City Council - Regular Meeting

Mayor, it is 5:30.

Okay. I'd like to call the meeting to order. This is the work session for Bella Vista City Council for February 17, 2026. Uh first item is review of the minutes. We had a couple different minutes. The special meeting on February 3 and the regular meeting on January 26. Anyone have any comments about those so far? Okay. Well, you can study those more till next week. Next thing, unfinished business is an ordinance mandating the Bella Vista Advertising and Promotion Commission to public publish and indefinitely maintain approved commission meeting minutes on its official website and for other purposes.

Mayor, I've got some there's a piece of paper in front of you and if you recall from and I know Mr. Williams is going to address his this because this is his uh he had he had drafted an amendment and there had been some discussion about it and it was uh we didn't act on it. Uh you let this go to second reading for this month and so uh I with Mr. Wilms's uh request sort of reddrafted that amendment and it's sort of a substitute and so what you have there incorporates if you recall what he had in his uh proposed changes which was uh some wording variation and whatnot. Um I sort of just rewarded that and made a little more legally sound uh not to change the intention of the meaning there. And so I I assume Mr. Wilms is going to want to move to amend when we get to the regular meeting next week. But that's what this is and and I'll certainly gonna turn it over to Mr. Wilms and it's his amendment. He can talk about all that.

Okay. Uh yeah, Larry, did you want to explain it? I appreciate appreciate uh Attorney Kelly doing this. Uh I hoped he would and he did a good job in my humble opinion of reconstructing what I had intended to say. So this was Mr. Harp's original proposal. this agenda item. I I mistakenly spoke over you. I'm very sorry I did that. I I submitted as an amendment to the agenda item.

Okay. Well, and so there'll be a procedure at the meeting. You can move to amend. There'll be a second and a vote. This is this was Mr. Harp's uh proposal regarding the minutes public seeing the AMP minutes. And um that's just for reference. That's what this was. And then Mr. Wilms uh had his changes. And so that's what it is. Uh Travis,

thanks. Mayor, is the uh the only real big change that I've noticed right off hand is that you're just asking them to not post the minutes indefinitely and just keep them for two years. Is that the a running two-year period to look at? I I would think that for most people that that's an adequate amount of inventory. if they need to look more they can go to the&mp commission and address them directly. So they're they're not a governing body per se. So they're not like us where we supposed to keep things in per perpetuity out in the open public and even us I think lose track of the capacity to store that and eventually it comes off and you have to dig for it. So I think it was reasonable for two years.

I just want to make sure that the distinction is understood that the minutes are there now and their recordkeeping is their recordkeeping and their public records. This this is just a requirement to put those minutes online so that people can easily

view them for a period of time. It doesn't really change. I mean they could still have them in a book on a shelf for a decade, you know. Okay. So, anyway, I guess you all can think about that until next week. And as uh uh Jason said, it's on second reading. Uh new business. Um, we have a resolution awarding bid and authorizing the mayor and city clerk to enter into a contract with Superior Automotive Group in the total amount of $43,990 for the purchase of one Chevy Silverado 1500 four-wheel drive pickup for use by the planning and development department. Uh, Taylor, did you want to speak about this? It's on now. Okay. Um, so yeah, this is a truck um as stated in my memo for our planning and development department, but specifically for our engineering division. Um, so our GEC, storm water, erosion control, site inspections, all of that is handled by our engineering division. Currently, I have three people um two full-timers and one part-timer sharing one truck. One of them is full-time in the field and so that's making it quite difficult um so that our other inspector can do the pre-permit inspections. So, she's kind of having to borrow trucks and or other vehicles right now so she can do that and keep issuing the GEC's on the front end. And so, this was already in the budget. You guys approved it with the 2026 capital budget. Um no amendment is necessary. Um it's under budget. that we budgeted 45,000 and I'm just under 44,000. So saving a little over a thousand in the budget on that item. So happy to take

any questions. Larry, I guess my thought is if if one person's going to drive this, do we need a full-size vehicle? Can we get with get use a Colorado size version which is an intermediate size um which is can be equipped the same way. I'm assuming four-wheel drive and a whole bunch of other things. Four passenger. I'm assuming crew cab. Crew cab. These are the standard vehicles for our fleets that we have. Um so we just did a standard bid for the same ones that we're already using. So you did a bid as opposed to purchasing it from

Yes. This is the bid. Um we went into a bid in January. It closed on January 20th which missed the January meeting and so they are waiting on this bid to close. My question still is would a smaller vehicle serve your purpose and why would it not serve it? Uh because it would reduce the operating cost. You should have better mileage, gas mileage. You should have lower maintenance costs. Uh should give you the same service life and if you're only having mostly one person in it all the time. Is it a crew cab or is it a what kind of cab?

