Board of Zoning Adjustment and Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, so it's 4.30, so we'll call to order the City of Bella Vista Board of Zoning Adjustment. Call the roll, please.

Ellis.

Here.

Farner.

Here.

Klesson. Here. Sedberry.

Here.

Portillo. Here. Forrest.

Here.

Floyd. Here.

All members are present, so we have a quorum. Next up is our regular meeting minutes from June 8th.

I make a motion to be approved as submitted.

Got a motion from Farner.

Second.

Second from Klesson. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? All right. Meeting minutes are approved. Our one item under unfinished business has been withdrawn by the applicant, so we will not discuss that tonight. That moves us right on to new business. We have public hearing for zoning variance 2026-65369, a variance request on the distance requirements between access drives for proposed water tower access. Planner LaRue.

Good afternoon board. Yes. So the applicant is requesting a variance of section 109057 to establish a proposed driveway within the minimum distance requirement for access drives. The scope in its entirety includes providing access to a future 500,000 gallon POA water tank. While the site where the water tower will be located is in Benton County, the access will be provided off of city right of way and thus requiring Uh, the permit, um, the same request had been previously made and approved under a waiver of the old chapter 107. Uh, however, the applicant did not achieve the required permit, nor did start work. Under the previous code before it was repealed, and the new code was adopted, the applicant had applied in May, and the new code had went into effect last December. Um. The site's limited frontage and topographical restraints do not allow access to meet these requirements and may be considered a cause for undue hardship. There's also a pre-existing private access easement already recorded from 2023 prior to the current development design and represents the only feasible point of vehicular access. Relocating this easement would require significant site reconfiguration and acquisition of additional property. staff would also note that if if this was to be approved the access drive will need to meet pavement requirements of your typical access permit and it will also not hinder the public health safety or and otherwise meets the spirit and intent of the zoning ordinance there was no public comment at the time of this report and all legal notifications have been met with that analysis staff is recommending approval

All right, any questions for staff? All right, the applicant would go ahead and come up to the podium, please. State your name and who you represent, and we'll give you up to 15 minutes to address the board.

Thank you. My name is Tim Mays, representing Charlie Cole. All right, thank you. My name is Tim Mays. Engineering Services Incorporated representing the Bella Vista Village PLA Water Department and Charlie Holt. We're working with them on the water storage tank and we are hopeful to achieve this waiver. One additional item that I should note is that we are showing a locked gate or a bar there across that access road where it is intended to be used just as a utility access. So be glad to answer any questions that you might have. If I can't answer them, maybe Charlie can.

Any questions for the applicant? Thank you, sir. I don't think we have any. You don't have anything you want to add, Charlie? All right, thank you. All right, we'll go ahead and conduct the public hearing on this. If there's anybody in the public who would like to address the Board of Zoning Adjustments, if you would, come up and state your name and address for the record, and we'll give you up to five minutes to address the Board. All right, seeing none, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing. You all have the right to come back up and address the Board with anything else you would like to, but you don't have to.

All right.

With that, is there any other comments or questions from the board? If not, can I get a motion to approve public hearing zoning variance 20, or I'm sorry, zoning variance 202665369 with staff conditions.

So moved.

Got a motion from, sorry, Lloyd.

Second.

Second from Farner. Call the roll, please.

Klessis?

Yes.

Sedberry?

Yes.

Farner?

Yes.

Forrest?

Yes.

Portillo? Yes. Floyd? Yes. Ellis?

Yes. You are approved and staff will get with you on next steps. Thank you all. Next up we have a public hearing for zoning variance 202665626, a variance request on the nature preservation setback requirements for proposed carport located at 41 Walter Drive. It would appear that our applicant is not present. Unless it's the mayor and his wife.

He was just here.

Because I know it's not my wife.

I think the property owner was on his way. He may have gone out to...

The contractor was here. Why don't you go ahead and give us your staff report, plan our hire, and then we'll go from there.

