City Council - Regular Meeting

Mayor, it's 6 o'clock.

I'd like to call the meeting to order. This is the meeting of Bella Vista City Council, July 27, 2026. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance.

A roll call, please.

Council members Wilms.

Here.

Isbell. Here. Hanchel.

Here.

Hart.

Here.

Hughes. Here. And Newport. Here.

Thank you. Uh, 1st, order of business is a proclamation. This is a certificate of recognition from the city of Bella Vista. It's presented to Mark right? Well, and recognize recognition of your operation and oversight as president of the Bella Vista courtesy van. An organization that is since 1992 operated solely on the efforts of dedicated and thoughtful volunteers to provide transportation to Bella Vista residents who cannot otherwise drive themselves due to age health or other restrictions. The dedication of all the volunteers has become a source of trusted assistance within this community and we honor all who give their free time to continue this necessary service presented this 27th day of July 2026. I'd like to ask Mark to come forward. Next order of business is citizen input per the rules. There's a three minute per person time limit to address the council on any topic of that person's choosing. Total time allotted for citizen input is 30 minutes. Any time extension beyond 30 minutes will be at the discretion of city council. And we have enough people signed up that I'd like to go ahead and do a motion to let everybody have a chance to speak.

That's Larry Wilms.

There was no motion stated.

Motion to extend the time for public input. For how long? As long as everyone speaks.

Second. That was Larry Wilms and second by Travis Harp. A roll call vote.

Council members Wilms?

Yes.

Isbell? Yes. Hunchell?

Yes.

Harp?

Yes.

Hughes? Yes. And Newport? Yes.

Thank you very much. We'll call the speakers in the order they signed up. First one is Donna Hutchinson of Rillington Drive in Bella Vista.

Thank you. I appreciate you letting us come and share our vision of the short-term rental problem. My family and I, we enjoy vacationing in an area in Oklahoma. It's near Broken Bow. It's a very unusual neighborhood. The homes are big and beautiful, but they're all short-term rental. There's only one regular home in this whole neighborhood. It's a getaway for Dallas residents, and you have to get a year advance if you want to stay there over the weekend. um the investors are making a lot of money they charge a lot i've paid the price i can tell you it's hefty um the uh i don't know it's in the middle of nowhere i don't know if it's county or city but somebody's bringing in a lot of tax revenue from this unique neighborhood um It is almost like Bella Vista, but it only has one golf course, and that's about it. It's in the middle of nowhere. In Bella Vista, we have more amenities. We have designation sites, people coming to this area for other reasons, and I think a short-term rental neighborhood would be booked quickly. If we had some of that 2,000 acreage that we've just opened up and we zoned that into a short-term rental neighborhood, I think it would be a great attraction. The short-term rentals have their own rules and regs. You don't need a large lot. No one's going to plant a garden over the weekend. They have driveways that can accommodate six or seven cars so they aren't parked on the road. The one home that is not a short-term rental used to be, and the couple that lived there after they retired, they decided they really wanted to keep that home, and they loved it. And she said something very wise to me. She said, in a residential neighborhood, the residents expect to be top priority. In a short-term rental neighborhood, I understand that the renters, the clients, are going to have top priority and we're willing to live with that and i think that's the problem we have in bella vista the residents here expect to have top priority we live here full time and i don't think they feel that we are getting that top priority so i would ask you not to increase the number of strs instead zone for a great wonderful short-term rental neighborhood and let them enjoy it and have a good time and let the residents feel that you really care about them since they're the ones that live here and they're the ones that eventually vote. Thank you very much.

Thank you. The next speaker is Tony Lacasse of Sunderland Drive.

Mr. Mayor and members of the council, my name is Tony Lacazi. I lived 53 Sunderland Drive in Bella Vista for 19 years. After retirement, we moved to Arkansas where we had honeymooned 65 years ago. and specifically the Bella Vista because numerous magazines listed Bella Vista as one of the top 25 towns in America for retirement. For the first few years that we were here, there were no businesses tucked between homes. We assumed that single family zoning prevailed. Then, One sneaky Christmas and New Year's Eve, a committee, I use the word loosely, decided that we should have 600 short-term rentals, a mini-motel business in our neighborhoods. At about the same time, Fayetteville, a major college town, only approved 480 rentals. I say neighborhoods because a neighborhood home is landscaped. Most short-term rentals aren't, a detriment to property values. Homeowners volunteer at one or more of our 179 charities, like Mark Brightwell. Rental guests don't. A neighbor changes a ceiling light or an air filter for an elderly person, takes them food when they're sick, shovels snow off their driveway, returns their blue bins to their proper place, and waters their landscape and their prized plants when they're away. Short-term rentals do none of these things. At this point, I'd like to clarify that I'm referring to short-term house rentals, not homeowners renting a spare room for the night, because there's a big difference between a house and a home. So what we've done here is change the comfort of a community into a calamity. And now you want more? Really? 200 more than fayetteville really come on mayor mayor mayor we need to address the applause and the booing oh yeah it's good i normally do that uh

We'd like to forego the applause and jeering and that sort of thing, but I appreciate your enthusiasm. So, the next speaker is Susan Cafferty of Ashwell Lane.

Good evening, and I'm also speaking to the issue of the STR cap. For much of my family's three-year tenure in Bella Vista, short-term rentals have operated at the house next door. And we have experienced the whole gamut of STR-related problems, which I can discuss with you at another time. The most recent owner of the house lives near Dallas, Texas, and his STR is managed by a multinational corporation based in Oregon. As a neighbor, I wanted to discuss concerns with the local host manager, so I texted the owner for contact information. No response. I made 20 calls to the managing corporation but received no information. No matter what caller options I chose, I was invariably routed to an assistant working from a standardized script who knew nothing about the house. I finally found a phone listing for a corporate office in Eureka Springs, but my call there was routed to a phone center in South Asia and the assistant knew nothing of Eureka Springs or even of Arkansas. Next, I inquired at Bella Vista City's permit office where I was told that the Texan owner had listed himself as the local host manager flagrantly ignoring the application requirement that he must reside within 50 miles of the house. I had not reached a local host manager because none existed. The city permit office voided the house STR permit on July six and I thank them, but they have since put this home back on a wait list for a new permit. The listing remains active on Airbnb, and according to their ad, the host lives in Idaho. These events clearly indicate an absence of regard by this investor for the concerns of neighbors and for the rules set down by the city of Bella Vista, and it also shows a lack of sensitivity toward prospective guests. We have 600 small hotels operating in Bella Vista neighborhoods, many of them with extraordinarily little oversight and that's an estimated 1,800 beds. Are there data that indicate a need for more? Perhaps our city government should make renewed efforts to watch over our current STRs before adding new ones. Let us leave the cap at 600 beds for now, take additional steps to prevent clustering of SDRs in our neighborhoods, and actively enforce our current laws to protect Bella Vista as a city of neighbors. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is JB Portillo.

Hi, it's Portello, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Good evening, everybody. It's a privilege to stand here before you. in a community defined not only by its natural beauty and remarkable growth, but by the steady commitment of the volunteers and all the elected officials who serve it. Bellevue's strength has never come from one single organization. It comes from the collective efforts of many, and that strength is only realized when we fully understand how deeply all of our roles are connected. The City, the POA, the ACC, the Planning Commission, and Discover Bella Vista each carry distinctly responsibilities. But make no mistake, their impact is shared. Every decision made in one area ripples across the others and ultimately shapes the daily lives of our residents. Roads and recreation, parks and trails, planning and public safety, community appearance, economic development, tourism and infrastructure, none of these exist in isolation. They're part of a single interconnected system that either works together or works against itself. The ACC preserves the character of our neighborhoods. The POA manages essential amenities and water and common property. The Planning Commission guides the future of land use and growth. Discover Bella Vista strengthens our visibility and visitor experience. The city delivers the core services and prepares for what lies ahead. That alignment is not optional. It's essential. Because the reality is this, when elected officials and appointed leaders are not fairly fully informed across organizational lines, we create gaps. Those gaps become delays. Delays become confusion and confusion, excuse me, erodes public trust. The same is true for those considering to run for the mayor or the city council or anything else. Before asking citizens for your vote, prospective candidates should make every effort to understand how Bella Vista really operates, the responsibilities of its governing bodies, and the issues facing our community. That understanding should come from attending meetings, reading official documents, and asking thoughtful questions and listening to those involved. Not from assumption, rumors, or especially social media. Informed leadership begins way before election day. Our residents do not experience Bellevue as separate entities. They simply expect one community functioning with clarity, coordination, and purpose. They deserve leaders who have decisions based on facts from reliable sources and are committed to the understanding. No single, I'm gonna run out of time. But we reduce fragmentation this way, we eliminate an unnecessary concept. I'm asking you, don't just come to the council, go to the POA meetings. Do your homework. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Betsy DeGrisito of Portsmouth Drive.

It's okay. It's DiGiacinto. So when my husband and I moved here two years ago, we invested in a property specifically to operate as an SDR managed by me. We were told that the city had a cap of 600 short-term rentals and at the time only about 325 were filled. That gave us confidence that Bella Vista was managing their SCR growth responsibly and that our investment would have room to succeed. One year later, that cap has been reached. Instead of stability, everything has shifted. This year started strong. Comparing May through July over both years, my bookings were up 6%. Many new SCRs had permits but weren't open yet. No. So demand was still steady. But now August is days away and I have one booking for the entire month and only one for September. Last year, August and September was booked solid with back to back reservations. Nothing has changed on my end. I have 100 percent five star ratings. I'm the first listing that appears for groups of three to four people. I've worked hard to stay at the top. So what changed? over saturation. Raising the cap immediately after reaching it without evaluating whether more STRs are actually needed is reckless. We don't build grocery stores on every corner just because more houses go up. And when this new cap is inevitably reached by December, will we raise it again simply to keep up with the 4%? Bella Vista is a community where people live, not just vacation. Flooding neighborhoods with STRs pushes out long-term residents and destabilizes the character that makes this place special. And what happens if the Walton family moves forward with a resort hotel in the center of town? Are we preparing for a future where only the strongest survive while everyone else loses their investment? That is not responsible growth, so I vote no on raising the cap. I also vote no on the 200-foot rule. I live lakefront on Lake Windsor, and I have three STRs on both sides of my home, all doing wonderfully. I love seeing families enjoy the lake, but under the 200-foot rule, one of those homes wouldn't be forced out, despite the owners investing heavily to remodel them this year. Are you really going to tell one of them they have to close? That isn't protecting neighborhoods. That's stripping people of their property rights. And at the current cap, SDRs are already established where they are, with no threat to SDRs taking over neighborhoods next to each other. The email I received today said the City's own data does not support additional restrictions. Well, does the City have any data showing a need for more STRs? Until we have that data and those answers are clear, responsible governance means holding the line, not raising the cap, and not adding the 200-foot rule. I vote no on both proposals.

Thank you. The next speaker is Connie Jaquez. Uh, I'm not sure about the street. Could you say the street?