It is a crew cab. The standard fleet vehicle is crew. Okay. So, so the question is still u whether whether a smaller size vehicle making it more economical for the city to use. We would have to put this out to bid again. Okay. Because the bid was only for our standard fleet vehicle.

Well, yeah. Standard fleet vehicles come in all sorts of sizes and shapes. So my question is that we're maybe paying more for something that we don't really need because you can get by with a smaller vehicle at less cost, lower operating expenses to the city. That's my question.

Yeah, I think she was just going by uh you know what was standard uh with with the city and uh there's different schools of thought on this. I've noticed that there's a little bit of a prejudice by our people. They've by experience they've found that the uh vehicles last a lot longer uh when they're a little bigger, have a little bigger engine, and the uh um you know, for the police vehicles, we're kind of strict about going to a certain mileage, but sometimes with these other vehicles, we keep them quite a long time. I know the fire department keeping pickups like 15 years, things like that. So, they like to have a vehicle they think will stand the test of time, I guess.

Well, this one's not an over the road vehicle. It's in town mostly, is it not? Probably not. Well, I mean, our city engineer will use it for out of city inspection, occasional trips, but meetings and regional planning meetings. The sizes of the intermediate vehicles have gotten much larger, so they're not even for tall people like me, they're not uncomfortable to be in for a long time. And it won't be just for one person. Um, our city engineer frequently meets if they ride a crew. It's not just one person. I guess cabs are available in all different sizes. So, I'm just I'm just wondering why uh why we only chose one as opposed to looking at something more economical for the city. It's my only question. I

uh Craig,

sorry. I will add that if you're buying fleet vehicles familiarity and all that kind of stuff that it would be a question for the maintenance guys, but they can buy tires in bulk. They know they're all the same size, oil and bulk. They know it all takes the same type. They know how to service those vehicles. They know the intervals. They don't have kind of a goofy car here and there that takes strange servicing or special parts or anything like that. I'm not saying I understand your point. Um, but I think the time to catch that would have been at the time that it was presented. I mean, we we I'm not saying we can't take a step back, but I think that there is a reason why they they buy.

Oh, I Yeah, I'm sure there is, etc. I'm sure there is. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, I understand. I'm just looking at it from an overall cost perspective. Is do we really need that size of a vehicle for its purpose? And even if you take four people in it, the crew cabs available in the intermediate size now are much adequate to to travel long distances. So your recommendation is the city look at changing fleet vehicles to midsize trucks.

Well, I'm I'm thinking that it would save us some money on the on the purchase end of it and would probably save us some operating costs because the tires are going to be smaller. They're going to be less costly. should have a little better better likely miles per gallon. So, we should get a little more economy out of it. So, that's my only thought. It's up to the rest of you. Uh Wendy, Mr. Williams, do you know what the price of a new 2025 Chevy Colorado is? I have no idea. I I didn't do the bidding on it.

I did a little Google. It's within the same price range. Pretty close. It's about 40,000 41,000. So, it's just based on the quick internet search. That bid could be totally different, but just want to put that out there as well. You'd have to take the specs for what they have furnished with the vehicle. Is it four-wheel drive? Yes or no. Um, and some of the other attributes. Is it got a cover in the bed? All those kinds of things. And so, I'm not not sure how it was spec. I didn't go through the packet quite honestly. Karen, I don't know if you have any thoughts from our vehicle maintenance people or

maintain. Uh Travis, I I support looking looking into the future, maybe finding a alternative vehicle that's more affordable or better miles per gallon, but this is already in the budget. Also kind of um did you a favor and came into this thinking you wanted to Tahoe, so I feel pretty good about the pickup truck.

Okay. That's something you can think about. Thank you. Between now and next week. Thank you, Taylor.

