Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

. do do you . . Thank you. you Thank you. you you Commissioner Brown? Yes. Lennard? Yes. Hodges? Yes. Person? Aye.

Russell? Aye. Samad?

Yes.

Vickers? Yes. Eves? Yes. Haney?

Aye.

McDonnell?

Yes.

Baxter?

Yes.

Consent agenda has been approved.

All right. If your item was on the consent agenda, you are welcome to step out. We have one item on the regular agenda. It's item number five, which is file Z-10319. We have one comment card in opposition. Mr. Moore, would you do a reading?

Item number five, file number Z10319. This is the McKenzie PDO located at 401 North Pierce Street. The applicant proposes to rezone this 0.11 acre site from R3 to PDO to allow for the operation of a small, low-volume consultation-based medical practice within the existing building. The property is located at the northeast corner of North Pierce and C Streets and contains an existing one-story, 948-square-foot single-family residential structure. There are two existing accessory buildings in the rear yard of the property. Section 36502B2 typically requires six parking spaces for the proposed use. The site plan shows the site will be improved to allow one ADA parking space along North Pierce Street, two patient parking spaces, and two employee parking spaces along C Street. The existing garage and the rear yard area will be converted to one space for physician parking. There will be a total of six parking spaces. Staff feels the parking will be sufficient to serve the proposed use. The majority of the parking spaces are located in the Pierce Street and C Street rights of way. Therefore, a franchise will need to be obtained from Public Works for the upgrade in those parking areas. Staff is supportive of the requested PDO zoning. To staff's knowledge, there are no outstanding issues with this application. The applicant met with staff to resolve technical issues. The applicant notes the existing home will be refurbished and the overall area improved. The applicant also notes a 30-year residency and has practiced in the Hillcrest area for the past two decades. Staff feels the proposed use will have no adverse impact on the surrounding properties and recommends approval. of the requested PDO zoning subject to compliance with the comments and conditions outlined in paragraph D and E and the staff analysis of the agenda staff report.

Thank you, Mr. Moore. Applicant, would you please come to the podium?

Good afternoon. Alan McKenzie.

All right. Thank you, Mr. McKenzie. And Mr. McKenzie, as you might be aware, you have 20 minutes. If you like, you can give comments first or you can let the person who submitted a comment in opposition speak first, however you like.

Okay. I'm a family practice doctor. I grew up here in Little Rock, went to UAMS. I've lived in Hillcrest for over 30 years. I did a community match agreement and practiced in Beebe, Arkansas for five years. And then in 2011, opened a Baptist clinic above Comoree in the Ice House building and practiced there for another six years. And then in 2017, left Baptist to go out on my own and form a concierge medical practice where I spend an extensive amount of time on consultation for wellness and prevention to avoid disease processes. I meet with about four to eight people a day and spend extra time on wellness and prevention in a consulting fashion. I have two employees. I practiced at Woodlawn and Beachwood. for the last nine years and a lease, just if you are familiar with where Chowbatchee is in the back of Kroger and Hillcrest, just catty corners there. Unfortunately, that 120 year old building had knob and tube wiring and it suffered an electrical fire. Susie and I lived upstairs there. My practice was downstairs and we went through a fire in spring of 2025. that displaced both our home and our medical practice. At that point, I began leasing at Evergreen Place, which is at Evergreen and University, and leasing a house across the street from this little building that I just bought, which is kind of behind Big Orange in that area of Hillcrest. The previous owners of Woodlawn were willing to sell me that practice, but I became priced out of it after that amount of time. And it was purchased by a bigger physical therapy outfit who's trying to rehab that place. So this opportunity came along. And along these two cross streets of Pierce and C Street, in this residential corridor, there's also a dentist, Dr. Ederle. and Bradley Davis, who's an audiologist, who have also converted small residential places about the equivalent size into medical establishments. With my two employees, my low patient volume being open 8.30 to 4.30 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 8.30 till 3 on Thursday, and 8.30 till noon on Friday, will be a very low impact on the neighborhood. In fact, we're going to improve that corner The other three corners are improved already, but this 1940s house just is pretty shabby. And so that's why we're going to try to ask for some forgiveness for the parking so we can keep it looking residential with very nice landscaping improvement to the structure and the parking. And it's going to be a really quiet establishment and two employees and I will park behind. up here on the orange part of the diagram, that's zero grade with Pierce Street. So we'll be able to pull a wheelchair right into the clinic. It's a great opportunity. If you have any questions for me, that's basically what we're asking for.

Thank you so much. I think at this point, opposition, is it Star Pridma? Pridmarius. Pridmarius. Would you like to come give your comments in opposition?

Okay.

Fantastic. So in light of that, this will entertain a motion.

Mr. Chair, I make a motion to approve of the requested PDO zoning for item number Z-10319, McKenzie PDO, subject to compliance with the comments and conditions outlined in paragraphs D and E in the staff analysis in the agenda staff report.

Second. Commissioner Brown? Yes. Bernard? Yes. Hodges?

Yes.

Person? Yes. Russell? Aye. Samad?

Yes.

Vickers? Yes. Eves? Yes. Haney? Aye. McDonald?

Yes.

Baxter? Yes. Motion is approved. Thank you.

Unless there are any questions, comments, are there any citizen communications?

I will say one thing real quick. We are planning on looking at another zoning meeting August 26th. Is that right? Is that the wind day? Yeah, the 19th to the 26th. I'm going to send out an email probably tomorrow with times and suggestions on that. So that's staff update, sorry. Is there still room for another commissioner to join? Yes, there is still room for another one. I'll send it out to everybody again and still give the opportunity if someone wants to join.

Mr. Chair, do we want to be providing updates to the commission after each meeting or do we want to set those up quarterly? I think that's a fantastic idea.

Even if it's just a two, three minute update. So starting in the August meeting, so September meeting, we can have a two, three minute update.

Yeah, Mr. Chair, I think the bylaws state that we give updates, and it doesn't necessarily spell out when we give them, but I think regular updates, you know, as we go along is acceptable.

So, yeah, I'll prepare one next month then after we have the one in August.

Sounds great to me. Anything else? All right. We call this meeting to close at 4.13.

Thank you.