Planning - Regular Meeting

All right, let's call this meeting to order.

Have a roll call. Gilmore. Here. Miles. Here. Miller. Bailey. Here. Keppels. Here.

All right, I need a motion to approve the minutes from the meeting of June the 16th, please. So moved. All right, do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you very much. OK, number one, William Walker. Tractor supply, I understand. When we start this, I need to recuse myself on this one. Yes, sir. Thank you. Tractor supply, come on. How are you? Name and all the above.

Jake Butler with Corolla Capital, the developers for tractor supply.

Tell us what you want to do.

So I think we have applied for three variances. I'll just start with the first one, I believe, is the fence variance for the height of the fence. And I've got some graphics here for you guys to look at.

Please do.

So Tractor Supply has what they call a fenced outdoor display area, which at this site's gonna be the area behind the subway, the wooded lot behind the subway. And Tractor Supply stores a lot of their larger items out there. And so Tractor, at their current location, has a very small FOD, this one's gonna be larger, and their concern is is their racks in the FOD go up to 12 feet tall. And so what they're worried about is that the hotel next door, when they run what they call a crime index score on all their properties, which just gauges what level of crime they expect to have, and theirs is, the average is about 60 to 65, and this one came in right at 600. and they think it's just from the call outs from the hotel next door but they're very concerned about crime and people being able to reach over onto the racks being taller than the fence and just pull stuff off. So it's a problem at their current location and so they're just trying to kind of remediate that and make sure that doesn't happen here. And what I gave you is just showing kind of that fence, that area is tucked behind the subway so it's hidden, it's not super visible. and just think that that's their request.

That request number one?

Yes, sir. You want me to go through all of them?

Go ahead and do all of them.

And then the second one is for the side setback that you can see on the south side of the property. That's the property adjoining the now Gina's. So the building's been there, obviously, for a very long time, but it's not in compliance anymore. The building's built. Darrell may know, but it's very close to the property line. So I believe that's just to get that in compliance. if there's not any questions on that one. The last one is the cross-access. So the city requested cross-access between the Gina's and the former, I think that's the Dixie Cafe building. And the issue that we're having with that is tractor supply, they're fine with doing cross-access, but they wanna have what they call a shared maintenance and insurance agreement. And so tractors been onsite, they've been to town a lot. and they've seen all the big trucks coming through there that go to the post office, and that's a private drive. And so if they give cross access, there's not gonna be any way for them to have a maintenance agreement with the other property owners who use it. And so Tractor's view on it is if the other property owners are using it a lot more than they would, and then they would be responsible to fix it with no sort of agreement in there for shared cost, If somebody gets hurt on it and it's a tractor supply customer, there's nothing in there about shared insurance that everybody's going to name each other as additional insured. So it's a big deal for tractor just because of how many people are utilizing that road. I think it goes all the way out to Ray Street now. So the hotels using it, the Gina's, the old Dixie Cafe, the post office, a lot of through traffic on it. And with it being a private drive, it's just a big concern of theirs.

And we're not requiring them to use that. The ordinance is that they stub out to the adjacent property. That's up to them where they want to put it.

All right. Well, let's hit this one at a time. Members, do you all have any questions about the fenced-in area to help protect their racks and the merchandise that's on them?

I don't have a question, I think I have a statement. I don't think we've ever done a 12 foot fence variance, ever. And so that would be not only along the west side, but along the north, then east, and coming all the way back to the northeast corner of the building, three sides?

That's right, yes sir. And this is, I know it hasn't been granted, and these were all built long before that, but it's consistent with what Lowe's has and what Home Depot has. A lot of these retailers share that same problem in this category of retail. And I'll see a lot of times that they have to come for a variance just because it doesn't fit zoning codes, but it's extremely problematic for them.

Mayor, what's the city's opinion of this?

Home Depot and Lowe's both have, and Walmart, all have fences greater than 12 feet. Now, they never came for a variance, and that was all built before any of this. But there's some out there already.

Built them before we had an ordinance.

I wouldn't doubt that we had the ordinance in place. And they were just built before.

Beverly, at any of the other sites that we're talking about, has there ever been any type of a problem that was created by that?

We know of.

Okay.

Location of this is not going to impede any traffic vision or really not going to be seen much, especially from Stadium or Red Wolf.

So if the variance was granted for the 12 foot hive, would the new fence be, have any screening in it?

Yes, sir, so it would, and we've shared those with the staff, but it would have the black vinyl mesh going through it as well, yes, sir. They had a sample of that in your packet.

Do you have a picture of that? Sure.

While he's looking for that, just to add, this is a high volume store for tractor and they're extremely undersized where they're at. So I think their sales floor is 16 or 17,000 feet. It'll be 23 here. So it's a significantly larger building and quite a bit more parking. I don't know if any of y'all have ever been to the one, but it's super tight.

Every Friday.

I get it.

But I know, Kevin, you've seen those with the black vinyl on them. Okay, any more questions about number one?