I'm going to call out the next five resolutions. These are resolutions appointing people to the public safety advisory committee. I think I mentioned we had quite a few applications. Uh 43 for the five spots. And the people reported are Eric Fatkin, Roberto Saiz, Beth Shaw, Billy Winsel, and Kevin Add. I believe their background is in your packet. And I'm not sure which I know Kevin's here. Uh, you want to stand up, Kevin, so they can see. I don't know if anybody else is here of the five. So that's Kevin. He's very active in the community. Wendy,

just the applicants and the people who got chosen. I am so just tickled pink. They are so exceptionally qualified and a varying range between physicians and retired police and fire and military personnel and just I am so excited about the future for this. Thank you for serving.

Travis. Yeah, I'll kind of piggyback of what Wendy already articulated, but I I was uh pleasantly surprised. I was I was real disappointed at first when I I was told that none of our police or fire applicants had been chosen. And then after I saw the the appointments that you've made, mayor, I was I was really impressed and and look forward to this this advisory board coming together and and giving us their opinions on on those matters. So, I I look forward to this. Uh, and also I think we got lucky by having just really good people in our community. So that's also helpful.

Yeah, it's nice that so many people are uh willing to uh serve on these different committees is very encouraging. Uh Jay, I just wanted looking at I believe there's five appointees, but I believe I'm only seeing four listed here. So I just wanted to make sure if we're missing one that we get that um lined out before next week. No, I think there's five. E, F, G, H, and I. Yeah. Great. Okay. Wait. H is I not JB? Is that J is JB? I mean, I'm looking right at it. Right. Okay. Just so that not that one. Okay.

That's all right. No, I just wanted to make sure. I don't have a printed version today, so I only looking at this and I just Okay. Okay. Great. Just wanted to make sure because I wasn't seeing it there. Thank you.

Yeah, thanks. Um, so the next one actually is a resolution for appointing JB Portillo to the planning commission and she wanted to a mention to me as you know she comes to meetings a lot and tonight she's working on the election so she couldn't couldn't be here uh when she was nominated so she wanted to be sure I mentioned that. The other appointee is another one who's being reappointed and it's Clayton Sedbury. Clayton, you want to stand up? So, um, we're happy to have him back and both those two have been very great good about, uh, showing up and doing a good job on the commission. So, let's see. Then we have some appointments for active transportation and that is uh Kenny Williams. You want to stand up? And he's uh been uh a director of pedallet forward for the last five years. I'm not sure he had a resume attached. So I wanted to be sure and mention that. And then uh Abby Sidell, she's a new appointee, I think. And then uh Isaac Marman is a repeat. He's one of our uh two student uh appointees. So, thank you for coming tonight. We appreciate that. Uh I did want to mention one other thing on the appointment uh area that's going to be on for next week. And uh um I just hit the attorney with this at the last minute. So, he has to do a little research, but I was going to resign from the uh&p commission and I uh I had the idea of having Anna Isbel on it. And one of the reasons for that is

when she first started, she asked me about it. She has a marketing background and and was interested in it. And uh I told her, well, that they'd asked me to be on. So, after a year or so, I'd look into it. and I thought that might be good to get her on there. So, uh, but, uh, I I have that information. Pardon me, Mayor. You asked me for some information on that. I do have it. I was going to go ahead and Oh, okay. Go ahead.

U, so on the AMP commission, the council appoints its own replacement members. So, um, so what that basically means is this. The mayor is is going to propose a resolution that would that with the council would appoint Miss Isbel. um you all can do that or you do have the lawful authority to actually appoint any of your other membership to that position. Uh typically like in these others that we've just talked about, the mayor makes an appointment and the council has to approve, but you can't name your own. So you this is not a situation where you're just up or down on the mayor's selection. The council itself has the right to make a selection. So, um, my understanding is the mayor's going to put forth a proposal that be Miss Isbel and then, um, through an amend if if that was there was wanted to be a change, that would be an amendment process, but you could actually do that if you wanted to. So,

so, uh, that, but since it would be next week, I wanted to bring it up today. I didn't want to blindside people, right, Shay? Thanks for letting us know about your plan. Um, I would just say that I'm open to if other council members express an interest. I obviously don't want anyone to feel shut down, but I personally appreciate Anna's willingness to do it and I am not personally interested in seeking that seat.