Hello and greetings to all. My name is Connie Jaquis and I'd like to tell you about my personal property. My husband and I purchased a large lake home in 2005 with the intentions to live in that home when we retired. However, the job that brought us here had housing provided for us. So in 2006, we decided to rent our home as a short-term rental through Vacation Rentals in Bella Vista until they went out of business in 2014. My husband and I both retired in 2014 and we decided to continue to rent our home through VRBO and purchase a smaller home nearby. From the beginning, we informed our neighbors of our plans and invited them to bring any concerns directly to us. In our 25 years of operation, we have never received a single complaint regarding rule breaking, loud noises or disruptions. We've been very involved with each guest that comes, greeting them when they arrive and continue to check on them throughout their stay. The very few times that we've been out of town and had guests arrive, our neighbor next door has always been happy to greet them for us. She made friends with my guests, with a group of ladies that have been coming for over 15 years for a week of quilting and having fun. Most of my guests are older retired folks who enjoy being with their family or being with a group of long-term friends who enjoy playing golf, fishing, or being on the lake. I've been honored to host a few 80 and 90 year old birthday parties. Another group of my guests are my mini golfing guys who have been coming for over 10 years. When my husband got sick, they helped with the lawnmower issue I was having and also helped me make a decision about buying a new barbecue grill. I consider my guest as an extension of my own family. I've been invited to dinner, watch fireworks on the lake, and my Louisiana group will save me their crawfish casserole. I've also had even my neighbors rent my property when they have family coming to visit them. My guests develop ownership of my property while there, and I've never had any concerns about breaking rules, loud noises, or barking dogs. I always encourage my guests to enjoy the Bella Vista restaurants and amenities, and many come for golf. Since the passing of my husband, this property is now my primary source of income along with Social Security. It contributes significantly to the local economy. I pay approximately $15,000 annually in state, county, city, and tourism tax and permits. Last year alone, I invested in over $35,000 back into the community by hiring local contractors, housekeepers, maintenance workers, and lawn service for the property improvements, including a new deck and boat dock. I've heard property owners say that they will devalue their property and ruin the neighborhoods, and I find this very offensive as I take great pride in maintaining a five-star property. I urge the board to vote yes for allowing property owners the right to choose how to use their land, and I ask that you grandfather the established short-term rentals with clean records and extend the number so other owners may have the same opportunities that were afforded to us. Thank you for your time, consideration, and service for our community.

Uh, the next speaker is Linda elephant of Mary Kirkland.

Hi, thank you very much.

um my husband and i moved here in 2018 and um from el paso texas and we are we are on a short little lane mary kirk lane there is a total of about i think 15 homes out of the 15 for our um the rentals it's a short lane It dead ends, circles around, and comes back. It is a problem. There's a problem with getting the mailman, deliveries. There's some building going on, so that sometimes we have to wait at the, there's no stop sign, but there is a fire hydrant there. Wait until traffic clears until we can get in. One night, there was a huge boat out in front of our house. He got here late, and there was no place to put his boat. It is a problem. How many here...

Our private homeowners.

Okay. How many here are private owners? Please stand. Anyways, that's one of our biggest issues here is the number, the saturation on one small lane. uh the other issue i want to bring up is is fairly new and is uh it's on recycling um there is going to be i think a program where republic might be contracted to pick up the recycling i'm not too sure how often that's going to be or how much that is going to cost um i think we need to have a choice each of us need to have a choice whether we sign up or not my husband and i will not we go down to recycling once a month and we get rid of everything i don't you know i i have lived in areas where they did pick up recycling pickup and it was a disaster it's open containers wind comes along things fly all over the place no i'm against it especially if they wanna have it, fine. Whoever wants it can pay for it. I don't wanna pay for it. I'm done.

Okay, thank you. The next speaker is C. Quinn of Teresa Drive. I believe that's Carol, right?

Yes, good evening. City Council, Mr. Mayor, fellow citizens. Um, just to say I don't have a short term rental. I don't own one. I don't intend to own one. I just want a rational policy. So I have no skin actually in the game except for looking for what I think would be the betterment of the city. Um, what are the goals of a short term policy? Well, we want economic growth, right? We want to prevent overgrowth for the policies. and we want to combat displacement due to the unavailability of real estate. I don't know if it's hard to go and just go for an individual to rent six months or a year lease here, I don't know. But that's been a problem in many cities, for example, Sedona, Arizona, which I'm very familiar with, that there's not housing available for people because it's all short-term rentals and the short-term rentals are typically not utilized 100% of the time, so it's sort of a waste of resources if there's a lack of resources. We want tax revenue and we want to make sure that the short-term Rentals pay the added cost of administering the program. I looked at Arkansas law and it's sort of like what Tom Cruise in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire said. It's like show me the money. They want the money. They want the tax money and they don't really regulate it to any great degree, so they leave it to the cities themselves. Alright, so I looked at other cities for guidance. Specifically, I looked at Little Rock and Fayetteville. Little Rock's population is the most populated city in Arkansas. It's 203,000 people. Fayetteville is 100,000. And the population of Bella Vista is only 35,000. So it's important to remember that because our population is 83%. excuse me, the population of Little Rock is 83% greater and Fayetteville is 65% greater. And this is an important number when we analyze the caps that we put on the number of short-term rentals in our vicinity. I think everybody knows that there's two types of rentals, and these caps do not apply to the owner-occupied buildings in any of these three cities that I mentioned. It's only for the short-term rentals, the second type, which the owner does not live in. I think we all know that. I could go into the different regulations for the cities, but I'm not just to say, though, that we are very under-regulated versus the other cities. For example, Little Rock, you need to have a million-dollar liability policy if you're going to rent. Some other cities, you know, and there's a website that you can go to in Fayetteville. It lists every single short-term rental, who the owner is, who to contact. So if you have a problem with a short-term rental, you go right to that website. It's public. It's public record. And I think that everyone seems to be in agreement that there's a landlord representative readily available and that representative be available 24-7 with a close geographic location. And as one of our fellow citizens said, that's kind of a farce because it doesn't happen very frequently. So I don't know how to resolve that issue, but it is an issue. So the two burning issues in Bella Vista, I believe, are the cap. So Bella Vista's cap is 600 for a population of 35,000. Oh, too bad. I guess I should have timed it.

Thank you. The next speaker is Joelle Miller of Hamilton Drive.

Mr mayor and the council, thank you for the opportunity to speak, um, 2 quick issues. I'm kind of on the, the outside of what everybody's talking about a number of people and I have been talking about the sirens that are no longer here fortunate tornado warnings and just wondering if the city is ever going to consider bringing them back. Weather has changed and they had been very close to us and yes, we have lots of hills and things like that, which will hopefully be a deterrent. But who knows. You know and it's not a lot of us are not are concerned and would like to be able to know that should something get that As close as it did a few years ago just down the road on 71 it was close and that was that was Bella Vista so we'd like to know if the city is going to ever think about revisiting that and expenditures of money to bring that back the other thing is Excuse me very much the big city signs They look better right now. They have been cleaned up. The Bellavista garden club was involved a few years ago with the city in doing some things with it. We, when we did it, it was promised that they would be watered twice a week because that's the only way that's going to help when you plant new plants that lasted for a couple of weeks. The warring didn't happen of the plants died. Is there something that's going to be done with the signs again? The Garden Club would be willing to be an advisory on that at this point. We can't commit to really working at it, but we would like to be on an advisory committee to maybe help spruce the signs up. But the 1 thing that will have to happen, and if it's not a guarantee, if it's not guaranteed watering, at least twice a week through May through October, then don't even think about planting anything because it's not going to last. Thank you very much.

Thank you. The next speaker is see Clemens of Rose and Heath lane.

Thank you for having me. Thank you for this public forum and allowing us to speak our minds. I don't have any prepared notes. I'm speaking from the heart. I am an Arkansas native. However, my wife and I moved here two years ago. Once I retired, I wanted to come back to Arkansas and I talked her into coming too, which was a miracle, a minor miracle. We looked around and we came to the conclusion that Bella Vista was a very special community and we were attracted to that. So, here we are, we've been homeowners here for 2 years and so far we've loved it. However, that seems to be in some jeopardy. And I'm going to make this short and blunt. I asked you as our elected representatives. Do you personally want to live next door to a short term rental? Basic question. Another one is this, and I know this sounds a little harsh, but who do you represent? Do you represent the absentee landlords for the most part and the builders and the developers, or do you represent the residential homeowners of this city? I think the way you vote is going to tell us that. So thank you for your time. I promise to keep it brief to myself. Thank you again. Thank you.

Remember, we're not supposed to have cheering or jeering. Next speaker is Jay Serak of Mary, is it Mary Kirk? Overton Drive. Overton Drive, sorry.

Hi, um, I do not have a prepared speech, but I like to say that respect our property rights. So, um, I'm going to say vote yes on the raise the cap and no on the 200 foot role. The 200 foot role is kind of interesting because the statistics that you guys derive that role from is a anomaly. So, if those are the type of things that are going to. Govern your guys's decisions, I would respect you guys rethink that because that seems like a waste of time. Um, also add on to that unrelated to the short term rentals flat cameras. No. Period going forward, um, that is just another. Right that we need to deal with Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker speaker is Suzanne salt salts of Mary Kirk.

Good evening. Thank you for taking the time to continue the discussion. I'd like to begin with one statistic. According to AirDNA, Bella Vista currently has 782 active short-term rental listings. AirDNA is considered the leading analytics platform for the short-term rental industry. It attracts millions of listings across Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and other platforms, and its data is relied upon by investors, hospitality companies, and municipalities to understand STRs. I realize the number is higher than the number of permits issued by the city. That's because the city counts permits for non owner occupied short term rentals while air DNA counts active listings that are being marketed on booking platforms. Air DNA data reflects what is publicly available to travelers, regardless of whether a property appears on the city's permit list. Short-term rentals have become a significant part of Bella Vista's housing landscape. And I want to be clear, I'm not against short-term rentals. Visitors contribute to our local economy, and many homeowners rely on that income, as we just heard this evening. Tonight, however, the question before you isn't whether short-term rentals are good or bad. The question is whether now is the right time to increase the cap. I respectfully believe the answer is no. This council is also considering referring the issue of short-term rental density to the Planning Commission. I believe those decisions should happen in sequence. First, determine what the appropriate density looks like, and then decide whether the cap should be increased. Until that work has been completed, I respectfully ask you to keep the current cap at 600. My concern is what happens when SDRs become concentrated within a residential neighborhood. Lakefront homes often represent one of the largest financial investments a family will ever make. People choose these homes because of the peaceful residential lifestyle, as we've heard, that Bella Vista has always offered. When short-term rentals begin operating on both sides of a permanent resident's home, that affects not only the property value, but it changes the living experience. The quiet enjoyment of your backyard and your neighborhood begins to disappear. On my own street, as Linda said earlier, nearly half of the lakefront homes are short-term rentals. And we have one that has lake access, which has just been sold and is probably going to be turning into a short-term rental. So it's not the ones off the lake, it's the ones on the lake. That's density. That's a problem. This is a pattern occurring around the lakes throughout Bella Vista. As the Planning Commission begins its work, one question should be at the center of the discussion. How many short-term rentals are appropriate before the character of that neighborhood changes? Not how many permits Bella Vista should have. How many belong in one place? Finally, I encourage the council to also consider whether permits should automatically transfer when the property is sold, or whether they should return to the city for review under whatever policy is in place at the time. Good planning doesn't happen after a problem becomes widespread. It happens before. Tonight isn't about the number 687. It's about making sure we ask the right questions to get the correct answer. I respectfully ask you keep the cap at 600, allowing the Planning Commission to complete its work on density, and then decide whether or not to increase. Thank you very much.

Thank you. The next speaker is Kathy Geyer of Rutland Drive.