Assuming we've had no opposition from any neighbors. Any opposition out there?

For the tall fence with the... With the... MESH on it? OK, seeing none, noted.

Mr. Chairman, I move we accept, grant that variance.

Is there a second?

Second.

OK, put it to a vote, please.

Miles? Yes. Miller? Bailey? Yes. .

Yes. OK, number two. Just restate that for the memory impaired.

Yeah, of course. So this is for the side setback on the south side of the property. The building was built very long ago and it's built super close to the property line and I believe this is just to get it in compliance with the current code. It doesn't meet the 10 foot setback. So it's nothing that's being added, it's just the existing building right now that's not in compliance.

Clear of the building.

South side.

Right here, okay, yeah. Be the property line between Gina's and the former Fred's building.

building was built when you could build to the property line. Questions on number two?

Mr. Chair, I move that we grant the setback variance. Second? Second.

Roll call, please. Yes. Miller? Bailey? Yes. Gilmore? Yes.

Number three. Number three is the cross-access. You can see between the I think the code is it's got to be somewhere, obviously, between the two property owners. And while that's problematic for tractors, you guys can see that's a private drive that connects all the way out to Ray Street. And it's trafficked very heavily. And so Tractor Supply's position, I understand the city's position is that we don't have to build that out, but their position is that if we grant it, we show it on a site plan, somebody can utilize it if they need to. And if somebody started utilizing it, traffic starts flowing through their property, there's nothing in there about maintenance and who's gonna take care of the road, the private drive, and the adjoining property owner's not willing to put that in place. And so without shared maintenance and without shared access, if Tractor Supply becomes a party to that drive, therefore they could be responsible and bear the entire cost for maintaining the drive, which has post office traffic running through it. I mean, it's such a problem that if you go there now, Gina's has signs up on the other side, this is a private drive trying to keep people out. I mean, it's a problematic private drive, and it's just not really something Tractor wants to be a party to without maintenance or insurance responsibilities put into place. And Tractor's just, they've had many times where they've been sued on private drives where their customer is utilizing the private drive, gets in an accident, and there's not shared insurance. All right, so, Darrell, you had mentioned they just have to put a...

designate one, is that what you're saying?

They have to stub out to the property. We don't require them to stub out to that private drive. They can stub out somewhere else to that property, the south. But that's where they seem to want to put it.

Where would you put it? I'm not sure where else we could put it.

You don't really have to attach it to the adjoining parking lot. That's correct.

You just gotta have a cut in the curb or whatever to do that. But the southern property owner could utilize that whenever, is that right? Whenever they needed to or wanted to. That's correct. That's Tractor's fear is that if they do start to utilize that and all that through traffic's now flowing through Tractor's parking lot, they're now a party at all this private drive. I understand we don't have to cut it all the way through right now, but it could be cut through. at any time and these are Fortune 500 attorneys that are looking at this and it's under a lot of scrutiny to make them party of that private driveway. If we could get maintenance and insurance agreements put in place where if the road messes up that everybody shares in the cost of fixing it, it wouldn't be an issue at all.

On this plot plan, it seems there is one cut or showing one on the plan. Am I looking at that right? You got a pointer?

Right there.

Darryl, so they were doing an addition and they're doing new parking and the additional storage of the wooded area and all that work kicks in the landscape ordinance and the cross access. Is that, sir?

And we're doing our best to comply with all the new stormwater and covering the ditches and doing the sidewalks and we're, You know, Tractor's been very willing in trying to satisfy everything. This was just one that was, they were having a lot of heartburn over, and if it wasn't such a traffic drive, probably may not be as huge a deal, but it's been problematic for Gina's already. They put several signs up over there trying to keep people from using it, but it's constant.

Do they get to keep their two driveways on the caraway?

No, we're losing our southern one and just going to one on the north.

My opinion on the cross-access is when you go from two driveways to the front to one driveway, it definitely becomes a need. Right, wrong, or indifferent. The whole purpose of that ordinance is to keep traffic off of Caraway and to bump along adjacent properties. Sure.

State your name. I'm Phillip Barr. I'm one of the owners of this property. I don't know when this became ordinance, but I have property on Southwest Drive right beside Outback. And I know this was less than three years ago. Checkers was built, replanted, and there's no cross-access there. So I don't know if this just became an ordinance or not. And we wanted it there, but we don't have it.

and certainly understand about keeping traffic off Caraway, and Tractor was concerned with that, but I think it's helpful to, I guess, try and keep in mind how much traffic is on that private drive, and that it's a lot. I mean, it's hundreds of cars a day, And so this isn't really just giving cross access to tractor. This is letting a city street be put right through them. If it was just a private drive that's dead end and people aren't using it as a cut through, it may not be that big of a deal. But, I mean, when we came here and told, you know, said, hey, that's a private drive, several people in the group didn't even know that. Everybody thought it was a city street. I mean, it's just extreme. I mean, I use it. Who doesn't use it? A bunch of people use it cut through to the post office. And so to them, you know, you're just opening up a city street right through the property without any sort of anybody taking care of it.