Okay. Um, so uh anyway, I wanted to give you a heads up that something would be on next week and uh wanted to mention that. Now the next item is a discussion item. Oh, and uh status of electric meters. And I was going to have Taylor talk. I just want to make sure I think several of you know what the status is, but I want to make sure everybody's up to speed and what the status is on that issue.

We had an applicant submit a appeal of the zoning administrator's interpretation of what a electric meter is. That met the March 9th deadline. And so that will be going forward to a public hearing in this room March 9th at 4:30m with the board of zoning adjustment where the BCA will um determine what an electric meter is basically um either whether that's overturning um my interpretation of what it is or setting a definition of what it is. So um after March 9th we should know more. What time did you say? 4:30 in this office here. Yep. right here. March 9th at 4:30 p.m.

Yeah, the board of zoning and planning are quite consistent that they always meet here. It's always at 4:30. Second Mondays at 4:30. And uh the next item is 2025 planning and development department report which is also by Taylor Robertson.

Yeah, I might have to restart. That's what I was worried about. Probably just But yeah, um so this is a video I made um for the planning commission. Um thought I'd share with you guys. So yeah, we had 3,999 application reviewed by my department staff in 2025. That's quite a bit considering we only have 11 people. Most popular is 998. two short um of a thousand GEC's for 2025 with over 1500 GEC reviews by one full-timer and a part-timer. That's up 12% compared to 2024. And compared to 2020, that's 61% increase. So between those five years, we've seen a 61% increase in that application alone. Looking over our inspections, um, which also see which also saw a increase 5,661 or an 18% increase compared to 2024, giving us um a whopping 787 new house single family permits. We issued 24% increase to 2024, 89% increase to 2020 with over a,000 zoning reviews done by planning staff. Honorable mentions, we had over 600 STRs, over 500 fences. Um, our minor variances, walls, doortodoors, and rideaways fell short as well. Can you pause right here?

I kind of want to take some time on this slide real quick. But, um, these are the highlights of the board, the board of zoning adjustment, and the planning commission. They hosted 24 public hearings in 2025, not including all the work sessions that they have as well and special work sessions um, and additional meetings that we had for the uh, code reform. So just the the meetings that we noticed the public on our website and in the newspaper and we put the signs up. We had 24 of those. Um some non-S single family project highlights uh to call out of course is the Oz Trails bike park, the Owl Commons master planned community, the Razerback Greenway extension which also had an extension. Um Campfire Ranch that was an administrative project that was reviewed. It was small enough that the site could be reviewed by staff. Town Center East. Um I do have another update on that. So uh spoke with the property owner last week. I gave the mayor an update I think on Friday, but um Town Center East, the infamous wall that faces city hall or 71. Um they the property owner CCI is waiting on their board to approve the contract with their contractor. And so the new date that I've been given by the property owner to break ground and start work is by the end of February. I asked him if he foresaw any more extensions um because we can't give any more extensions once he hits June, which we will not be getting there. He reassured me. Um but I asked if he expected anything to be taking place in March and he said no, this should be it. All I'm waiting for is all the board members to approve this contract um so they can get going. Domino's Pizza is bound to start any day. That is going to be a very short turnaround project. Um they were giving us like finish dates of this summer. So, that will be a quick build. Um, I will be amazed if it happens that fast, but they were pretty confident and that's the timing that they're looking at. VA clinic is still moving forward. I've heard I've been asked about rumors that it's not moving forward anymore. It very