Good evening, Mayor Flynn and esteemed council members. I come before the council tonight for two reasons. One, I'm a grateful citizen and want to thank you all for your service to our city. Two, I'm a concerned citizen and I'm regarding the proposed increase of the short-term rentals in Bella Vista. As city leaders, you already know that our city is struggling under the weight of explosive growth and an infrastructure that can't yet accommodate that growth. Your constituents are already experiencing increased resident, guest, cyclist, and commercial traffic with dangerous road and driving conditions along with terrible sewage and waste management issues. An increase in STRs will only worsen this existing problem. Like many Bella Vista residents, I live in a lake neighborhood with multiple SDRs in close proximity. Those Airbnb listing advertise guest accommodation ranging from 12 to 16 plus. The guest reviews are mostly favorable that one included the quote, Our group included 14 teenage boys from a high school golf team, and they had an excellent experience. The neighbors didn't have such an excellent experience. Our street, we've had everything from loud weekend bachelor parties to a group of 12 motorcyclists that were coming for a rally. Recently, our closest STR had a total of 10 cars in the driveway that spilled into the street. Our neighbor complaints rarely yield action, so the tax-paying citizens are left to repeat these experiences all over our beautiful city. Also, after researching the city requirements and restrictions for STRs, I was shocked to learn that while residents must adhere to strict septic system occupancy and capacity guidelines, BV STRs do not. They can exceed waste capacity guidelines without any monitoring or enforcement. In fact, as the council knows, No, 1 in the city at the city level monitors or inspects the community septic systems in either existing homes or brand new builds. Apparently, that's the state's responsibility, but in speaking with the Arkansas state representative, I learned that there has not been any inspections on septic tanks in Bella Vista for over 3 years. Not 1. It seems instead of increasing the STRs in Bella Vista, a better priority would be ensuring proper management over the existing STRs and protecting our lakes and natural assets from potential sewage runoff. As the public servants and leaders of Bella Vista, the residents trust that your primary concern is protecting the safety and quality of life for your residents, not the ROI for the investors. I urge you to vote no on an increase in STRs in Bella Vista.

Thank you. Next speaker is Sylvie Gratner of York Drive. Oh, I'm sorry. Well, go ahead. Go ahead, Sylvie. It's Grabner, and yes, it's on York Drive.

Thank you.

uh good evening mayor flynn members of the city council my name is sylvia grabner my husband david and i are homeowners and licensed bellevista short-term rental permit holders and i appreciate the opportunity to speak with you tonight i would first like to express my opposition to the proposed 200 foot separation rule the issue the issue isn't where an str is located but rather how it is operated A responsible STR is a good neighbor whether another STR is next door or 500 feet away. Bella Vista already has ordinances that address the noise, parking, occupancy, and nuisance behavior. Those rules should be enforced against the few bad actors rather than creating new restrictions for everyone. A 200-foot separation rule also unfairly penalizes responsible property owners. Two homeowners could meet every requirement, yet one is approved and the other denied simply because someone else applied first. It's based solely on geography and timing. The city is already regulating the total number of STRs through a citywide permit cap. Adding a separate rule creates... a second layer of regulation that limits where those permitted properties can exist without addressing the behaviors that concern residents. If there is evidence that STR density itself creates more problems, decisions should be based on that evidence. Otherwise, we should continue enforcing the rules that already exist and have proven effective. I also urge you to vote in favor of ordinance E to increase the maximum number of short-term rentals from 600 to 687. This ordinance honors the commitment the city made when it established that up to 4% of Bella Vista's homes could be used as short-term rentals. Since then, thousands of new homes have been built, but the permit cap has remained unchanged. Increasing the cap to 687 simply restores the city's original policy. It is not an expansion beyond what was intended. It is keeping pace with Bella Vista's growth. David and I, my husband, David and I know firsthand the value of short-term rentals. Several years ago, we visited Bella Vista and stayed in an STR. We fell in love with this community and knew it was where we wanted to retire. Today, we are proud homeowners and our story is one shared by many who first discovered Bella Vista through a short-term rental. Short-term rentals are also a vital part of Bella Vista's economic ecosystem. Visitors who stay in STRs dine in our restaurants, shop in our stores, buy groceries, play golf, rent bikes, and enjoy our trails and lakes. In doing so, they support local businesses, generate tax revenue, and strengthen the economy that benefits both residents and visitors alike. I respectfully ask that you vote no on the proposed 200-foot separation rule and yes on the ordinance to increase the permit count. Thank you for your time, service, and your consideration.

Thank you. The next speaker is Charlie Mears of Howick Circle.

Good evening. Um, I am, uh, the owner and, uh, host and the cleaning, uh, crew at, uh, three Howick circle. And, uh, we chose, uh, to do short term rental over long term rental, uh, for investments in, uh, in Bella Vista. Um, simply because we believe that the quality of renters in the short term rental game, uh, are higher and I've doing it a little over a year now and we have had wonderful guests. Um, they've come for all types of of different activities, not just to enjoy our, uh, cities, uh, amenities. Um, but people who coming in to do, uh. work, you know, volunteer work or a pastor, I believe, came in, stayed a month with us one time while he was doing some sort of charity work within his church organization. You know, I don't envy any of you sitting up here because, unfortunately, when people live next to people, there's always going to be complainers. And so, I haven't pointed my finger at any of you. Thank you. Anyways, I would encourage you to vote yes to raising our cap. As a home builder, I would like to continue to own more STRs and bring in great people to our community. And I also would like you to vote no to the $200 cap. setback, whatever that exactly is. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

We need to cut down on the cheering and jeering folks. Next one is Tim Sullivan of Fulford Circle. I happen to know this person is a huge tennis star. I don't know what else he would talk about other than tennis, but we'll see.

Mayor, City Council, City Council, I've been a resident of Bella Vista for 27 years. I urge you to vote no on Amendment 1643. And I'm sorry, I guess I'm one of the complainers. And to start, secondly, and to start an amendment to decrease the number of short-term rentals. If you can start an amendment to increase from the mayor's office, from the city, then why can't you start an amendment to decrease the number? As it's been pointed out, we're at 4% ratio. Fayetteville is at 1%. Why are we so high? There's no strict rule. In fact, in July of 23, The city estimated there was 460 to 480 short-term rentals. That's when you raise the number to 600. In those notes, there was nothing saying based upon population. In fact, they said they did it to preserve the lifestyle of the community. That's not happening. Let's talk about costs. Last week, there was brought up by the city that there was a request for the Freedom of Information Act that increased the workload of city employees. Asked for those requests to be more tailored next time. Who's paying for the costs related to short-term rental issues? For example, when you have to send people out for city code enforcement, that's city employment time. When you have to request city employees to follow up on permits being issued, delayed, not responses from short-term rentals, who pays for that? I'm sorry, who pays for the cost of police responses to short-term rentals when a complaint has been filed? I'm pretty sure we pay for the cost. So don't ask us to pay for more costs by increasing number of short-term rentals. If you have any doubt about how important this is to the residents, then put it on the ballot in November. Let the residents vote to increase, decrease, or maintain the number. Let the residents vote. They'll tell you what they think. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Paul Zimmerman of Pimlico Drive.

Thank you for this opportunity for me to be able to speak my mind. My name is Paul Zimmerman and I'm here tonight because I care deeply about this community. I strongly oppose any proposal to increase the number of Airbnb and other short-term rental units in our town. A home should first and foremost be a place where people live, not a revolving door for vacationers. Every time another house is converted into a short-term rental, we lose another opportunity for a family, a young couple, or a retiree to become our neighbors. We lose people who volunteer, support our schools, attend our churches, and invest their time and hearts into this community. Communities aren't built by weekend visitors, they're built by permanent residents. Many of us chose to live here because of the quiet neighborhoods, the sense of security, and the relationships we've built over the years. Expanding short term rentals threatens that. It replaces neighbors with strangers, stability with uncertainty, and community with commercial activity. This isn't about being against tourism or against property owners making a profit. It's about priorities. When financial gain for a few begins to outweigh the quality of life for everyone else, we've lost sight of what a residential community is supposed to be. Once neighborhoods begin to tip towards becoming investment properties instead of homes, it's incredibly difficult to turn back. We've seen this happen in communities across the country. I have myself too. I just retired from American Airlines 40 years, and I've been all over. Residents are priced out, neighborhoods lose their identity, and local governments are left trying to solve problems they could have prevented. Tonight, you have a choice. You can protect the people who have already invested their lives here, or you can open the door to more commercialization of our neighborhoods. I urge you to stand with the residents who call this town home every single day, protect our neighborhoods, protect our property values, protect the sense of community that makes this town special. Please vote no on increasing the number of short-term rental units. We're not asking you to take something away. We're asking you to protect what we still have. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Don Sennett of Glenwood Lane.

Good evening, and thank you for giving us this opportunity. Thank you for our citizens who think it's very important. Thank God for giving us Pelhamus. uh everybody's been saying four percent i've brought to the council's attention that that is a wrong number uh if you read the uh proposed ordinance it mentions that it's based on water hookups and i got worried about water hookups what does that mean so i went to the water department and they said that uh Yeah, there are, in fact, well, UU 17,192, it had gone up to 17,420 by the time I got there. I said, does that include just residences? And they said, no, that's total water hookups. So it doesn't include businesses. It doesn't include government. It doesn't include recreational facilities. It doesn't include the 27 churches. Hmm, that number's going down. But just by a little bit, I estimated 200 for all of those. We have 1,100 business licenses, so I'm sure that my 200 number's low. Then I asked about something that I kept seeing as I traveled. Fire hydrants. Fire hydrants. Do you know there are 1,800 fire hydrants in Bella Vista, and each of them has a water meter? What that means is the number is not right. It's not 17,420 residences. more like 14,640. Anyway, using residences as a measure for STRs is dangerous anyway, because those numbers are hard to really get. And I went over and I specifically asked people. I didn't use the internet to get the answers. The other question is, is the 4% right? Four for every 100 homes. The answer there is, ask the STR owners who have property now. Do they want more coming in? We've heard a few who are investors that, yes, they want more coming in. But what they're going to find happens is as more come in, their occupancy rate is going to go down. Their profits are going to go up. And don't forget, we have Blue Heron building hotels. They're already planned. What impact is that going to have on the STRs? Bye-bye profit. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Ben Yost of 2020. Manchester. Manchester Drive. Okay.

Good evening. Thanks for your time. My name is Ben Yost, and I own and operate short-term rentals here in Bella Vista. I'm here to speak tonight in favor of increasing the cap from 600 to 687. Really excited about turning Bella Vista into a vacation town is about responsibly keeping up with the demand that's already here. People are already coming to Bella Vista because of our incredible trails, our golf courses, our lakes, and investments in this community that you guys have made over the years. uh we're looking at increasing you know 87 homes that obviously that would increase revenues to increase um lodging tax revenue lodging tax revenue excuse me but really it goes beyond the taxes um you know those visitors have a need a place to you know eat at restaurants they go to allen's they go to harps they buy bikes they play golf they rent boats they support local contractors i support cleaners i support contractors um maintenance people et cetera et cetera et cetera these dollars they spend circulate through the community and support local jobs it's important I also understand the concerns I've heard tonight in regards to, you know, nobody wants a bad neighbor or a poorly managed rental. I don't either. The answer isn't really freezing growth. The answer to me is really continue to enforce noise ordinances, parking rules, property maintenance standards so that responsible operators can continue contributing to our community while actors are held accountable. So I think that the increase really gives the opportunity to continue benefiting from tourism while maintaining the quality of life that makes people want to come visit here in the first place. I encourage you to support this increase. It strengthens our community, our small businesses, and increases tax revenue and allows us to continue growing in a thoughtful and responsible way. I respectfully ask you to vote in favor of increasing the cap to 687 and to vote no on the density rule. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. The next speaker is Linda Feith of Northampton Drive.