This property is located in the southeastern area of Bella City Limits and is lot 13, block 7 of the Metfield Court subdivision. Zoning Code Section 109011C establishes the minimum setback requirements in the Nature Preservation District and the applicant's requesting a zero foot front setback in lieu of the required 50 foot in order to construct a detached carport structure for the townhome located at 41 Walter Drive. The subject site is within a multifamily neighborhood area and these townhome properties consist of the footprint of the structure plus five feet around the boundary Due to those circumstances, any addition made will therefore leave the property boundary of the townhome and sit on the adjacent parcel. In this request, the surrounding parcel, again, is zoned nature preservation, which requires a 50-foot setback from the property line. The proposed design would cover the existing parking pad with an 18-foot long by 20-foot wide carport, again, sitting entirely in that nature preservation zone parcel. In order to meet fire separation requirements, From the building and not encroached into the right-of-way, the applicant was left with that 18 foot to work with. And additionally, the applicant has obtained approval from the townhouse authority as well as the ACC. Those documents are in the packet. And Walter drives is a non-classified residential street per the master street plan and is within a type one neighborhood center per the future land use plan. Staff finds that the circumstances created from the planning of the townhomes subdivision is not of the applicant's actions and strict enforcement would cause undue hardship, granting the variance will not conflict with the intent of the district. No public comment has been received at this time and all noticing and public hearing requirements have been met. But due to further review and analysis, in order to confirm the structure will not be in the right of way and the variance process is still applicable, Staff recommends tabling this request in order for the applicant to acquire a survey to show that it is within the nature preservation property parcel and not in the right-of-way. Thank you.

All right, any questions for staff? All right, if the applicant's present, would you come up and go ahead and state your name and address for the record, and we'll give you 15 minutes to address the board. Come to the microphone, please. We need to be able to hear you.

So this is Mr. McClure, the homeowner. I am the contractor that created all the documents that were submitted for this. Yeah, sorry. This is Mr. McClure, and I am the contractor that was contracted to construct this structure and create all the supporting documents therein. It is our belief that the red line that shows on that rendering there is not an accurate rendering of where that Where the references, so the. Our representation is to create to get a survey and also. If we spread out that image, we see that there are carports all throughout not only this neighborhood, but many of the, the other neighborhoods with carports that are far less. Encroaching on the roadway, then we propose.

Sorry, so are you saying that you plan on providing a survey that tells us exactly where the right-of-way is located?

That wasn't my intention until Friday when I received the communication that said that you guys were Approaching the roadway, okay So you actually are you are gonna get a survey then I don't believe I have a choice. That's our only path forward. I

I would agree because this board cannot approve anything knowingly being constructed within city property by a private citizen.

So all of the other carports?

Those predate the city. That's irrelevant to what we're discussing today. We cannot approve construction of a structure within city right of way. We just cannot do it. Our city attorney is sitting right here. I promise you he will tell you this exact same thing. Okay. Did you have any comments to add?

I don't think so. I brought photos and everything, but what you're saying, I guess I wouldn't even show you them now, so.

Yeah. I mean, it's.

You say nothing's irrelevant from the past because.

It's not. Okay. We set policy for when we became a city. I understand. And from this day forward, and if we say, yeah, it's okay for you to build within the city right away, then that applies across the entire city of Bella Vista, not just in this one area. Okay. And we don't want people going out and building sheds and right of ways in their backyard or side jars or whatever else. We can't set a precedence. I know you're talking about a specific thing, but you're going to have to bring irrefutable proof that you're not going to be constructing within the road right of way. If you would like, we can take action today, but I think you know what that action will be because we cannot approve with the information we have right now. I agree with you that it's probably not the most accurate. Hopefully you can come up with something more accurate. Very good. So, um, all right. Um, is there anything else you would like to do? That's no, thank you. So we, we will need you to request us to either table this or take action on it and waive the requirement requirements for speedy due process. Public hearing.

We do have to have a public hearing.

I will conduct that.

Okay, and then come back.

Okay, if you want me to take care of that after the public hearing, I can do that. Yes, I think that would be fine. If you would step aside for just a minute, we'll conduct the public hearing. Thank you. All right, if there's anybody in the public who would like to address the board concerning this request, if you would come up and state your name and address for the record. We'll give you up to five minutes. All right, seeing none, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing. If you would come back up to the podium. We need you all to tell us what you want to do. Do you want to table this and waive the speedy due process, or do you want us to take action tonight? We would like to table the issue and come back with a survey.

And waive the speedy due process? Yes, sir.

All right. We have a request by the applicant to table this, and he has agreed to waive his speedy due process requirement. With that, can I get a motion to table zoning variance 202665626? So moved. Got a motion from Farner.

Second.

Second from Klesson. Call the roll, please.

Sedbury?

Yes.

Farmer?

Yes.

Forrest?

Yes.

Portillo?

Yes.

Lloyd? Yes. Klesson?

Yes.

Ellis?

Yes. If you get with staff once you get that survey, I'm sure we'll get this all cleared up and get you back on the agenda real quick.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. All right, with that, we'll go ahead. And do we have anything for open discussion, Taylor?

Not for the Board of Zoning Adjustment.

All righty. We will, right after this, we'll move on to our Planning Commission meeting so the Board of Zoning Adjustment stands adjourned. You ready? Okay. All right, let's call to order the City of Bella Vista Planning Commission meeting. Call the roll, please.

Ellis.

Here.

Garner.