much is. Um, they are getting the easement and uh private approvals from our our member our friends over at the ACC and the developer. So, that is still moving forward. I just wanted to make sure that everyone in here was aware of that. Um, now you can hit play. Thank you. And then looking forward, um, I'll also want you to pause it on this next slide too once it makes it through here. I gave myself plenty of time to talk, but I always go longer than the one I gave myself. You can pause here. Um, we also in 2025 created our first ever GIS database. So if you've checked out our website, um, you go to the planning and development page on the lefthand tab, you'll see Bella Vista GIS. And so this is basically just anformational base that we are building every day. We're adding more information to it. So hopefully at some point it becomes a one-stop shop for anything city related um for development. So whether that's zoning of course, which is what it's mainly the host for now. You can go in there and search your address and see what it's zoned as and then it will be hyperl to the code once it's codified MUN code. Um that way people can just automatically direct to what uh development or zoning requirements they have in that zone to their property. future land use plan and the master street plan is also built into it. So again, they can see what is currently adopted by you all um and what uh basically affects our decision- making um every day. And then we're also working on uploading infrastructure into it. So where the water lines are, where the sewer lines are, so that way anyone that any development situation can just go there, look at it, and we will update it on a continual basis so you can see what exists in the city. Um we were also awarded four grants, two from the Walton Family Foundation and two from AROT through regional planning commission um to do two major planning projects starting this summer, late summer, early fall, depending on when we get the release from ARDOT, but that is the 71 planning study, reimagining 71 from

Bentonville all the way to Missouri. Um that will also include a 30% plan on a localized area within the city on 71. And then of course our trails and greenway master plan is over 10 years old. It's time to update that. So we got a grant to update that as well. Speaking um of other major projects that aren't included on this, I did want to get an update because I've been asked by a couple of you um what is happening with the Blowing Springs Greenway extension phase two. Um that project was submitted uh and it was never approved. there were some issues with drainage and so the applicant has been working on getting funding for that. Um and due to the storms that happened last May, it was put on the back burner um because they ended up putting that funer put a lot of funding into the trail situation that had happened after the storms. Um the most recent update that I was given on this because we check in we try to check in on it um every couple months is uh most recently we've asked the funer if this is going to be on the front burner at any point in time and that is kind of the an answer that we're waiting on right now to see if it's something that we can look for in 2026 or 2027. Um if not if if this isn't something that um the funders will continue moving towards then the city will probably submit this for another grant in this year's cycle with uh regional planning andor arot um because it is obviously it's a very wanted project. We get asked about it a lot. I'm sure all of you guys have plenty of emails um but if if that is the case then the city will take it over and we will submit grants and we will just take it from there. And then um another grant that is not awarded to us but we will be an adjacent benefactor of it is the Razerback

Greenway future land use plan project. Um so for the last year I have been working with the other uh regional planners as well as the planning directors within the cities that touch the Razerback Greenway um like Johnson, Fagetville, Bentonville, Rogers. Um all of us have been working on a regional land use plan that follows the Razerback Greenway and so that is nearing to completion. Phase one the regional plan so from mountain to mountain fill to Bella Vista is kind of what we're tagging it as. Um phase two will be which is where we will directly benefit from the adjacent grant that is being given in regional planning is um a localized plan per city. And so Bella Vista will uh should this phase two move forward, which it's looking like it will, I may be bringing forward a resolution to you guys next month um to bless us starting this project essentially. Um we will get a localized plan area that they have identified in the regional plan that is specific to Bella Vista um where the Razerback Greenway is and will be going. Um so that is something very exciting. So, even though we didn't get directly the grant, we will be benefiting from it and we're hoping that that project starts as soon as you guys give the okay for staff to start working on it, which is hopefully next month. Um, I think that's for those. I think that's all good. If you want to hit play and then, um, this is probably just looking forward. Um, oh yeah, of course, can't forget we completed our zoning and development code reform. That's over 400 pages of code and nearly 50 square miles of zoning map. Um, as you know, that was a very long project and we're glad to have that under our belt. With that said, 2026 projects, we're auditing the code reform of those 400 pages and 50 square miles of zoning. Um, future lane use plan, master street plan, making sure those are up to date to our new code, as well as the grants that I just

told you guys that we are hoping can start work late summer of this year. That I'm happy to take any questions. Craig,

I just wanted to start. Um, I've always waited for the opportunity to brag on you guys, so this is perfect. Um, I hope everybody in this community understands how much hard work and effort goes into doing everything that you guys do, and I certainly appreciate it. Um, and I can say that about every single department in this city. Um, we're very fortunate to have the talent that you've acquired in your department and every single department head. Um, I think everybody just really takes it for granted. But I do appreciate everything that you guys do. Um, that's proof and I and the numbers tell the story. Um, and I think that's fantastic. I just want to say thanks. A great presentation.