Hi, thank you for letting me speak. I am an owner, occupied STR owner. I have been for seven and a half years. I am a super host. I love what I do. My people are the guests. Most of them, I would say, come to visit their grandchildren or their children or to get away to a quiet place. My neighbors have rented my place when they have family coming in town. But what I want to speak to is that 4% of Bella Vista's permits, 687, right? 4%. If you're comparing that to Fayetteville at 1%, how many permits is that? I don't understand why we are comparing Bella Vista to other places that don't really have that much in common with our community. So there's that. Also, I'd like to speak to having difficulty in a problem situation of getting a hold of the owner or the, you know, someone. All I have to do is pick up the phone and call Airbnb or VRBO and get customer service, and they will ask me if my issue is a safety concern, and I can say yes. And I don't hear a lot of people utilizing that information because honestly, if Airbnb or VRBO call me and tell me they're having a complaint that, you know, whatever, it's never happened, but just as an example. they're the ones that cut my paycheck they're the ones that do the payout if you want to have some effect on the owners go to the money because these big platforms the rbo evolve airbnb they're the ones that pay us and they're the ones that will pull our listings And that also, I want to go back to there being comments made about deterioration of the neighborhood because they don't care about the landscaping. Please remember that as short-term rental owners, whether we're owner-occupied or not, we operate on reviews. There are enough short-term rentals here to keep us on our toes for the competition. You have to have a beautiful place. It has to be clean inside and out. It has to be everything that they want perfectly, because if you get even a four-star review, and it'll pull down your points, and pretty soon you're not gonna get the bookings. In this business, you have to get bookings to get bookings. And that's all I have to say. Good.

Thank you. The next speaker is Tommy Brayton of Pomona Drive.

Mayor, it's Tommy Freitag. Thank you. Council members, our community has spoken clearly. We do not want more short-term rentals. Bella Vista is no longer just a retirement town. We are now a mix of retirees and new residents brought here by the rapid construction and growth that makes neighborhood stability more important than ever. The short-term cap was set at $600 to protect that stability. Raising it to 687 simply because we have more houses is not responsible policy. It's convenient math, not thoughtful governance. Residents are already dealing with increased noise, parking congestions, traffic, and emergency calls tied to weekly turnover. Every additional short-term rental erodes the quiet, predictable environment that both retirees and working families depend on. That brings us to the real question. What is the city actually getting out of increasing the short-term rentals? Because it's certainly not better quality for life of the residents. Expanding the cap benefit for a small group of investors while thousands of full-time residents absorb the consequences. REDUCED SAFETY, LESS HOUSING AVAILABILITY AND DECLINING NEIGHBORHOOD COHESION. THE SIMPLE TRUTH, THERE IS NO DEMONSTRATED COMMUNITY BENEFIT TO INCREASE SHORT-TERM RENTALS. ONLY COMMUNITY RISK. UNTIL YOU CAN PROVE THAT MORE SHORT-TERM RENTALS WON'T DAMAGE THE CHARACTER AND LIVABILITY OF THIS COMMUNITY, THE CAP SHOULD STAY EXACTLY WHERE IT IS. So tonight, I'm asking, along with fellow residents, of you directly, vote no on any increase in the short-term rental cap. Stand with the people who live here, not with investors who profit. Residents are saying loud and clear, enough is enough. Protect the community we built.

Thank you. The next speaker is Greg and I'm sorry, Kendall and Carissa Pope.

Hi, my name is Kendall. Thank you for your time this evening. So we own three Airbnb's short-term rentals. We are the crew. We clean, maintenance everything that needs to be done. We do ourselves. We live here in Bella Vista. We have for 25 years now. We have long-term rentals as well. Um, some of the things that I was thinking, I was listening to these people speak, even if in the rare occasion that we do, um, get a bad guest, we've had some, but probably less than 5%. Um, what are the disadvantages of, um, of a bad neighbor? Like you can get a bad neighbor yet. They're going to be there for years or you get a, person there for the weekend, and they're gone in a weekend. But we haven't had that issue. So, I mean, we want you to vote yes for the increase and no for the separation rule. Like I said, we've been doing this for like, what, seven years now? And the amount of guests that we've had, and they come in, they're all different varieties of people. Some of them are bikers, some of them are golfers. Some people need some place to stay while they're looking for a house to purchase here in bella vista um and you know somebody earlier was mentioned vacation rentals um years ago when i moved here my dad got a job for walmart vacation rentals was like the inventor of short-term rentals so a lot of uh bella vista was was built on that so um again thank you for your time and y'all have a good night

Thank you. The next speaker is Greg and Donna Henry.

Hello, I'm not at all prepared for this, so I'm just going to kind of wing it, but I am also here about the short term rentals. My husband and I, we have children, we have grandchildren and for the last 25 years we have visited many airbnbs all over the country and we appreciate the ability to all stay under one roof and not, you know, we can cook around meals and everything if we want to. And we don't have to have a bunch of hotel rooms. So, having said that about a year ago, we came across an opportunity that we needed to make an investment. So we thought we would purchase an Airbnb. We looked all over and fell in love with the house here in Bella Vista. We do not live in Bella Vista, but we are 8 miles from our house here. and um we're very involved we have a local property manager excuse me i'm very nervous and she is available 24 7. i've had zero complaints it is large house it it doesn't always have a lot of guests but it sometimes does have a lot of guests so having said that the neighbors have never complained we do talk to the neighbors on both sides frequently they have all said that everybody is very respectful and as far as our house they take good care of our house so we don't get dirt bags coming in we do take care we have a very large driveway so we don't have a street problem We do take care of the landscaping. It looks better than it did when we bought it. So just defending Airbnbs and also is very grateful that we got in under the 600 because that was a concern after we bought the house because we've had it almost a year that there was a limit and we had to hurry up. So I vote that you do increase and not the 200 foot density rule. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Rita Clemens of Heather Brook Lane. Yes.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor and the council members. We appreciate all that you do for us. We have been operating our Airbnb for seven years now in October, and it's been nothing but a blessing for us. I just want to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm turning 82 next month, and I think operating What we have going on helps keep me young. I mean, I just look so forward to our guests when they come home, whether it's from work or it might be a nurse. We very much put our schedule to whatever our guests needs. Like during COVID, we shut down the house at three o'clock in the afternoon because we had nurses that needed to get up at midnight to go to work. So that's how dedicated we are. We're just very much involved with each one that comes in our constant reviews say they feel like family when they come and stay with us. And that's what we would desire. So many people ask my husband, do you cook for them? And what do you always say?

If I like them, they get a good meal.

And obviously, we like everybody. But we've been able to maintain a beautiful business in a beautiful neighborhood. Our neighbors never complain. We've not had any problems at all. My husband used to be a landscaper, and he still works his heart out, even keeping the common property beautiful right next to our property. OK, honey, what would you like to say?

I've lived in Bella Vista for 30 years now and remember before we had a city and vacation rentals built Bella Vista. So I'm going to say no to the 200 foot rule and I'm not sure I'm on the fence myself whether we need to increase it. I don't feel like we do, but we might be.

My heart does go out to those that live in neighborhoods where the whole house is noisy. I mean, I certainly understand that. I just want to keep doing what I'm doing and, you know, be able to welcome students and nurses and people that are here for recreation. Sometimes it's a wedding, sometimes it's a funeral. And, you know, we just we were just there to give them a temporary home. that they feel welcome in and feel like family. Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you. The next speaker is Stacy Lamb of Lake Shore Drive.

Good evening. Thanks for having us here. A few years ago, you assured us that the 4% calculation of built homes was a reasonable number of SDRs, and that it would be adjusted in the future as the city grew. So I just want to ask you to please uphold that promise and vote yes for an increase of SDR permits. There's still great demand in northwest Arkansas. It's not just Bella Vista, but there is great demand for short-term rentals and visitors to the area. Last year alone, Bella Vista had over 20,000 reservations and seven total police calls for the same period. This police incident rate does not support even more property restrictions such as a 200-foot radius rule. I realize that I'm gonna go off script here just because I hear everybody behind me upset about density, about people on their streets, in their lakefront properties. I too live in a waterfront home. on a lake, but the truth is none of the data that the city has shows that there's an actual problem. There's not police calls, there's no crime. If this was anybody else except SDR owners that didn't live here, we wouldn't be having this conversation. One of the issues that I think that the city really needs to study harder with 200 foot density is the fact that with attrition, you're gonna lose many of these permits. And I don't know if this is by design or if it's because you haven't actually done some type of impact study. You're gonna lose sales tax dollars, POA fees, and just basically a lot of financial resources because these permits are gonna go away permanently when you set up this 200 foot radius situation. I did talk to Wendy Hughes last week. We sat down for a long time and kind of talked pros and cons of things. My understanding is that planning is putting together some information and data. And one thing that I was pretty disappointed about is Wendy did not know the answer to what's the question that planning is trying to answer. And if you don't start with a question, you really don't have anywhere to go with your data. And it's just gonna be a report to read. So if you don't analyze that, if you don't look at the economic impact And the actual loss of permits that you are going to have if you put in this radius situation, the data is not going to mean anything. So I hope that you will consider looking deeper into the density issue and that you will vote yes to increase like you promised that you would a couple of years ago. Thank you.

The next speaker is Peter Stevenson of St. Helens Lane. Okay. I'll move along. Next speaker is Curtis Orpin of Breton Lane.

good evening thank you um i don't want to be too redundant of what i've heard in terms of responsible str owners but my wife and i do own one and we know all the neighbors on the street they've stayed there we've had zero incidents people come here for all reasons and just to provide a little bit of perspective in terms of the black eyes, you're gonna have bad people. And I feel horrible for the people that have to suffer that. But same time in 2025, there were seven calls out of 21,000 reservations. So I just want you to take that in consideration. No on the density and yes on the cap.

Thank you. The next speaker is Kevin Kowalski of Daviat Lane.

Hello, y'all. My name is Kevin Kowalski. My wife and I, we are responsible short-term rental owners. We live here. We invest here. And we know how to be good neighbors. We're good neighbors to all our properties. They know us. They have our phone numbers. And we invest in our properties. We invest and we make our properties better than when we purchased them. And that's with dollars here locally. I want to talk about people, though. And these are the same people that come and visit Bella Vista and visit our homes that I see around this room. We're providing a place for people to come, just like you and I, where they need a place of sometimes of joy, sometimes of sadness, sometimes even in emergency times, a place to relax, escape, explore this beautiful area. Sometimes it's a transition for people as they're coming to be some of our own neighbors. So our goals as SDR owners when we got into this was to inclusively serve people. to give families and people long lasting memories where they can remember their children, to remember they came to a lake, to a place. All those great memories we all have as kids of a place that we went. That's what we want to give to our guests. So I want a city that shares the same vision and welcomes people to the city. So for me and for my wife, it's yes, an increase to 687. It's no on the 200 foot separation. And please, please, protect our personal property rights.

The next speaker is Kent Brown of Forty Wentworth. Not sure if I got that last name right.