Well, so what we're talking about is on the Caraway side, have a larger entrance to facilitate in and out with people pulling trailers, things like that. That seems narrow for the only entrance.

We'd be great with that. As long as the city's OK with that, we'd be great with that. That may alter our parking.

I don't know that it'd affect your parking.

Assuming we can accommodate parking.

But I think a larger entrance is not gonna affect your parking.

Well, if you wanted to put a left-hand turn lane in it and a right-hand turn lane. I mean, I know you're trying to give. We're trying to give here, too. Yeah, absolutely.

No, assuming we can work out parking, we can have them look at that. We'd love that.

He said he'd love it. You heard him. Then I want you... redraw that and we'll wait on number three, or however you gentlemen want to handle that. Rick, you look consternated. Do you understand me?

Yeah, I understand you completely.

Could we approve it subject to a larger drive?

I can understand that for certain, but obviously it would need to be shown to the city.

I'm talking on the city side. I myself would rather see the drawing of how it's going to be handled personally. But I think if you will sit back and think about this, it's probably going to be the best solution for what's being talked about. So I would prefer to see a drawing before we grant that. Sure.

No problem.

I'd still like to hear the city's opinion.

I mean, we've got the ordinance. That's what we're holding it. I mean, that's what we're saying is there's an ordinance that requires it. If y'all want to vary that ordinance, that's why they're here.

I don't guess I've had it presented before. I haven't been privy to it about the liability and exposure and the maintenance agreement. I hadn't had that brought up to us before. Is that something that we should be considering as we require the cross access?

They're showing cross access to the north. I see that one. Where they're talking about, we're not requiring it to be back there. We just require it into that other parking lot. So that's where they want to draw it, but it doesn't have to be there.

Well, the cars are going from the north entrance of the old Dixie Cafe out to Ray Street. So it's not just the drive on the east side of the property. They're turning in. I would encourage everybody to go watch and sit there for a few minutes between now and when we come back and look how many cars are going through there. They're coming in at this entrance on the south, be the southwest side of the tractor supply and exiting onto Ray Street. So they're utilizing that entire drive corridor along between our southern property line and Dixie Cafe's northern property line. Does that make sense? It's not just the drive on the east side of the property. It's the entire drive lane and then the entire drive. If we give access, that's all now shared. And there's post office big trucks going through there, tons of through traffic.

We will also lose, what, one or two parking spots?

Yeah, yeah, we'll lose some parking. And you can see Tractor does some of their permanent trailer display out there in that area.

It's just, if y'all would like, I bet we can set a, we can put a camera up there and give you a count and tell you how many vehicles are actually using it. It might not be hundreds a day, but we can give you a count as to how many vehicles actually use that in a 24 or 48 hour period.

It wouldn't be a bad idea.

I would ask that the city would do that. I'm not trying to hinder. We want TSC to expand. We want TSC to move into your building. We really do. But if we keep eliminating cross access, we're not gonna try to accomplish what we've been trying to do. And you just happen to be one of them.

But when was this passed? I just asked. I've had two buildings built beside two of my buildings in the last two years, and neither one of them have cross-access.

Or it's been in place for seven or eight years that I know of.

So are we picking and choosing what we...

And that's a good point. We're trying not to pick and choose.

From the city standpoint, not from here, but from the city standpoint. Which is not good for the city.

I mean, I agree. We're not picking and choosing on, we're trying to make this ordinance work like it's supposed to.

And I didn't mean y'all. I meant from a city standpoint. Because other people replanted, got permits, built buildings, and never got it in the last two years. Right beside me, two buildings here in Jonesboro. And one of them's a big deal to me, because I would have loved to have cross access. I actually was going to approach the owner before they built checkers at Elkhart, because that would have made sense for our land right beside us. And then I thought, OK, whatever. We'll deal with it.

Well, that's unfortunate.

Yeah, I agree.

But if you put a cross access, dump onto Cooper's property. Cooper's property on that?

That's right. Yes, sir. They own the Gina's and the Dixie Cat. Yes, sir. They own the Gina's and the Dixie Cat. Right. But what about that alley? That's Cooper's property.

That's Cooper's. Cooper runs that, too.

Yeah, it's all private.

OK. So they could close it down any time they wanted to. That's right.

When I you know, that wouldn't surprise me. But if they try and do that, I mean, with Gina's putting up those signs in that back right corner of the Fred's property, there's two or one or two signs up right now. This is not a street. This is a private drive, no through traffic. It's just very problematic. And with with as much traffic as it is coming through there. I mean, did the Google car drive through there?

Yeah, that's what we're trying to figure out.

It doesn't help that right now TSC has cross access with the gas station at their current property and it's been a nightmare for them. Tons of people driving across their parking lot. It's just been really hard.

Also, I'm not sure if the Coopers want that cross-access.

No, I mean, they're trying to limit people driving through there right now with those signs.