Thank you. Uh, Wendy, hey Taylor. So, I saw in the slides that we've had, of course, looking around town exponential growth. Has your staff also grown that much since 2020 or has it been come a similar amount of people working a lot more? It has not grown the same rate that the applications have grown. No, didn't think so. Uh, Travis,

so with the with the new business license fee, I think it's it's like a tax, but we call it a fee. Um, do you expect your department to be even more understaffed as like Wendy had mentioned, you you're doing a lot more with less. Um, and now that we added on another additional permit or license, do you anticipate your your staff having issues keeping up with that? I think we can handle um I think we can handle it or I would not have recommended that ordinance. Um I obviously more work is more work and we can never control what's submitted to us. You know, we like to call ourselves planners, but we're also reactors. We react to what's given us and so that's just a part of our day-to-day is adjusting to what we are given. Um so that's just a part of our job description. Larry staff regular staff people.

I have some questions for you about VA clinic. That is the one at the corner of uh what Rogers Road and 279 up the street here just north of us. And that's on nonPOA property. Are they going to have sewer service there? You mean water? Yeah. Are they It is sewer. Yes. But did you mean water since it's not in the the POA?

Water. Water will be uh centered for domestic. I don't know. We arranged to use POA for fire protection in this building and I'm wondering if they will need the same if they're putting up a facility whether the whether the Center department will be able to provide the adequate supply. So, that was kind of the the overview that I gave that it's still working on getting the private approvals with the developer and the ACC. Um, I believe their agreement is they are going the the developer is going to allow it to be brought into the POA so they can get water for fire suppression. Um, Centerton has still not decided if they are going to offer it domestic or not. They want to, but if it's not within their capacity, they may not be able to in such they would transfer those rights to the water pa water. Okay. um the master trail plan um that you said it was 10 years old and and we'll be getting an update on that because of our participation in the regional plan. Is that right?

Those were two different projects. So the master trail plan is ours. That's the one we did in 2015. Um so that was the city. Of course we had a grant back then to do it too. Um but now it's um it's over 10 years old. So just best practice, you should update your plans every 5 to 10 years. And so we're at the very end of that time frame. So it just felt necessary to update it. So are we getting a grant that's on our nickel completely or that was fully funded? So 80% was covered through the regional planning commission grant and the other 20% was covered privately by the Walton Family Foundation.

Okay. All right. Well, thank you. Um right now I don't have any other questions. I'm sure I will. Thank you. that I've noticed that has become a common occurrence where we it's common to get these 8020 grants. We get the 80% and the Walton Foundation very generously helps with the other 20%. So, we're really lucky that way and uh you know for people say gee what does the planning and development department do? I think the answer is lots. I mean it's just unbelievable the year they just had. I think it's incredible. I have one more question, Larry.

I I I believe that the POA uh water utility may have done a a section corner survey some 15 or 20 years ago and will our GIS mapping that we have on online, will that be better than the Benton County one in terms of where lot lines are shown? It'll be updated quicker. Um they've Will it be better though? Will it be coordinated uh to survey quality or near survey quality so that it doesn't run down the middle of the street for the property line when the property line is off the street as an example.

Well, our GIS is built um off the Benton County GIS database. Um and that's that's why all GIS databases have a disclaimer when you click on it is because there's always going to be room for error on that. Okay. Um but in terms of updating it and then yes um especially zoning and things like that it will be more detailed but the base layer that is built on is through Benton County and there so if we if we look at lot lines and things on our GIS map uh that's going to be the same as you find on the county map there will you will click a disclaimer that you understand that there's a possibility that that may not be where the property line is correct

frustrating. Okay, thank you very much, Taylor. Appreciate it.

Uh the next item is impact fees and we have uh Ben Griffin of our consultant Tishler Bice here to uh make a presentation. Uh mayor, council members, uh thanks for having us out tonight. Uh so I'm going to give you sort of a highlevel overview of the impact fee update. feel free to ask any questions along the way. Um, you know, if you were not involved in, you know, the last impact fee update or you just don't remember all the ins and outs of impact fees from that, um, please feel free just to interrupt and, uh, let me know your question and I'll try and walk you through it. So the question is, do we have a an impact fee charge for for new buildings and new development to cover our road damages?