Brown? It's easy. B-R-O-W-N. Anyway, good evening, everybody. In reference to short-term rentals, I've had long-term and short-terms in Bella Vista. My experience has been that I've had more trouble with long terms than I did with short terms. Because they didn't keep the yard the way I thought it should be taken care of. Or they didn't take care of the property. Nice thing about short terms, if they don't do what you ask them to do, they're gone in three days or four days anyway. So I really don't get too concerned. But I've had better luck with the short term rentals and taking care of the property So much so that I don't like this 200 setback. I mean, it's not setback, but distance between them. Because I actually encouraged my neighbor to get a short-term rental. They needed the extra income. I said, if you'll take that downstairs area, remodel it, put it the way it should, you can make yourself some money. And I'll guarantee you, you'll make 50% more money on a short term than you would on a long term. So it was a good income base for them. And it helped them out tremendously up to this day. But if you're going to do it within 200 feet, believe me, neighbors talk to each other. And if I have a problem or if he has a problem with any of our renters, we talk to each other as well as the renter. So far, we've had no conversations about that. It's always been a good situation. I think that as far as how many you're going to have, 600, 700, 800, I think neighbors take care of the neighborhood more so than the city ever thought about. I don't see a problem with densities. As long as you know who the owner of the property is and you have the availability to contact them. So therefore, I would say I'm not, you know, make it whatever you want to the numbers 600, 700, 800. I don't care. We have rental properties, long term. I don't see any number limit on long terms. So why would you put a limit on long terms if you'd put a limit on short terms? And also, I adamantly disagree with the 200 distance limitation. I don't think it's right to a lot of people who do live next to each other and are within that 200 feet. It's not fair to them. It's not fair to younger people coming in and giving them the or choking them off from being able to make a little bit of money out of their property so they could help make their mortgage payments. And believe me, as far as keeping their place up, their neighbors will take care of that. Thank you.

Next speaker is Julia Denniston of Applecross.

Hi, I'm Julia Denniston. I'm the owner of Julia's Lake House on Apple Cross. Been there 10 years, lived here 16. My biggest question was something similar to the gentleman just spoke is, has anybody evaluated long-term rentals? Because the short-term rentals, lawns and properties are immaculate. Don't know about the long-term rentals, but I don't know if anybody would eventually look into that. Okay. As for the 200-foot policy, I worry more about down the road when 20 years from now or whatever, and I want to sell my house, and they have to disclose that it can't be a short-term rental because I have a short-term rental within 200 feet, which limits the amount of buyers that I'm going to get. So I vote yes on increases, no on separation rule.

Thank you. The next speaker is Becky Parmalee.

Hi, guys.

I have an opinion about short-term rentals, and I'm going to keep it to myself. Okay. Hi, my name is Becky Parmelee. This is James Parmelee, my sidekick, and I've seen you all before, but thank you for hearing me. In the first full week in August since 1999, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared National Farmers Market Week. So although we're talking about tax revenue to the city, I'd like to brag just a few minutes about all of the amazing things going on at the farmer's market. In the last four years, we have had 217 different small businesses represented at the farmer's market. In 2026, we have 149 different applications, and whether that was the blueberry farmer that came for 2 weeks or folks that are there every single week, the economic impact of having a farmer's market in Bella Vista is significant and growing. It's 1 of those fun things that people can come and do while they're in town visiting. So this Sunday, August 2nd, the Bella Vista Farmers Market will be celebrating National Farmers Market Week with our live mural painting, a bounce house face painting, and temporary tattoos for kids, and our new launch of a recipe contest. You're all invited to enter the recipe contest. You just need to include three market ingredients. And you can submit that online. You'll see it on all of our social media. And we also have additional giveaways, new merchandise launching and giveaways at the top of the hour. The market is open from 7.30 to 1. We have increased our start time to accommodate for the heat. Last week, because we had 100 degrees, we did close just a little bit early to make sure all of our vendors are safe. I would also like to invite you August 9th. The Oscar Meyer Wienermobile will be there in partnership with the Bella Vista Animal Shelter, where we'll be raising money for the wiener and corgi dog races this fall. September 13th is our Hometown Heroes event. Thank you for loaning us the fire and police department to come out and be hometown heroes for all of our kids. So they're going to come and talk about what real life heroes do and how they support the community. We've invited the street department, but... That'll depend on if they have enough staffing. We know our streets need lots of TLC and October 4th is our harvest festival. We like to go out on top before we get the 1st, hard freeze. And so we'll be giving away Jack be little pumpkins to all of our favorite littles. in town. And so just a quick reminder that we do run a food insecurity program out of the market. We participate in the USDA's SNAP EBT program. And this year we're seeing a lot of P-card redemption. That's the The kids that get free and reduced lunches get some small food stamp amount over the summer. And so we're doing a lot of grant dollars for kids here in Bella Vista. And so I want to continue to thank you for your supports. Please come out and celebrate National Farmers Market Week with us and support all of those small businesses. We have 149 this year looking for your dollars. So come out and enjoy the market. And thank you so much for all of your time and your service to the community.

Thank you. That is the end of the citizen input and we thank you all for your comments and it's now time for council member reply.

Can I have a motion for a 10 minute recess or a bit of a biology break please?

Is there a second?

Second.

That was Shay Newport.

I'm not sure that's specific enough.

Shay Newport and Anna Isbell, roll call vote.

Council members Wilms? Yes. Isbell? Yes. Hunchell?

Yes.

Harp?

Yes.

Hughes? Please. And Newport? Oh, yeah.

Motion carried, so we'll have a... 10 minute break.

Do we have it? Okay, because I'm gonna go.

Sir, I'm still okay. Let's ask Jason.

Let me see.

I'm trying to think Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hmm.

Pardon me?

Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah.

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somebody's going to say. yeah.

yeah.

thank you Thank you.

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Thank you. Thank you. It's beautiful.

Thank you.

me. me. He asked me a lot of questions.

Thank you.

I would. We might want to remind before we start, tell someone to reply that it's not for debate. Up to you. We might want to remind because we do forget that, some of us.

Folks we got about one minute till we're ready to start back. I'd like to call the meeting back to order.

This is the City Council meeting July 27, 2026. Next item on the agenda is Councilmember reply to the comments. And is it Wendy?

I just want to thank everybody for coming tonight. Hearing all your impassioned conversations has been fantastic. I'll reserve my remarks for the debate portion of this to kind of expedite some time.

Shay, I also want to thank everyone for coming. I'm a big believer that democracy requires participation. So I really appreciate all of you being here. I will also save my thoughts for the debate portion of that item. Um, but I did want to reply to a couple other items that came up. Um, I believe your name was Joel or I just. Joelle, thank you. Um, I appreciate you bringing up sirens. I also share your concern deeply. Um, I've done some initial research with a, um, a siren vendor who who supplies Rogers and other areas. It would run the city, um, roughly 750,000 dollars. And I felt really strongly about adding that to the last bond issue. But unfortunately, that was not supported. Anyway, I'm with you. I think a lot of people would like to see emergency weather sirens in the area. I appreciate you coming up and speaking about that. Um, also just as clarification, I also support recycling with Republic being optional and it's my understanding that it is. Um, and then lastly, I just want to thank Becky, our wonderful farmers market operator for doing such a great job and for supporting our city. Thank you.

Larry? I would like to thank all of those who spoke tonight, both in favor of and against the STR expansion. It gives us some insight in terms of how our electorate body feels on the issue. The reality is that it is a business, and there are things that I think the average person is not aware of relative to STRs, and that is, I don't want to address those, but I've been to several conferences in the local communities Bentonville and Fayetteville specifically this year that have talked about them in more detail and they are a true business. We regulate them that way, I believe is the perspective of our code. With a change in ownership, the business has to reapply to reactivate that business at that location. Those are the rules we've used. Thank you.

I would just like to thank everybody who spoke and I will mention quite a few citizens communicated with us prior to the meeting by email or phone or whatever. So there's, there's been a lot of input aside from just tonight. Okay, that looks like it for the commentary. Uh, the next item is the monthly financial report. So I have the monthly financial report through May 31, 2026, and that total operating revenues were up 7.1% versus the prior year. So we continue to do quite well. and that also was $667,000 over budget. So our financial is quite well. The city sales tax was up 9.4% compared to last year. County sales tax was up 2.2%. Our director of finance tells me they have had a little more trouble with rebates, continuing to have trouble with sales tax rebates, but they still at least were positive And then the expenditure side, our total operating expenditures were 501,000 below budget. So that was good news. There were a little bit, a little more than a million dollars ahead of budget right now through May, which is almost half a year. So we feel good about our financial situation. And I'd like to move along now because we've had a very patient auditor And I'd like to let Kim Hall, our director of finance, introduce him.

I want to take a moment and say, thank you to our auditors this year. You know, I mentioned to you at the work session, um, that we are 2 months earlier this year. Uh, 4 of us has been our auditor now. Is it 3 years? 4 years? Something like that. 4 years plus time plus we're having so much fun. And, um, anyway, I just wanted to tell you that we are very lucky to have David and his team do our audit because as as you probably are aware that they do most of the larger cities in Arkansas. And, um, they give us the kind of attended attention that we couldn't get with the other audit firm, which is why we, we moved so that we could get our audits and get the attention. And and we've had a great team that worked for us. And I didn't want to mention 1 more time that this year part of why we were, uh, a little earlier. Uh, well, a little 2 months is a pretty big deal. What reason we were earlier is because this year, uh, the directors really stepped up and helped us get the stuff we needed to the auditors in a timely manner so that we could we could issue the report. So, thank you, David.

Well, thank you. It's a pleasure being here in front of you and talking about the objectives of our audit and the audit results. So, real quick, the objectives of our audit, we come in and look at your financial statements and issue an opinion if your financials are materially correct. They're not 100% correct, but materially correct. We also, because you are a government and receive government Grants sometimes you are required to have a government auditing standards audit. That's where we look at internal controls, um, stuff like that. Like, how, how you operate how certain certain, uh, functions of your government. And if there's any issues with that, we're required to report it to you all as a material weakness or significant efficiency. We did not find any issues that that rose to the level of where we report them as a significant efficiency or material weakness. We also look at certain compliance with state laws. We are required to go through a number of things and test if you're in compliance with state laws around your courts, traffic tickets, stuff like that. We didn't find anything to report to you. So the next slide, just real quick, management versus auditor responsibility. So it is management's, yeah, one more. So management is responsible for the financial statements, so we are not responsible for the actual numbers on there. That's this hall's responsibility and management of your city. Our job is to issue an opinion whether the financial statements are materially correct. Next slide. And we have done that as Kim said, we, we, uh, we issued a lot earlier than we did last year. Um, we did issue a clean unmodified opinion, which that's the best opinion you can get on your financial statements. We did issue on July 15th this year. And we had no material weaknesses and no non compliance noted real quick. If you remember last year, the city took on the journey to issue a gap audit. So you kind of kind of modernize the financial reporting that went off really? Well, this year again, the 2nd year. Um, it puts you with the cities that you were discussing earlier, you know, the big cities in Arkansas, Fayetteville, Fort Smith. Little rock, so you are reporting like, they do a gap financial statement audit. Um, as far as some, some quick general fund highlights, so, um, as of the year, you ended your unassigned fund balance of 5.1Million dollars in your general fund. Uh, just to remind you, uh, um, you've already spent 1.6Million of that. I mean, we are, um, almost in August. Uh, you had 2Million in capital expenditures, um. You increased a reserve, so that that's not money. You can just go spend it. Some of it has been spend, but for ongoing operations, you also, you'll see, and you're looking at your financial statements, you have 5Million and committed fund balance. That is a commitments that you all have made monies that you've set aside for that. You've committed to certain causes. Um, also, I will echo what mayor Flynn said, you know, the audit, the general fund had a favorable change in fund balance again this year. Uh, if you want to look at page 40 of the financial statements, you can see the budget to actual how you budgeted versus how you actually turned out and you'll see favorable revenue variances and favorable expense revenue, uh, expense variances. So, all in all, we had a great year. Um. We, we appreciate coming out here and doing your audit and be involved in this community. So, thank you very much. And I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

Okay, it doesn't look like there's any questions. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, now I'd like to entertain a motion. This has been the rules of order and procedure to allow all ordinances on the agenda to be read by title only.

So moved.

Second. That was Larry Wilms and Travis Harp. A roll call vote.

