.
Williams recommended the rezoning petition be sent back to the Planning Commission to start the process over again once the application is completed.
The commission’s next meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 12 in room 219 of City Hall.
The rezoning is part of an ongoing discussion about the future of the Rolling Hills Drive corridor. City planners are expected to soon recommend an amendment to a master planning document that would ensure Rolling Hills Drive remains a two-lane roadway, despite its current classification, which calls for an eventual four-lane boulevard.