Here.

Klesson. Here. Sedbury.

Here.

Portillo.

Here.

Forbes.

Here.

Lloyd. Here.

All right, all members are present. We do have a quorum. Next up, we have our regular meeting minutes from June 8th.

I make the motion to be approved and submitted.

Got a motion from Farner.

Second.

Second from Klessin. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Any opposed? All right. Meeting minutes are approved. At this point, we'll have our public input session. This will be an only opportunity for anybody in the public to address the Planning Commission. We'll give you up to five minutes to speak. If you would, state your name and address for the record. Seeing no one, we'll close our public input session. We have nothing under unfinished business, new business. Do we have any committee reports?

Not at this time.

All right. Taylor, you're all up for open discussion. Mid-year administrative approval report.

So this was requested when we did the code reform essentially the Planning Commission asked for a report on any site plans formerly known as large-scale developments have been approved by staff and so we're doing a mid-year update it's been six full months and we've only approved one and that would be the Mercy Way trail extension you've probably seen it driving through there it's extending the Razorback Greenway to the west side of 71 and improving the Crossing there will be a pedestrian Access or improvements to that crossing so that way it'll be pedestrian activated That way we have the connectivity from the east and west This is our first major crossing on 71 that's not under the road We do have that historical bridge that's north of here that the Razorback Greenway will also go under But that has been here for a while. It's not over road This is our first actual improvement where we have that east to west or west to east connection for pedestrian bikes Right now, if you're driving through there, you'll see that people are walking and or riding their bikes with traffic. They're going with vehicular traffic with the lights right now. So this will be a major improvement in terms of just safety. Essentially, we also have a public improvement as well that is a shared use path. All that was really permitted with this where there was some utility work did have to relocate a wayfinding sign But other than that, it was just connection from east to west and our 71 and mercy way light update so happy to take any questions, but Nothing further on that And then the next is just a meteor update just wanted to get some quick stats on the permit and inspections what our department has done and It's looking like we'll probably surpass last year. Last year, of course, you knew the update I gave you in January or February that we broke records. I think we're going to be on the same train this year to break records. We, as a department, have done over 2,600 reviews. Over 5,000 inspections. What's that statistic alone is pretty impressive because I have one full-time inspector And then I have a part-time inspector our engineer technician is part-time not even it's really one day She's one day inspections four days plans review, but our one-time full-time inspector our stormwater manager Mr. Trent Carter definitely deserves a shout out having to put new tires on his truck this week because of it But he is he's making some serious moves at like 40 inspections a day so props to Trent Our STR compliance is staying high probably one of the highest in the area 93% Compliance right now or at the time of this report it fluctuates every day total compliance. We're at 93% with known cases And you'll see single-family zoning still is our number one plan review item. We've already reviewed 594 single-family homes in the first six months of the year which is up 13% compared to last year and GECs are also up only 2%, but we're still over last year at 513. Short terminals are up nearly 50% at 385. Fences up 33%, 344. And then business licenses, not comparable really because we didn't have any last year. However, it still is one of our largest review numbers at 246. And then the stormwater pollution prevention inspections or BMP inspections, that is up over 100% to what the city was doing. Like I said, Trent has really brought our stormwater management plan back to life in this new role. And so props to him on getting that done. He's had some assistance, like I said, from Victoria and then Dylan when he takes a much-earned vacation, but he's done a great job. Our top reviews, where we were at the time of this report, out of that large number of 513, over 91% had been reviewed. Same with short-term rentals. That's due to the wait list. We did reach the cap, and so there's some that we cannot review until the cap allows for more. At the time of the report, 99% of the fences have been inspected or reviewed, and then all of the business licenses. So we're staying up on our reviews. Typically they last, or they range out from anywhere One to five business days, and then of course when people take off that'll linger a little bit But most of our reviews are staying at five business days And then inspections do even with the high amount. We're still allowing 24-hour requests next day inspections if requested So overall we've seen an increase in our permit reviews and inspections But we've also seen a three percent decrease in our development compliance cases which shows we're seeing more compliance overall and development related issues and So increase in work and increase in compliance. I think we're looking good this year. We're just staying really busy. So just wanted to give that update. Proud of my staff and just thought they deserve some airtime.

Cool.

Any questions for Taylor on this report? All right. Thank you. Anything else?

Not at this time.

All righty. With that, the City Council work session will be on Monday, July 20th at 6 p.m. with a regular meeting on Monday, July 27th at 6 p.m. The Planning Commission work session is scheduled for Thursday, July 30th at 4.30 p.m. with the Board of Zoning adjustment scheduled for Monday, August 10th at 4.30 p.m. directly followed by the Planning Commission regular meeting. We stand adjourned.