Council members Wilms?

Yes.

Isbell? Yes. Conchal?

Yes.

Park?

Yes.

Hughes? Yes. And Newport? Yes.

Motion carried six to zero. The next item is the consent agenda which is approval of the minutes from June 22, 2026 City Council regular meeting.

Move to approve.

Second.

That was Larry Wilms and Anna Isbell. A roll call vote on the motion to approve the consent agenda.

Council members Wilms?

Yes.

Isbell? Yes. Hunchell?

Yes.

Harp?

Yes.

Hughes? Yes. And Newport? Yes.

Motion carried six to zero. Thank you for that. The next item under unfinished business Is an ordinance amending section 1643 active permit maximum of the code of ordinances, the city of Bella Vista to increase the maximum number of short term rental permits from 600 to 687. and for other purposes, this is on 3rd reading.

Mr. I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules and move item G ahead of item E on the agenda.

2nd, that is, uh, Shane Newport and Wendy Hughes. Uh, is there any discussion on that?

What did we do?

She wants to move item G.

So I think it would make more sense to vote on item G, which is essentially sending the matter of item E over to the planning commission for review. Uh, this is theoretically where something like the idea of a 200 foot rule would be explored further. And just for clarification, uh, There is no 200 foot rule or any kind of density, um, matter at hand. So, I think it makes more sense to address that. I also believe 1 of our citizens made this suggestion and I think it's good.

Anyone else have comment on that.

The question is on motion to suspend rules. and immediately proceed to consideration of item G prior to IC.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. We'll have a roll call vote.

Council members Wilms?

Yes.

Isbell? Yes. Hanchel?

Yes.

Harp?

Yes.

Hughes? Yes. And Newport? Yes.

Motion carried six to zero. So, I'll go ahead and read item G resolution referring to the planning commission for public hearing and recommendation a zoning code change regarding density of short term rentals within residential zones. Wendy Hughes, did you want to talk about that a little bit?

Essentially, if passed, this would ask the Planning Commission to consider if density is an appropriate measure for our city. With kind of some of my frameworks around it, they are able to change on their own, considering that it would not impact owner-occupied STRs. That all current short term rentals that are non unoccupied would not be impacted. They'd be grandfathered in and that to consider a 200 foot barrier. If there's an existing non owner occupied short term rental that a new permit would not be issued. If there's a existing within less than 200 feet. This kind of considerations for them to consider before we consider increasing the limit of.

Shay and since we have a much bigger audience this week than last week, I'll, I'll repeat some of my questions I had last week, which was that just because we send this to the planning commission, they can come back and, uh, suggest whatever they like, whether they want to request a 50 foot density requirement, a 5,001 or none whatsoever. Right? So this vote just for clarity is to pass it on to the planning commission. They can study the matter. They'll have a public hearing on it and they can make whatever recommendation they feel like. Is that correct? I just want to. Okay.

Thank you.

And then just for some timeline for the audience and for us. The Planning Commission would not be able to consider this until the September meeting. And so the earliest they could possibly have a response back would be September for our council meeting in September would be the very earliest, depending on how the public hearing goes and how long they take to make a decision or recommendation. So it may be October, we don't know, but just some timelines.

I thought I might mention at this point, I asked, uh, Lacey solves about it. Who's manager, the townhouse association, because I was wondering about the 200 feet townhouses and she, uh. Was going to ask the various board members. About it, and that 1 board member got back to her and said he was concerned that it would eliminate. Potential purchasers and adversely affect fair market value and, uh. and she's having a board meeting on Wednesday, so she didn't get feedback from others yet. But if you do this, you know, obviously people will be able to get that feedback before they took any action.

Correct. And that would allow the Planning Commission also for that public hearing portion to make any recommendations, yes or no, or what stipulations, if it's a yes, they think is appropriate.

Motion to approve. Second.

It's a motion by Shane Newport, second by Wendy Hughes. So the motion is to send this matter back to the Planning Commission. Yeah, approve the resolution, right.

Roll call vote.

Sorry. Any more discussion? Yeah. Okay, roll call vote.

Council Members Wilms?

Yes.

Isabel? No. No, no. Yes. Newport yes.

Mayor, you might choose to vote if you so desire.

I'm going to say yes, because I think this particular part, the density part really needs study and it's very complicated. Really? It's a little more complicated than it 1st appears. And I think the planning commission would be, uh, it would be good to have support study of it. So, uh, motion carried 4 to 3, Craig.

Sure, because I wanted to clarify, I'm not. Opposed to this, I just don't really understand. What it's supposed to do, so I guess I just kind of stalled out on intent. So, I mean, I understand. I understand the direction, but that's trying to give so much latitude to the planning with really no mission. In my mind, I mean, I get the spacing distance. I don't see how we'd make that work at 200 feet, but. Uh, in theory, I just, I don't.

Mr. Mayor, I have a point of order. Sorry, are we debating the item after the vote?

No, no, no, I'm not debating. I'm just clarifying that I just don't quite see the direction of it.

Yeah, I allowed him to make a comment, but, but the, the, uh. Resolution is passed 43, so we'll go back to planning commission. So now we're back to E, the ordinance, um. Mayor, would you just read the title again just to make sure we've shared all the mending section 1643 active permit maximum of the code of ordinances, the city of Bella Vista to increase the maximum number of short term rental permits from 600 to 687 and for other purposes and it's on 3rd reading.

Move to approve.

That was Larry Wilms 2nd, and 2nd by Anna is Bell. So that's motion to approve the, uh. Ordinance going to 687 any discussion.

Mr Kelly, if I wanted to make a motion to table this until September's meeting, would that be out of order at this point?

There's a pending motion to approve. That's been seconded. Um, so I think. Your motion would would not be in order at this moment unless those, those motions and seconds were withdrawn. Um. Okay, since we already have a motion.

Okay. Any more discussion about, uh, the issue itself.

No, well, I'll, I'll speak great. I don't have anything to lose. Um, I, I just wanted to. Tell everybody, thanks for coming. I mean, this is huge that all the turnout, all the input and all that stuff. You know, for me as a council member, I'm not coming at this like the haves and the have-nots, the owners, the non-owners, anything like that. What I've struggled with the entire time is that there's no basis in a couple of speakers mentioned zoning. And that's where I struggle. That the whole STR thing just kind of Exploded and it just came about, um. You know, Fayetteville, they, they use, uh. They have zoning in place that makes sense. They have STR 1 and STR 2. STR 1 is owner occupied, uh, STR and then STR 2 is, you know. Investors or whatever, um. And that makes sense. I can get behind something where I have some kind of direction or understanding what's happening. And I see you shaking your heads. I mean, this is not easy. Trust me. This is not anybody sitting up here, you know, trying to keep somebody from making money or keep somebody from growing a business. That's not what this is about. I've had hundreds of emails of, you know, people's lives being disrupted by this, you know, and all these other things that and I and it's hard to absorb and interpret those those problems and try to come out with a rational outcome that makes everybody happy. We can't. um you know where i'm coming from is that i think when all this started uh the the city set the limit at 450 500 and then we jumped 600 and before you know it here we are at 687 with really nothing more than because we can't and and uh i did horrible with the names i can hardly hear anybody speak up there but There was great points made by many of the speakers. You know that that the way that this is all just coming about. It just doesn't it doesn't have. It's not grounded. It's not grounded in planning. It's not grounded in how it affects and interacts with the community. And that's the concern that I have. So for me, it's pretty, you know, I'm very community first. I'm not going to be able to support any kind of increase at this time. I will say that I would encourage everybody, no matter what side of this issue you're on, Speak to your Arkansas legislators. Whenever spring comes around, I don't know what they have cooking, but if it's anything like last year, it's going to be a big brouhaha about STR rights and property rights and all this other stuff. You guys need to be engaged and have those conversations at the state level because it's going to be a game changer. So, you know, for us for right now, I think this is a safe number, you know, it's 600. I'm here to support anybody that comes into this community, but I am going to, you know, look after the constituents that that elected me to represent their concerns, et cetera. So with that being said, I wouldn't be supportive and I would not be in support of tabling this. I think it's a little disingenuous to bring it this far, have a crowd this big, and then go through another 30 days of hand-wringing and wondering and all the anxiety attached to all that stuff. I think that you know, we've talked about this for 90 days or three months, however you want to look at it. Um, and I think we owe the voting public an answer tonight.

So she

Um, Craig, I feel like what I heard you say was that you felt like the number and all of that needs a lot more community involvement and community study, which is why I think sending it to the planning commission is the correct move, at least for now. Um, I'm really grateful that we're doing that since. I don't think it makes any sense to vote on this without hearing them. And we have now officially asked for their input. So why would we vote on the matter before hearing their input? Uh, so I don't support voting on this tonight. I agree that we've had plenty of time. It's unfortunate that this is just now coming out to send it to planning commission. I think it took all of us a while to understand and hear public input. And to understand, it really is interesting. Just for the record, I received 46 emails. 24 of them were actually from citizens. So those are the ones that matter to me. And it was literally 12 and 12 in favor and against. And then tonight, what I felt like I heard was 13 in support and 10 against. So it's pretty balanced. And I think because of that consistent feedback that we get and a lot of legitimate points on both sides, it makes sense for the Planning Commission to have a public hearing and to be able to give us some more detailed recommendations. So I'm not in support of voting on this tonight. I think since we asked for the Planning Commission's opinion, we should wait and receive it before voting on this matter. And I wish I would have raised my hand faster to table this until September.

Well, I mean, to that end, like I said, I mean, we've been talking about this for three months and I'm not trying to rush a vote or anything like that. I just don't. We keep getting to the end of a conversation and then, yeah, but and then we recycle, we have motions, amendments, all the things. and we don't carry it through. We're getting to this point where we're talking about, why are we talking about this for four months? I mean, I understand the thrust behind getting the Planning Commission involved. Those are conversations you get ahead with planning months ago. Just conversations, not an organized meeting. You go into their office and say, hey, why don't we talk about doing this or that? And then bring that to the work session. or bring that to the conversation on the front end and i'm not saying that you have to have every single idea in front of you when something kicks off but we're this far into it and you know i i just uh the the timing is not good i think we owe it to somebody or you know to our to our our voters to make some kind of rational decision. So anyway, I digress.

Wendy?

Just regarding the discussion of it, this was brought up as a density as an option or a discussion on month two at the work session. Then there's work that has to go behind that because it has zoning regulations and changes. There is a process. And so it was brought up. And it was discussed in the public. I know I got emails about it then and comments about it and stopped in stores, talked about it. And so this has not just a, let's just throw it out there and see what catches. It's a, this has been talked about and considered since month two at the work session that we had back in July. So thanks.

I just thought I'd mention I communicated with Taylor Robertson who's over planning and development. I wanted to reaffirm her department's position and she said we remain neutral. There is no APA best practice recommendation and it is dependent on what the community wants slash public engagement. So it's good that we got so much feedback from people. I'm not a voter. These people are voters. But I really wanted to get feedback on what people wanted. And I have tremendous respect for the people who own STRs. And, you know, the last time we talked about this, there was a lot of vilifying of people. You know, there are people who are following the rules and a lot of them are doing a great job and trying to do the right thing. But I've been convinced beyond a shadow. There's one guy said, hey, we need to get this on the ballot and have a vote. I know how that vote would come out now. I now know that. I was amazed at how many people said we should stay at 600. It's overwhelming, the number of people. In fact, I haven't found anybody who's for increasing it unless they own an STR Or they're thinking of getting one. I'm not saying there isn't such a person, but I have not found one, literally. So I think the actual vote is about 504 and 30,000 against and probably 5,000. You know, there's always people undecided or haven't given it any thought or whatever, right? So I have tremendous respect for the people who have SDRs. I feel for people who want to start one and now you're at the cap and all that, but I think we're supposed to do what the majority of people want. I feel positive now what the majority of people want is to hang at 600, not to go even one higher.