We've said something to Tim, and he didn't act like they were interested in having that.

Who have you talked to with that?

Tim Cooper.

I'm surprised they haven't closed it. I really am. I mean, it's got to be a nuisance and a headache to them for sure.

Absolutely. And that's how TSC is looking at it. They see that if they give cross-access, now they've joined the circus. I agree with you. We do these things all over. I agree with you that cross access is needed. I live here. I understand the importance of it. We develop for tractor, build them in seven, eight states, do 10 to 15 a year, and do cross access in a lot of places. I know there's a time for it and a place for it. I just think this one is extraordinarily difficult to make it a positive thing for anybody.

I already won at Subway. I've used it.

Mr. Chair, I'd move that we place the cross-axis. Variants on the floor for vote.

Second.

Second.

Is that a second? Second. OK, there it is. Thank you.

Gilmore? No. Miles?

Really?

Hey, the immortal words of meatloaf two out of three in bed. There you go. Anything else?

If we get that larger driveway, is that something that we'll talk about it?

Bring us bring us a plan, please. That's not going to slow down your progress on rehabbing this building.

Yeah, it will. They're out of time on their lease. They're not renewing. The building's in bad shape. It's not going to affect the building. What is it? It's not going to be affecting you rehabbing that building. Well, they just, I mean, it's a, it is a deal killer for tractor. So they are, they cannot move forward with where they're at. Um, they've been here for 60 years and, uh, you know, I was with them in an airport on Friday and, uh, and you know, they're doing, I think they're doing a little over $600,000 worth of improvements to the ditches out there. Um, burying everything, covering the ditches, putting the sidewalks in, and that's something we haven't done anywhere else. And so they're already, you know, this is our hometown. We've told them we want to get it done, and we think we can. We're getting them to do a lot, a lot of stuff they don't do, just like that. And these were the three that were, unfortunately, were kind of hard lines for them. So I understand, and... Hate that, that didn't work out. But appreciate the consideration.

Thank y'all. OK, Summit Utilities.

I'm Avery Phelps with Trayland Engineering representing Summit Utilities. We produce a set of plans for a 3,600 square foot building addition, which is over 20% of the existing structure, which requires us to meet all the new code. So we've met all that, except for we're asking for a variance on the equipment storage lot to leave it gravel instead of pavement.

And we should have. Are you wanting that request indefinitely or a time limit? Indefinitely. Yeah. We've offered things similar to this on a time limited basis. But tell us about your use of that, please.

It's strictly for equipment storage. It's not open to the public. It's fenced off. They strictly just storing equipment back there.

We have done some for outside storage when they've got heavy equipment, that kind of stuff out there that's going to tear up the asphalt. That's the reason they're here to go.

Any questions?

What type of equipment are you going to be storing back there?

Just heavy construction equipment. Like what?

They're a gas utility company here in town. Travis Fisher Trident Engineering. But they got their materials. They store out there their pipe. They have their trenching equipment, this heavy equipment that they store back there. So it's just their equipment storage yard, material storage yard. All we're doing is adding another storage building out there.

It's currently got a fence around it, correct?

Yes, it's completely fenced and solely used for their purposes only.

Has it got any type of screen on that fence? Just kind of hiding what's in there?

I do not believe it has any screen on the fence.

Do you think you guys would be against maybe doing a little screening? I think my memory is correct. I think we've done this a few times where we left it gravel as long as it was kind of fenced and had maybe a screen around it hiding kind of what was in there just so people weren't visually looking at it or even knowing that it was just a gravel parking lot.

I think the last one we did was because it was fenced and it was screened, but it was a material supply company and then it abutted commercial offices and stuff like that. So this is out there in the industrial world.

Yeah, it is.

I mean, it's there now, is it not? The fence is not, isn't it there? The fences are there. Is that the trailer manufacturing place there?

To the west. It's JECO, I think the JECO sales.

JECO, yeah, Mashburns. Mashburns. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Any further questions?

Is there something that they would consider, screening that fence? We can ask. I think it would be better to their advantage, honestly. I think it would be a better appearance overall. So I'd like to see that.

OK. We'll make that happen then. Is that a motion?

I'll make that one. I'll make that in the form of a motion. All right, make a motion. Rick, let's hear it.

Grant the variance with the understanding that that whole area has to be screened where the fencing is to close in the equipment so it cannot be seen.

Second. OK, thank you. Motion to second. May we have a roll call? Mize? Yes. Lilly? Yes.

Kepler? Yes.

Thank you. Thank you all. All right. Chris Moore. First time up here. Nervous.

