Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Jensen Tilkkey present. Rick Davis is absent. Kina Hagood present. Cassidy Cook here. Kevin Gabriel here. Ray Quinn here. Grace Reigns present. We have a quorum. I'll take a motion to approve the minutes from the January 20th meeting. Motion to approve. We have a second. Second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. Our first item tonight is a subdivision review, which is a non-public hearing. So, we'll get started with a request for preliminary plat approval at 51 Southerntherland Road.

All right. So this is a site of 29 approximately 29 acres and the applicant is requesting to a preliminary approval for 96 lots with three open space tracks. The lots are consistent with the R1 zoning requirements. This property was recently reszoned from A1 to R1 at the last planning commission meeting and that was approved by council. So um currently the street and drainage plans are under review by the city engineer and the applicant will need to meet all the standards of the drainage criteria for the city and will need to be approved by the city engineer before they can proceed with any sort of improvements to the site. Um the lots meet the criteria for lot width, depth and area standards and the development is consistent with the comprehensive plan goals. the corrections. There are some corrections that are noted. The um the application is still in review and so corrections that have been noted by city staff will need to be made before it is fully approved. And there are 15 conditions, one of which um just to highlight that no um improvements can be made on the site until those street and drainage plans are approved. And I do want to make a note for condition number 15. I spoke with the um the agent for the applicant last week and condition number 15. Should the configuration of the subdivision layout change as a result of adjustments to the street and drainage plan, the applicant must submit a new plat for review and approval by the planning commission after speaking with the agent for the applicant. That language is rather ambiguous and it is very unlikely that there would be any additional lots. Should there be any additional lots, it is um they will need to come back to the planning commission, but if they have a reduction in lots, they wouldn't need to. And so there is a

request to have that um stricken. And I'm available for um to answer any questions. Any questions? Right. Is the applicant here to speak? If you could please state your name and address for the record.

Uh Mark Reteran. I'm with Holloway Engineering at 200 KC Drive in ML and I appreciate your consideration of this project and uh she really explained it very well. Uh so there isn't anything I have to add except that uh uh that we'd um ask for approval contingent upon satisfaction of all the engineering and planning staff review comments and all the conditions and corrections are acceptable except for obviously the 15th one that you would like. Okay.

Any questions for the applicant? Right. Thank you. All right, commissioners. Um, obviously we've been asked to remove the 15th condition. Um, so if we want to there's any comments first, we can talk about that. But if we would like to remove the 15th condition, we will take a vote on that first. Motion to re remove condition number 15. We have a second. I'll second it. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, we're down to the 14 conditions. So with that, do we have a motion to approve with the corrections and conditions? Make a motion to approve with the correction as presented.

Second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed?

Right. That passes. Right. We'll move on to our public hearing items. Just a reminder, the Conway Planning Commission makes recommendations to the city council on public hearing items. Items reviewed on this agenda will be considered by the city council as early as February 24th, 2026. Items not approved by the planning commission may be appealed to the city council within 30 days of the date of denial and the applicant uh will have 10 minutes to speak. I am correct in my time right. 10. Okay. And then all subsequent speakers will have three minutes. Same goes for those opposed. First speaker will have 10 minutes. Everyone after will have three minutes. And we limit that to three each. So, the first item tonight is a request for conditional use permit to allow up to 12 dwelling units per acre in an R2 zoning district for property located at three Susan Lane.

Correct. This property is located at three Susan Lane, which was recently platted as lot 17 of the Maxwell Villa subdivision. It's around 60 ft south of the intersection of Bowie and Susan Lane. The approximate location or area of the site is 1 acre. It is zoned R2, which is our lowdensity residential zoning. Adjacent zonings to the north and west are R2, east and south are R2 and R1. Um the conditioned requested use is for 12 dwelling units per acre on one single lot. There are no existing structures and it's not located in any overlay zones and our comprehensive plan indicates it for single family use. If developed as proposed, the projected impact for 12 dwelling units would be um in the form of that's laid out would be up to 86 trips per typical day, all off of Susan Lane there. That would then tie into Bowie and West. Current traffic is 2,300 trips a day at Meadow Lake and West Street. It's not located within the FEMA flood zones. Any extension of coordination of utilities will need to happen with Conway Corporation. Susan Lane is a local residential and is a proposed driveway in for the site would be developed as part of site development review and there are no street improvement plans for Susan Lane at this time. So the entire lot um this lot and as part of the the Maxwell Villa subdivision was reszoned from R1 to R2 back in February of 2024 for uh duplex development and it was always the intent of this lot to be left for a higher density development later on. Um but at the time there was no plan to develop it um as such. Um up to 12 dwelling units an acre is not allowed by right in the R2 zone but it is with a conditional use permit. Adjacent land uses will be the 16 uh subdiv or platted duplex lots along Willow Ridge Circle that gain access that way. And this would be 12 units along Susan Lane in that driveway. Based solely on acreage, they could accommodate 12 dwelling units. If developed is shown, they still have to account for fire apparatus turnaround, which is why you have the hammerhead green space parking distance requirements for access. That

development review will be required as a part of approval of this conditional use permit. Um, based on what is kind of adjacent north of North Market Plaza, the area of the PUB, it's a mixeduse family uh single family apartment and commercial development. There's also a lot of duplexes in the area that are zoned R2 and both R1. This area kind of has a mix. So it would be a good transition between the higher density uses along Meadow Lake Road. As I mentioned before, site development review will be required and will determine the final units. They still have to account for green space, lot coverage, detention, parking, and all of the metrics of site development review. Planning staff, should you choose to um approve this recommended 10 conditions. Does anybody have any questions?