Larry? I guess the emails and public citizen involvement that I have, It's predominantly negative about increasing the number. It's clear and simple that the number overwhelmingly of the residents is no. That doesn't affect my opinion because I try to base my decision on voting issues that affect the community based on how it affects the community overall and in the long term. Tomorrow is one thing. But looking at it, how it will affect us for the next 10 years is more important. So when I look at an issue, I look at it over the long term. There are horror stories about poorly managed STRs. We get them regularly. In fact, there's a lady that talks with me every time I see her because there are three in her neighborhood and they're continually having parking problems, noise problems and and all of those kinds of things. And that's the typical response that we get. That's not true of all of you. All of the owners, some of them are very responsible, are very diligent about their accommodations and about the people who come and rent from them. And I've used those. They're nice. They're convenient. They do fill a void when you don't have hotel capacity in the community. a much higher visibility in Bella Vista with our bike program, our trail program. So we need some accommodation here. There's no question about it. The 4% that was chosen initially was an arbitrary number. If you look at Fayetteville, I think they may have used 1%. I don't know what Little Rock used, but those were arbitrary numbers based upon some practical research that was done by the individuals working with our staff to create the first draft code. Does that mean there's a rationale for that number to be increased because we have more houses here? Well, we have 38,250 buildable lots in Bella Vista. Not all of those are built on today. There are many vacant ones. We have about 16 or 17,000 that are improved, meaning they have a building permit or they have a structure on. Many of them, perhaps up to 3,000 lots, are owned by the same person who wants space. They buy the lot next door or the two lots next door so that they have some space. They don't feel closed in. We have all sorts of issues here. We have also the POA. The POA is a separate quasi-governing body. We need to deal with their rules like they need to deal with the rules under granted cities under the statutes adopted by Arkansas. So there are a lot of things that we need to work together with and for the betterment of the community. We've tried to do that in our tenure since we've incorporated in 2007. We're a new city. We weren't here before. All of our development planning had been done and the 38,000 lots created before the City became incorporated. So we're after the fact. So zoning and all sorts of standards for roadways, lot sizes and other things were out of our control. They were done before we came into the scene. Um, I, I personally, based on the input I've gotten from residents cannot support this, even though I made the motion to adopt the rule.

Uh, Anna.

So first of all, thank you for everyone that came to speak. There was a lot of really good points that were brought up. It makes the decision that much harder because a lot of the comments that are made are sometimes on firsthand experience. There's a lot of emotion in a lot of those. And so for me, I just go back to the oath that we take as city council members to uphold the Constitution. And so sometimes that requires us to defend the rights of the few, even if the majority sees things differently. And so when I think about the rights of homeowners, I think that a lot of the things we're talking about up here today, limiting the ability to rent your home, putting 200-foot density requirements or whatever on them is really a slap in the face to our residents. If we have issues with short-term rental owners, we have methods to cure that. We have legal methods to cure that. That is up to the mayor, code enforcement, and our police officers to enforce those. But it also starts with our residents. If you are having an issue, that is illegal or against our code, we need you to call the police. We need you to call the non-emergency line and report an issue. And then it needs to be addressed by our law enforcement agents and our code enforcement. That's number one. If we've only received seven calls in 12 months, that doesn't tell me we have a problem. But what I hear is that we do have a problem in a lot of residents in some of these homes, but it's not reflected in the data. So do i go with hearsay or do i go with what we have on the books and do i go with what i my sworn oath is to do and i have to go with protect the few i have a feeling i'll be outvoted but i'm going to vote to expand that number and i don't align with the 200 foot or whatever it is thing so thank you again for everyone that came out tonight i appreciate it anybody else

I'm just going to say that if we do have to vote on this tonight ahead of the planning commission, then I will be voting against it because it does not make any sense to increase the number without having direct without having considered the recommendation of the planning commission. But that being said, there's no rule to prevent us from immediately after hearing their feedback, creating a new ordinance with their. Uh, with their recommendations, so regardless of how the rest of the council feels about if we're going to settle this tonight, it won't be because we're going to hear back from the planning commission and. I will make sure that that that is at least considered and voted on. So. We can vote on it now. We'll have to vote on it again in September, October. It's really up to us, but.

Okay, and and just for clarification, uh. Item G was presented last week at the work session, correct?

Well, it's a resolution, so that's how it works. But the idea that was originally presented in the June work session.

It's a discussion item. Is that what it was?

As a discussion item.

Anna.

So is there really anything preventing us from voting on increase or not tonight and still going back to the 200 and adding additional requirements later on?

I think there's something being conflated here. There's a difference between density and the total number of permits. Those are different things. So the Planning Commission, what you sent to them is for recommendation on a zoning code change regarding density, which would, you're recommending a 200-foot buffer and whatnot. That is disconnected from the total number of permits. So you could have, this isn't suggested, you could have 2,000 permits but if you still you could still have a 200 foot buffer so you know it it's just going to become harder to meet the spacing requirements given the total number of permits potentially but spacing which is density uh is different than the total number of permits so the planning commission is not going to make a recommendation to you about the total number of permits no they're going to make a recommendation to you about density correct uh thank you shea

And my position is that it does not make sense to add eighty seven new permits. That could go anywhere right now, because there are no density that hasn't been studied and there's no formal recommendation from our planning commission. So I don't think it makes sense to allow eighty seven new permits. Without considering the feedback from the planning commission, because those eighty seven, if enacted tonight can go to anyone anywhere and we're, we're, essentially ignoring the idea that the Planning Commission would give back to us. Because we've already acknowledged that anything the Planning Commission will do, the current permit holders would be grandfathered in. So we would basically release 87 new permits without using any of the feedback for the Planning Commission. That's my view on it.

Okay. With all that, I believe we're ready for a roll call vote. The, uh, ordinate the motion to, uh, men's section 1643 and increase the rental permits from 600 to 687. Roll call vote. No. Yes. No. I'm staying. No. Newport no motion fails 1 to 4 with 1 abstain. Thank you for that next 1 is, uh, ordinance, uh, under unfinished business requiring orientation and continuing education for elected officials of the city of Arkansas, establishing minimum training requirements, providing for reporting of compliance and for other purposes. This is on 2nd reading. So, do you want to go to 3rd reading or push it ahead or.

Oh, I'm fine going to 3 readings on this unless somebody has a desire to push it forward faster. Um, but basically it passed this would require newly elected officials to attend 8 hours of orientation and education training throughout the 1st year and then returning to officials to have a continuing education requirement of 6 hours per year.

Travis.

Um, thank you mayor. I feel like this is a, uh, something that you throw on the table when you don't have any other problems in the city. Um, so I think if, um. You know, in my, in my view, this is this is a problem that you solve when you don't have any other problems to solve. So either she's saying the mayor's doing a phenomenal job and running the city really great. Um, but, you know, I think whenever our firefighters and our police officers, I don't know about the place, but I know our firefighters, and paramedics, they're getting paid there. We're paying for classes for professional development and continuing education that they're not allowed to go to. So. Until we can send them to all the classes and all of the continuing education that they need. I can't support this.

So, are you saying we do have other problems in the city? Okay, just clarified. Yeah. Okay, I guess we could probably go to 3rd reading on that and. Move ahead next 1 is item H, accepting the financial audit report presented by Forbes measures LLP for the year ending December 31, 2025 question to approve. 2nd, that was Wendy Hughes and Larry Wilms motion to approve the audit report. Roll call vote.

Council member Wilms yes. Is about yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. And Newport? Yes.

Motion carried 6 to 0. Thank you for that. Next 1 is a resolution authorizing the mayor and city clerk to enter into an amendment to the solid waste contract with allied services, LLC, DBA, Republic service and bill of visits to provide a 3 year extension to the current agreement and to provide an opportunity for curbside recycling in the city. Uh, you know, I got some emails from a few citizens and, uh, I wanted to clear up a few things that so this is. A new garbage contract or an extension of the garbage contract, and it would be the same rate in 2027 as it is this year. Uh, but the part some people were confused was the recycling part is optional, whether you can choose to sign up for the recycling or not have recycling. So, some people were concerned they're being forced into recycling and that's not the case. You can sign up for it. We need to get 1250 people and it would cost 6 dollars 50 cents a month. And it would come once a month and, uh, our, uh, Jennifer Fagan and Republic services is here. If you have some.

Technical questions, Larry, my question would be is yard waste is an optional service to members in the community. Uh, that are served by Republic, uh, waste services. I subscribe to that and it's a great benefit to us to me. Uh, I'm sure other people that subscribe to that service find it to benefit as well. Um, so I'm assuming that this is a subscription thing where you choose to include and add that fee per month based upon how many units you have, or how many containers you get. Is it. One container and you pick up?

One time a month.

One time a month, so you'll have a schedule. All of us will have a schedule wherever we live or is it just you're going to do all of it in one day?

Well, depending on how many people we get signed up and everything, then we'll figure out how we're going to route that and let everybody know.

How many trucks you have to put out there. Okay.

Yeah. It'll work a lot like the yard waste program.

It'll go year round, whereas yard waste just runs from like every... Yard waste, I'm on a Friday pickup, and so I know every Friday that your truck is going to be there. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I should clarify that. Uh, so I feel like this, uh, proposal has the maximum freedom. Because you can use, uh, the recycling curbside recycling. You can still use our existing recycling service, which I think many people will you can use both. Are you going to use neither? So it's maximum freedom for the individual, uh, Wendy.

I want to press by saying we're big recyclers at our house. We came from Fayetteville seven years ago where we had free curbside recycling sorted at your curb, which is fantastic, for free. So that all to say, I did get a message almost immediately after our meeting from the mayor of Centerton who said that those rates seem high. They use waste management, and their all-inclusive rate for weekly curbside recycling is $18.95. Our base rate for trash, I think, is $18.28. They're a different company. They're a smaller community. I reached out to Pea Ridge and they use Republic. And their weekly curbside recycling pickup and trash is $17.30 a month. Again, I think ours is $18.28 just for trash. But there are smaller communities. I reached out to Bentonville and asked, I called the utilities and said, hey, use Republic. What are your costs? And their weekly curbside recycling pickup and trash is $17.48 a month. So I'm having some problems figuring out why we are spending more as well as this stands for less services to begin with. Is it too late to put this out to a bid? Because I feel like bids create competition and pricing and, frankly, paying an additional $6.50 a month for a service for once a month that 1,250 homes have to sign up for and keep in service for. If there's a three month gap where there's three months where people it dips under 1,250, it's gone. i'm having some problems with this i think it's irresponsible financially to not put it out for a bid especially when we've had this contract for at least 13 years signed by mayor anderson and i don't see any biz we've ever had with any other services i just is it jason is it too late to put to a bid

No, it's not. There's a timetable in the existing agreement, whereas we would have to notify Republic of our intent not to renew. And then we would need to, I believe that date is in September. Don't hold me to that, but I believe it's in the first part of September. And then that would initiate a process of putting out requests for a bid and doing all that. 1 of the unique things about Bella Vista is that the company that collects the trash also sends out the billing and we are unique to that. And so that is an aspect of of the service that has made us different over a number of years. And and from from a lot of other communities now, but there may be other communities that use them for billing too. I don't know, but I just wanted to share that.