Good afternoon, my name's Chris Moore. My proposal, or my variance I'm asking for is pretty straightforward. This is approximately a 600, or a six acre lot on Straw Floor Road. It's 256,000 and some odd square feet. You can see it has a house on it that faces a road. And what I'm wanting to do, there are two existing storage buildings right there between the house and the proposed building site. What I'm wanting to do is, they're pretty dilapidated, I'm wanting to tear those two buildings down, consolidate into one residential storage building. The side here is, the topography on it is, you almost cannot see anything from the road. It's bordered on three sides by the city of Jonesboro, Oaklawn Cemetery, Straw Floor Cemetery, and then Jordan Lane's currently constructing a metal building, or remodeling a metal building on the north side. Has no direct neighbor, as you can see. There's woods on all three sides. And it'll remain that way because there's an approximately a 60 foot deep ravine that surrounds this property on three sides. The area you see in grass is the only area that's flat. All the woods drop down, so they'll, really will always be screening. What I wanna do is store our boat, our camper, and then obviously it's six acres of, or close to it of mowing and We'll have lawn tractor and stuff like that in there.

Chris, are you going to move in this house?

It's currently occupied. What my wife and I's idea is there's a woman that lives there, and she's 72 years old, and she's lived there since 1982. And what she requested when we entered into an offer and acceptance on there is that we let her live there for $10 a year for the rest of her life, so I honored that, and we're gonna issue a lease with her for that. When she passes away, we intend to build a new home right there on that exact site.

And tell us about that future home. Be bigger than the building?

Oh, yeah. I mean, we'll build a large residential home on that.

You're going to tear down the old house?

Oh, yeah. We'll tear down the old house. And as a condition of variance, we would be glad as a condition that we go on and tear down the other two existing storage buildings that are currently on the lot right now. So I'd say they're dilapidated and kind of an eyesore.

The reason he's here is because of the square footage of the new storage building versus the existing house.

Okay. How large is the current house?

We want to build a standard 40 by 60 building.

100 feet. How large is the home that's on the site now?

I don't know that drawing you have. We had a boundary survey done two weeks ago to prepare for this. That is to scale, so I'm gonna say that the home is almost as big as the proposed building. I'd say it was, it is to scale, so.

Carol, what's the city's thoughts? Again, I mean, we've got the ordinance, but it's here for y'all. It's gonna be hard to even see this building when it's built from, if you go out there, if you even look at street view and look down there, it's hard to see back very far off that road, so.

We did deny one on straw floor, but he was going to build the building on straw floor.

It was literally 10 foot off the edge of pavement.

Right.

I think the important aspect out there is there's no possibility of having any adjoining neighbors. The topography of the land doesn't allow you to build up next to it. And the neighbors are all in a cemetery. So I mean, it's pretty much why didn't it? Yeah.

I mean, it's your intent, Chris, is when when the lady passes, you are going to do something with that house.

I don't know if you're familiar, Kevin probably knows this site. For the last 25 years, directly across the street has been a hard field. area and the north side of this is currently being used for hard field which will be coming to an end by the end of this year and then we decidedly reclaimed on that north side and a lot of field hauled in there with the last 27 years

Mr. Chair, because of the topography of the land and the future building of the new house, I move that we grant this variance.

We have a second? Second. Call, please. Miles? Miller? Bailey? Yes. Yes. Thank you, Chris.

Thank you very much. All right.

Ms. Farley?

Thanks for being patient. Tell us what you want to do.

I got a permit for a fence that's already built. I didn't know I was supposed to get a permit, but I did after I found out I got the permit. Well, now I find out that from the eave to the road, it's not supposed to be more than four feet. I'm asking for a variance for that. It does kind of taper down closer to the road to the four feet. to make it easier to see backing out.

Yeah, it's supposed to be six feet until it lines up with the side of your home, or the front of your home. And then from there to the street, it's supposed to be four feet. 50% open, right? Four feet and 50%. I haven't seen this fence, dear. Is it 50% open? Meaning is there?

It's just one, between the two properties is all it is.

Single face fence or a shadow box?

I don't know what all that is.

Okay, single face fence is that you've just got boards that are lined up?

Yeah.

Okay, and then the shadow boxes, they're kind of offset. Anyway.

No, they're just a straight line.

Straight line. That's all I know. Where is the good side facing?

Pardon?

The good side of this fence. What side is it facing?

The pretty side faces me.

That's strike two.

Pardon?

I said that's strike number two.

Oh, is it?

Yes, ma'am.

Wow. Okay.

You're supposed to put the good side to your neighbor.

Have you seen the fence?

I haven't seen it. Have you seen it? Y'all seen it?

Oh, it does face the neighbor? Sorry.

Well, we'll take that strike back. You've still got two left.

One strike was removed.

Okay. We had the, was that ABS? Automated balls and strikes? Yeah. She challenged it. Somebody build this for you?

Yeah, a friend did.

A friend? Not a company?

No.

Do we know of any opposition to this, Mr. Chairman?

I haven't asked. Is there any opposition? Seeing none, thank you. Well, tell me, dear Ms. Farley, how hard would it be to lower that fence?

I would have to hire somebody. I've run into so many problems with that house that I'm about to run out of money.

I understand. Is your friend still your friend?

Well, he's gotten so busy, I don't know if he'll have time, but I'll look for somebody if I have to.