Can you speak to the um emails we got regarding this the um neighbors not receiving information? Absolutely. So, when this was reszoned back in February of 24, this was not just lot 17. It was the entire subdivision, which was almost 7 acres. So, that's a lot bigger property. So, everybody within 200 feet of 7 acres got a letter. So, tonight we're looking at one acre. So, that got very small. Um, when it came to the subdivision, those are not public hearing items. So, there were no public notifications that were required. We did look back at the notifications that Mr. Pennington was required to send everybody on the 200 foot list that staff provided him was accounted for. So those metrics were correct and made.

Thank you. Any other questions?

R2. Yes. Everything to the west, those are all R2 lots. So they are accommodating duplexes. As far as I'm aware, there are 30 units. Yes, that's the max he could get off of one entrance point from Metal Lake Road. Commissioners, just as a reminder, pull your mics down when you're speaking for the people at home. My apologies. Do better, Kevin. Any other questions? Thank you. If the applicant is here to speak, before we get into the public hearing, I I just wanted to make sure that everybody got the emails today. everybody know what we're talking about in the email threads. Okay. Good evening.

Landon Sanders. I'm here on behalf of the applicant. Uh my address is 306 Salem, Sweet 106 here in Conway. Uh we agree with with all the conditions. Uh I think that uh Lauren did an excellent job summing everything up. Uh to address the drainage, which I'm sure we might hear about, the lot immediately south is the detention pond for the the larger development. Um, and the applicant has made arrangements to sod that to help filter the water. Uh, you know, we just have to wait for the right the right season, but it it's time. So, um, so he's making steps to to make sure that that gets uh gets uh uh alleviates the drainage issues that could happen from from this development if any. So,

questions questions the applicant. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Is anyone else here to speak in favor? Is anyone here to speak in opposition of this request? Please come forward and please state your name and address for the record. Good evening. My name is Chris Klein. I live at 1910 Huau Street adjacent to the larger parcel being developed by Mr. Pennington. I I understand tonight's hearing is for a conditional use permit and that storm water modeling occurs later in the process. However, after the prior phase of development behind my house, I experienced flooding damage and there continues to be drainage issues on Hu Street. Given that this is part of the same larger development area, I respectfully ask the commission to consider whether granting this cup without ensuring that prior drainage impacts have been fully mitigated could place surrounding properties at additional risk. I would request that approval, if granted, be conditional upon verification that existing drainage concerns have been addressed and that runoff will not exceed pre-development flows. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Any questions? Sure. Thank you. Appreciate you. Anyone else here to speak in opposition of the request? Right. Seeing there are none, we'll bring it back to commission.

This might be a staff or and qu. So with that question he brought up with this will tonight we're not addressing the drainage issues that will be in site development review through the process with the city as we move forward. Yes. Correct. When they go through site development review they will have to present engineered site development plans with the drainage report. They'll have to look at um a grading report and all of those plans that the city engineer will review to ensure that the drainage from this site which runs across there is a 10-ft drainage easement the entire western property boundary that all of that is mitigated through that easement and down into that detention pond.

We can't add a conditional that that can't be a part of the conditional kind of buried in condition number two that it has to go through site development review because in that instance that's when the city engineers are reviewing that would be called out. Yes, ma'am. Okay. And by reading the emails, it seems like while it's during development, they're having drainage issues, which would be a building department um you know, to enforce that to make sure all s fences and everything is up, right?

And they did they they have a lot of video and stuff like that of problems that came up on Hutto Street between the grading and before the detention pond and all that kind of stuff. I don't know that the that the water flow was more it may have been. I don't I don't know. But the fact that it was just so muddy caused a big problem. So they they were apparently taking steps to filtrate that a little better. Thank you.

Any further questions or discussion? that we'll take a motion.

I'll make a motion to approve as presented with conditions. Have a second. I'll second. Right. All those in favor? I I Any opposed? Okay. Any abstaining? Right, the motion passes. Right, that is all of our public hearing items for tonight. Uh, any additional business or announcements from the staff other than we're not going to have a March um meeting because we haven't had anything submitted. So, we will see y'all in April and Lori won't be here for the April meeting. That's all I got.

Anything else? Commissioners take a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. All in favor? I don't know. What do you