Well, I think Jennifer may have some things to say, but there's a few things I wanted to point out. One is we're a very large community. One is we're very hilly compared to all those places. And the other is they all signed up for 100% recycling, which I believe would totally spike our existing recycling center. And I know there's at least some people in council who are supportive of the recycling center. So my thinking was this was a way To kind of dip our toe in the water of recycling and without going all the way in yet and, uh, kind of a transitional type thing. That's why it's a short number of years, but kind of a transitional type thing. And just see where we go from here, uh, would the price imagine we get better after several years. Mayor Travis thanks mayor.

I'm not going to lie to anybody and say that I've studied the price of this from any other city, but what I can tell you is the 47 square miles here in Bella Vista make it more challenging. It's hilly. They're spread out. You could take being in a campaign in Centerton and running a campaign in Bella Vista as a good example, because in Centerton, if you're running a campaign, you can go knock on 500 doors pretty rapidly. Here, if you knock on 500 doors, it's going to take you At least 8 hours, depending on how you do it, maybe 6. I don't know. But anyways, it's a lot more complicated to pick up trash here in Bella Vista. So it doesn't surprise me that our prices are high on the other end of the spectrum. No, if we could get a better deal for our citizens, then we should look into that. But I just caution you to, uh, to to knee jerk reaction during campaign season.

And he's exactly right. That's what I was going to say is that, you know, it's a whole different ballgame hauling here in Bella Vista. We run as many routes in Bella Vista as we do in Bentonville and Pea Ridge combined. So, and as the mayor said, everybody, every resident pays for both services. It's just combined. Shea.

Start getting on this first, please.

Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry.

That's okay. Um, so a couple thoughts. So I agree that if we could put it out to bid to see if there is a better cost, and there might not be. And if there's not, then that's fine. But one pick up a month for recycling is definitely not enough for the average family, especially if it's, you know, a family with children, we're going through a lot of a lot of stuff every single day. So it's just not going to be enough. And it's not going to be worth the time or money. You know, we also had a conversation, unfortunately, last week when the folks from the recycling center came in and talked about the struggles that they're having financially. And so I think we have to reasonably consider, you know, the longevity of that operation and prepare ourselves for the possibility that they could not be able to handle the full business or that they may eventually close down or limit services. And so whatever we do, it has to be a choice for the future as well. And so I started dipping our toe in the water once a week is not enough for once a month, it's not enough. I mean, even twice a month might might be enough, but I'd rather go go a little more aggressive with the whole program when we do it.

Shea.

I want to echo Anna's thoughts on reevaluating the frequency of the pickup, please. And then I would ask it would be my preference. I know our mayor is the only person authorized to sign contracts, which I respect, but I would love to see something that might where you sharpen your pencil a little on the prices. And perhaps my suggestion would be that I know you have a minimum number of subscribers that you would need, but can we see what it would look like if there are other thresholds met and if that would drive down the price.

We did give the mayor the information for every other week as well as if everybody did it. And we also gave some numbers if only 500 people participated. So the information is available. But I think it was just the idea, you know, we've always been supportive of the community and the drop off facility. And that's where, you know, I'm sure on social media you probably saw a lot of people think that by doing this, it's going to close the recycling drop-off up. And that's not the case. And it's getting the participation. The yard waste program that we offer, we have less than 1,250 that participate in it. You know, we're looking, we're trying to, you know, like he says, just get it going. The other thing I wanted to address that was talked about a lot was contamination. When people are paying extra, we do this in Joplin. We have a subscription program there. It is night and day as far as contamination goes because people who are paying extra pay attention to what they're putting in there.

That's true. Yeah, well, She came at me with a bunch of different numbers and 1 of them was to have twice a month. That's what we started with, but it was 12 dollars, 50 cents and I was concerned people would. There's some people who are dedicated when sign up for that. I was concerned that'd be tough to get enough that that was just too big a price. So, by doing once a month, we got the 650 and I think you get a 2nd, Ben for 5. so people are really gung ho and have a lot of recycling. Can sign up for the 2nd, Ben, but I thought we'd have a much better chance to get 1250 people. Uh, if at the 650, that's how we, that's how we got to where we're at Anna.

Two bins in the garage or sitting outside of the house is also a lot. And a lot of people don't have garages here. They just have carports. So we all, I don't think people want to have another huge garbage bin. So frequency is more important. Whether it's $5 or $6.50, I think people will pay it. Well, I think it lower overall, but. Hey.

I echo that I also do not want three really large bins at my house. Um, and I also would say that if we increase the frequency, it would probably keep a human being employed versus more carts sitting around, junking up the, the.

The optics of our city, and we can certainly do that. I mean, it's a small change to the agreement if we, if we want to adjust it to every other week.

Travis.

Thanks, Mary. I don't want to speak of, you know, private conversations happening, but was there any agreement that your company came to with our recycling center? I know that you all had spoke

I did speak with them after the meeting last week, and the issue is they need everything separated. They just don't, they don't have the manpower. And, you know, you heard about the struggles on, you know, plastic's not worth anything. They're losing money on glass. That's what there's a misconception when you talk recycling in that it doesn't have a cost related to it. The only thing different is where you take it. And right now, unfortunately, it costs more to take it to a recycling processing facility, even if Marks was still open here in Rogers than it does to take it to the landfill. And you heard them talking about it directly. I mean, it's not just coming from us. Um, I know Councilwoman Hughes spoke about Fayetteville. Um, Fayetteville has free recycling because it's all inclusive in their price. Um, and it's last time I looked, it was like mid twenties a month.

I remember our water bill would include our trash and it was $45 a month for a family of five to have a water bill and a trash. So

i was quite pleased personally yeah they they've had some recent changes um the city of fayetteville just changed over to single stream um where everybody's getting the carts the same type of system that we would offer here but it is a lot more expensive i don't know the exact figure but i can certainly email that to everybody

I'm Jason, by the way. I'm a GM. I also think it's worth noting we talked about bids. Just to give you a little bit of perspective, most recent bids in our area, Pea Ridge went out to bid in April. Yeah. And we were 10%, 15% lower than anyone that had bid upon it. So I just wanted to put that in perspective.

Sure. Are you with Republic, too?

Yeah, I'm Jason Everland. I'm the general manager. Okay. He's my boss. Yeah, she does a phenomenal job talking through this. I just wanted to add.

He just can't stand it, you know.

Larry.

One of the issues about recycling, we all, some of us feel better than others about being conscientious about Mother Nature and putting things back where we can reuse them like glass, recycling glass, recycling plastic, recycling your newspapers, maybe your magazines, and all that kind of stuff. The reality is that what we've seen in real life is that the demand for recycled newspaper print has gone down. The demand for plastic recycle has gone down. The demand for glass recycle has gone down to the point where now all the glass gets mixed together. It's not separated by colored and clear. It all goes together and goes the same way. So there's not a demand for that product in the recycle market area. So it has limited value. And so we want to feel good, I think, as an elected official and as a resident, we want to feel good that we're doing something for the environment. But are we really? You know, are we really? Because there are places where it goes to a recycling center, it gets separated. and more than half of it goes to the dump, goes to landfill. That's reality. We don't know about that. It's not publicized, but it does occur in some areas of the country. I'm open to that. I think this is a good start. Our recycling center is struggling. They don't have the revenues that they used to have. ability to operate as an independent nonprofit is becoming more challenging every year. And so we need to look at doing something to service our residents. I think this is a way to start that. We may need to amend it in six months because of our experience and adjust the contract again. So, as an example, more pickups, which would mean an increase in the cost, but that would be something that we could negotiate with you, so.

Absolutely. A motion to approve.

Second. That was Travis Sarp and Larry Wilms. Shay, go ahead.

So, I know I asked a question about if there was a scale and cost as the number of subscribers went up, and I heard you say that you have a number as low as 500. And that you have a minimum subscriber amount, but what if 5000 people sign up what have 10,000 sign up with the cost go down.

We would certainly be back here again because we would have to prepare for that. I mean, it would be overwhelming if we had 5000 sign up. We can certainly do it. But yes, you would be looking at more dense routes. We've been talking about density tonight. So, you know, this we want them within 200 feet. But yes, we would be we would be talking to you. I mean, we'd have to get new equipment as in trucks and stuff like that as well. I mean, that's what we're hoping for is that it, you know, before we did 5,000 people at once a month, we'd probably be looking at going to every other week because that's a pretty big demand.

And it's not possible to get it in the contract all those different rates. Is it just too complicated? Yeah.

Well, you just, we don't know what's gonna be like, in a year or 6 months or, but, you know, we've been partners. I've been here 24 years and I've been dealing with, um, the city of Bella Vista and the partnership for for many of those years. And, you know, we're. Many of us live right in this area. We're here to stay and we will be willing to come to the drawing board depending on how this works out and everything. I know the Northwest Arkansas Council is really interested in people, especially Bella Vista Recycling because it's a bigger city, as well as the recycling partnership. They've got a lot of things going on. With different grant money and different things that have a lot of possibilities here in northwest Arkansas, and I know mayor flint's a part of that. So there's a lot of different things that the future holds.

One more thing that so I'm sorry I can't still. This option that took the minimum 1250. We were very, very cognizant of how important that recycling center is for a lot of the residents here. So this was an opportunity to really test the scale. Is the interest truly there for an all-encompassing, everyone pays for it? But what this does is this allows others to not supplement the cost if they still want to go to the recycling side, right?

Good job. Shay.

In all likelihood, if I sign up and if this passes, I'll sign up and give you guys the, uh, less desirable recycling and i'll take all the profitable recycling to our recycling center to support them so um perfect yeah just no glass right yeah they're stuck with that um i'm just trying to think about how to address the frequency concern that i think a lot of us share is there yeah yeah that's my question so i'm looking through all of them and as it's written today if we pass this we pass with one per month or

Yes, I think that's in the contract, right.

As it is today. Okay, so we can send it back for revisions if we vote no.

You're right.

Thank you. But we could also do some type of language that says that we can further...

I've got to direct you to Companies Council to answer your questions about what Republic could do. The Council has this proposed amendment. If you don't approve it, then the contract is not amended and we're going to have to figure out what to do. That's where you're going to be. Whether Republic is going to agree to further negotiate, that's not a given.

And we can't amend a resolution, right? We certainly can't.

The council can't negotiate, can't dictate the terms of the agreement.

But we can say that if I happen to vote no in a minute, I would love to see you back next month with a two-month frequency proposal and a lower cost.

You mean twice a month?

Yes, that. Come to my house twice a month, please.

a question is is it possible just to uh approve uh with changes no no not at this time no okay i mean any changes that have to be further negotiated we wording is important this is a very this is a huge contract when you think about the money for the company and the city and the citizens yeah so it has to be we're not going to throw this together on the back of a note card and just get something done with this contract that's not going to happen yeah

So while we have a motion second, I guess we'd go ahead with the roll call vote.

Council members Wilms.

Yes.

Isbell. No. Hanchel.

Yes.

Harp.

Yes.

Hughes. No. Newport. No.

Mayor, you may vote in favor if you so choose.

Yeah, I'll vote in favor. Yeah, motion passes four to three. Thank you for all the discussion. It was very good. Let's see next thing on the is the announcements next city council work session 6 PM, Monday, August 17 at Bella Vista district court next city council, regular meeting 6 PM, Monday, August 24 at Bella Vista district court planning commission work session for 30 PM Thursday, July 30 is canceled due to lack of business. Planning Commission regular meeting will still occur 430 PM, or immediately after the on Monday, August 10, well, this is the district court board of construction appeals. 3 PM Tuesday, August 11. if necessary at fire station number 1 conference room. 103 town center with that you're adjourned. Thank you for all your hard work.