Well, the thing is, we don't want to set a precedent that we don't want to keep allowing to happen. Does that make sense? Yeah. I've put in fences that go toward the street. They stop at six feet at the edge of the front of the home and then drop down to four at 50% open, and that's just how things really should be. And I know it's a pain when you have to come up here not being led in the right direction by your friend or whatever and not getting a permit. That would explain that to you.

Yeah.

Um, and I'm, I'm sorry for that, but we are in a situation where, um, it's out of compliance and, and for us to give the variance something built without a permit outside the ordinance, that's gonna, that's, that's not a good look, you know?

Yeah. I just didn't know I was supposed to get one.

I understand. You can always roll the dice up here. and see how everybody likes it. But I'm not saying no. I can't say no. It's a joint effort here. I'm just stating the facts. So did you build that fence on both sides of the home?

No, just the one row. Is it 900 or 910?

906. 906. Well, you're 906, correct? Yeah.

So is the fence closer to the neighbor of 900? It's closer to the 910 at the end.

Closer to the 910, so it's on this side of the hall. All right, so you just ran it all the way up to the road.

Did you go to the road? Is it touch the road? No. Stop before you got to the road? Yes.

Can you come up front and tell us, please?

uh the fence is about three feet from the road it's got a good taper down she has about seven feet or six foot from the uh front edge i mean everything is in compliance up for that six foot six foot of sets six to seven feet of six foot height and uh tapering down um up to about four feet. She got about three, she got a good little length of space. She did not get in the right of way. So that was one of the helpful things that right there. So other than that, she has a permit now when she found out, but I had to go out and inspect it and that's what we saw.

How far there's the six foot run that's really out? About six foot. That's six foot out of compliance?

Six foot from the front edge. I mean, then it goes down. So her front ironing in the house, then it goes about another six foot and then it slants. Then it slants, OK. But she's out of the right of way before it's dead. So that's about it.

Nothing stopping any viewing either way from the fence? No.

No, sir. TO BE CLEAR, WE'RE TALKING ABOUT SIX FOOT OF FENCE OUT OF HEIGHT ORDINANCE FOR.

YES, SIR.

SIX FOOT OF FENCE.

YES, SIR. ABOUT 67 FEET OF FENCE OUT OF OUT OF OUT OF CODE ORDINANCE FOR FENCE CODE.

THIS DIDN'T COME THROUGH A COMPLAINT ALSO. SO IT WASN'T. YEAH. SOMEBODY. IT WASN'T CODE ENFORCEMENT.

IT WASN'T A COMPLAINT. DID HE COMPLAIN? IT'S A CITIZEN COMPLAINT. YEAH.

So there was a complaint filed against it? Yes. OK.

There was a complaint filed against it to code, and code informed us.

Any other questions? So she's asking for a variance not to lower the fence.

and required to be 50% visible. Say that again? Also, it's got to be.

We've got quite a few of them out there that's just like what she got on the four foot level headed down. I see it every day.

So I'm clear. There are other fences out there that are out of compliance?

Yes, we have some that's out there on a four foot level, four foot height that's not 50% open. And that's not shadow box.

It's not shadow box, solid.

Mr. Chair, I move that we put the variance request on the floor for a vote.

OK, is there a second? Second. All right. Vote call, please.

Miles? No. Bailey?

No.

Capo? No.

So let the city inform you what you need to do as far as making that part of the fence that's in front of your home that reaches out beyond your home. have that drop down to four feet at 50%, which means there's skip a board. So instead of it being all boards, it'll have to be a board, then a gap, a board, then a gap. Does that make sense? I know you don't have to like it.

Like a picket.

Yeah, like a picket.

Yeah. I mean, I don't even like the fence myself, but.

You can come up to planning, and we'll give you an idea of what we're talking about.

Okay.

Gentleman right there, and this one here, and they're here to help. So anyway, thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Ms. Farley. All right. Anybody here from Civil Logic? Come on. You don't even look like George Hammond.

I know. I'm Chris King.

You done got...

Yes, sir. Yeah, yeah.

I work for Todd Higginbotham, the owner of the property. Okay. And George was out of town and asked me to come over here.

Oh, this is number one. This is the 218 and 220 LaBombe. It's still under George's name.

Okay.

Do you know anything about that one? No, sir. Are y'all on that one? Come on up here. Sorry, sorry for the confusion. I'll be with you in a minute.

My name is Reginald Pronte.

Reginald Pronte. Yes, sir. I have not seen you since high school. You're correct. We've changed a little bit.

Well, just a little bit.

Just a little bit. That's right. Tell us what you want to do.

Well, actually, can I have a... Well, we want to build a duplex, uh, three bedroom, two full baths and on that property, I think on the variance that they were doing, uh, I'm gonna take these off so I can see. Yeah. Uh, on the property that we were doing, the variance that they were doing on the front there off of, um, the bomb was a 20 foot setback, which we kind of, uh, needed somewhat of a variance on it. But if you look down the street where they had already built a sidewalk, if you took that sidewalk and adjacent and took it all the way to Johnson, we would have exactly what we needed. And we did talk about it as to what was needed, if they needed a right-of-way or anything like that. The only objection that I have to it, I'm okay with it, when we bought it, it was a 150 by 50 in size. Somewhere along the line, it has adjusted to a 150 by 45. which I guess we just have to narrow the duplex. We are good with putting the parking in the rear where the alley is located. I'm okay with that. The only thing, the other thing that I had a problem with is the development in Jonesboro across for South Jonesboro versus North, those properties were set up at 150 by 50, which is actually 100 foot square if you did it the other way. You could build a nice house that looks good. These lots were designed for shotgun houses, if you would. Front door looks straight through the back. So it doesn't look like a very elegant place when you turn it sideways. So the reason we're here is because when we bought the property, it was in plots. Lots one, two, and three little squares. And there's concrete slabs there where it used to be little houses for people. And I remember years ago when we were kids growing up, Pete Shelton used to be there. Some of y'all may remember him. But it was a house built on top of those slabs. So we've already got that already done with the landscape. They fixed that. So where we are now is, The other objection I have is having sidewalks on Word. Word is going nowhere. Arkansas Glass is built in the middle of the street, so they closed the street when I was a child. I grew up in that community. By the way, I'm 70 years old, so I know that community well. Mr. Miller had a gas station. They blocked it off going to Patrick. So it's a six-block stretch. It's never going to grow. Anything's going to happen. We're very comfortable in that community with the one sidewalk that is pretty wide. On this side, you can't put a sidewalk anyway. It's not enough room. The property that's at the back of us is a hill about this high, so for them to put a sidewalk down, they gotta cut it down and move over. Where mine is sitting, it's a tree bigger round than this, that I would like to see the city cut down. That was just a joke. But at the end of the day, that's kind of where we are. And I'm wanting to clean the alley up so we can park it in the rear. I'd really like to do it the other way.

Reginald, is that alley on the backside of these LeBron properties? Is the alley on the backside of your LeBron properties coming off word?

Uh, yes it is.

Okay. And that's a dedicated alley by the city? And you can get, can you get access to your property through there? Okay. All right. Okay. Continue.

Well, that's kind of where we are. We have the plat and everything to the size. We had designed the size of the building at, you know, the size of the lot when we bought it is 50 by 150. But now that it's been reduced to 45, we had to slim it down. So, I mean, we're okay with that. I mean, the plans that we have in place, I'm good with it. We can roll with it as when they had the meeting. I don't think I really have a lot of objections. Basically, people have to take into account that North Jonesboro was designed a little different than the rest of Jonesboro.

The whole west end and the north end were all 50-foot lots.

Exactly. If you go down the forest, when we grew up as kids, all it was a wooded area. Those lots were developed for housing, normal-looking houses. So that's just one area from Miller over to Forth. It was just designed that way. So we can't make that portion look like the rest of Jonesboro, but we can beautify what we have in place.

As you develop the plans for these, the duplexes, right? Not triplexes, duplexes, all right. You're building two duplexes. Which way are the doors facing, the entrance doors?

Well, the doors are actually gonna face LeBron.

Both doors?

No. No. We're going to actually, let me change that. We're going to have to put the doors, it would be facing word per se, because you'd have to go up the side, you know, the walkway.

Okay.

You couldn't put them there unless you put one in front of it. That wouldn't work. It just wouldn't work that way. So that's how we're going to do that duplex.

The one on the corner?

No, the one on the 218, the bottom. The 220 Le Balme has a house sitting on it, which we're going to get this one built first, then tear one down that was built in 1962 and put the other one where that house is presently set.

So the entrance on the, I'm going to call it the second one, not the one on Word and Le Balme, but the one only on Le Balme, that's the second one, one of the bottom. Where would those doors be?

The front door?

The entrance to the duplexes.

The entrance to them would actually be, it'd actually have to be facing word.

It'd be facing the other building. Yeah. Yeah. And there'll be concrete sidewalk.

Yeah. Yeah.

And what's going to face LeBron? What's the look?

Well, actually... there would be a door there, but it wouldn't be the front door, if that makes sense.

Because you've got to have two doors, kind of like a... You're going to put a door on that side and that side?

Well, actually, we want one on the... And the front, too? Yes.

Okay, so you're going to have... Each unit will have two entrances?

Yes, sir. Okay.

Well, that's the whole problem. We've got... an issue on Matthews where they built spaceships. They built triplex or whatever it is sideways before we could change the ordinance so you can't do that anymore. Because they look like bad. So that's why I'm asking is what's the LaBombe side of these units gonna look like in facing the alley So there'll be exits and entrances facing the bomb and facing the alley.

No.

Okay. Tell me, tell me where I'm wrong.

The way it designed, you've got a parking, you get out your car and you walk down. Here's the front door for this duplex. You walk down this way and you go in this way for that one. You got to have a door, uh, here. And I think it was one showing like going, if I look at this plan. Do you have a plan now?

Do you have a set of plans that you're working off of, Reginald?

Oh, yeah. Because originally when we did it, at first we wanted to put a garage on them and we changed that because you couldn't bring it off of Le Bon.

Well, you should have mentioned that about 30 minutes ago. Saved us a lot of time. Oh.

I'm gonna quit nailing you on that. Apparently Darrell seen it. So anyway, okay.

Well, it gives me practice.

I don't need practice, Reginald. I need to go back to work. So thank you for that. They're looking over that. Any more questions that you've got for Mr. Pruney?

Which setback are we, is he needing the variance for? Pretty much all of it.

All the way around the whole thing? You've got the whole list right here. You've got the west building set back to 10 feet, interior side set back to five feet, east building set back to 15 feet, word street building set back to five feet, and lot widths to 45 feet.

So we're asking for four bearings. I thought we were looking at five feet on the bomb. Well, that's where I was.

I was kind of like, we just got one setback? All right.

Yeah. OK. So west. Oh, yeah. Wow. Yeah. Bunch of them.

So is it five feet all the way around? Basically, Mr. Darrell, five feet on the west, five feet on the?

No, just 10 feet on the west building setback, 15 feet on the east building setback. Green.

ask this, and it might not matter, would it not make more sense just to replant this into one? I mean, can you do that and make one large fourplex? Or is it not zoned for that? Okay. I don't know what my zone is.

Darrell, have we done any kind of four-sided setback variances in the north end?

If you were south of Johnson, this would probably fit without a variance in the redevelopment district. We're just across the... You're on the other side of Johnson.

I certainly don't want to discourage redevelopment. I don't.

That's my standard question. Have we had any... opposition to this at all that we know of?

We haven't had any calls on this that I'm aware of, have we? No? Okay. Yeah, I'm not aware of any calls on this.

Any other development going on in this particular area, Reginald?

Yes. There's development on Word. Okay. There are duplexes that have been built on Allen and those are duplexes

How long ago, how long has it been?

This has been going on now probably, what, maybe 10 years? Because I know Michael Edwards built Duplexes, one on the corner.

There's one right there on Miller. There's two across the street. You go over the word, it's one, two, three, four, six.

So as you go up to, upwards to Duplex, Fisher, there are duplexes that they've built. Pretty much everyone has did the same thing. The only question that I have, a lot of times they're parking, like let's say off of, where it is running this way out, Gardner's is where Allen, they're parking in front of the duplexes, but they had no alleys. So we knew it had to be a variance done. This one just happened to have an alley where you could actually do a compliance with the new ordinance that they have for South Jonesville across Johnson. But we don't have that kind of space over there to make that happen. But development is.

Are any of these under construction now?

No, they're finished.

Okay.

All right. They're all finished.

Our department got any problems with these two buildings being that close? Any more questions for Mr. Fernandes?

Darrell, is there anything other than what we've discussed that could throw a red flag into this? I'm sure that's a loaded question. We've got six red flags on it already.

Not at this time.

I don't think any of us want to stop progress.

I don't think anything at this time. Now, in the future, you know, something comes up, we'll be back. But right now, if we can get, if he can get this, everything can go forward.

Mr. Chairman, I don't want to see us stop progress. So I'm going to move that we grant the variance.

Is there a second?

Second. Okay. Did you put that to a vote, sir?

Yes. Bailey? Yes. Yes.

Yes. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Pring.

Thank you very much.

Hope it's not another 50 years until I see you again.

Well, let's hope not.

Because I won't be alive in 50 years.

You're going to keep going.

You're just getting started. Is that what you're saying?

That's what I'm telling you.

There you go. There you go.

Just the beginning of the process.

Thank you for your time, sir. Appreciate it.

Are we the last ones?

No.

No.

I don't see nobody. Thank you.

Tell us what's going on now and where's George?

George said he was on vacation. Oh, well.

He stays on vacation. Bless his heart. So this is on Southwest Drive.

Yes, sir.

Tell us what's going on.

This building is 20 years old. And I think Todd is selling this building. And they recently had it surveyed and found out that it's a little bit close to the property lines on the side and on the south back part a few feet. And they're just wanting to get this cleared up and get the variance before they sell it, I believe.

You're just trying to clean this up for sale or?

Yes, sir.

OK. You're not adding on anything. You're just trying to get it in compliance. Right. Yes, sir. Got you.

So you don't want to take 2 and 1 half inches off the one side of it? We'll give you the one foot nine variance and you take two inches off the other side. That'd be a fun project.

Or maybe just try to push it a little bit and see what happens.

Yeah. Scotch it up. Bump it. Yeah, bump it. Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion we approve the variance. Second?

Second. And we need a roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Thank you for your patience. All right. Well, thank you. We haven't adjourned. No, sir.

Not going to let us. OK.

Stay down.

Sit down. Are you cooking? Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion we adjourn the meeting.

Second.