Uh so you cannot use impact fees to repair, replace uh rehab any existing infrastructure. You can use them to add additional capacity. Uh and you know that the discussion of roads uh you that was was brought up in the last update and you know the the idea here is you know you have a lot of roads that need repaving or replacing. Um but you know the impact fees again can't be used to fix an existing deficiency. It needs to add you know new capacity. So, you know, you could have an impact fee to add new streets, but you could not have one to uh repair or replace the existing.

What about reconstructing the streets that the developer left us as being shoddy? Basically, what I tell people, if it starts in the letters re, we probably can't use an impact fee for that. So, repair, replacement, rehab, anything like that. Um, can't use the impact fees for that. uh Tishler Vice suggested to us pretty early on actually we raise that and I knew you'd be interested in it Larry uh and uh they uh directed uh the attorney and I to look at the fee andlue approach if we wanted to try to do something about roads they wouldn't be able to do it in the impact fee context

so have you done fee in lie of in other cities for transportation or road road damages or repairs or maintenance or whatever. We have we have not you have not a fee in L is a totally different

legal animal than than a than an impact fee. Impact fee is because of the impact of growth and addition to the city. Fees in loo are when you have a developer that has a particular city requirement to improve a public infrastructure like a street related to their development. They could pay a fee in lie of doing that which could go into a fund which would pay for certain things that could go for existing infrastructure. I know that I won't be popular in saying this, but we have um we have a lot of impact by all the new construction that's happening in the city on our existing roads and and so the question is um can we as a council adopt a fee specifically for road

the the an the what what we're saying here is that it can't be an impact fee because it's not related to new growth. It potentially could be a fee in lie of a development requirement. Uh but anything other than that would probably be a tax and have to be approved by the voters. So um that's that's what I can can tell you. It would it would have to be some sort of a fee in lie I think of uh of some development requirement. Of course you've got to require the development improvement. So, you've got to look and see, well, if you build something, you have to improve a an intersection or a a length of road in front of your house or or in front of a business or something along those lines.

And as an impact, you're talking about an impact fee. No, no, no, not an impact fee. What I'm talking about is it would be a fee in lie of a developer required improvement when a new development was proposed. Okay. Uh Shay,

I know we haven't even let you uh dive into your deck yet, but I did just have a quick question or clarification around what we is there a definition we should consider when you use the word capacity like could could the argument be that the capacity to support heavy equipment like our trash trucks that go around and damage our road is that could that be a tied to capacity or do we literally just mean number of cars headed down the road and widening lanes? How should we think about it when you use the word capacity? Please.

Generally with streets um there is a a vehicle capacity. Um so you know each lane can you know on average take you know 6,000 to 9,000 you know vehicles per day. Um so there is a defined amount of capacity and you know adding turn lanes and uh you know traffic signals those types of improvements do add capacity to your roadway system. Um but generally when you're looking at impact fee um the the transportation component is really adding new lane miles. All right. Um so Tishler Rice um you know we've been doing uh impact fees and fiscal analysis uh things like the growth planning uh for 40 years and uh you know more recently uh we have uh started working with other communities in Arkansas. um you know generally you're you're seeing this emerge you know in impact fees in the the southeast because uh over the last you know decade or so you've seen um you know a spike in growth in the southeast so you're you're starting to see you know Arkansas, Tennessee um you know South Carolina. So states that generally didn't have impact fees 10 years ago are starting to see that as a way to fund growth related impact uh and you know instead of passing that on to your existing development uh you can charge new development for that when they come in pull their permit to say hey this is this is your growth related capital cost so we don't have to pass this on to our existing residents slide. Uh so impact fees are one-time fees generally collected at the the time of um you know the building permit or when you pull your your water meter. Um I do

believe in Arkansas it is it can be at closing. Uh so but generally it's you know before someone takes ownership of that new structure they're going to pay an impact fee for some amount of capital infrastructure. um can't use impact fees for operations, maintenance, uh repair, rehab. Uh it needs to be new capital or uh recently constructed capital that essentially has excess capacity. So water and sewer are great examples of that. You know, if you oversized a plant, uh you could use impact fees to, you know, pay off the debt related to that excess capacity. Um there are three things we have to prove with impact fees. So impact fees need or an impact fee study has to prove need. So, uh, part of that is looking at, you know, are you still growing? And if the answer is yes, then, you know, we sort of move on to that next step of need and do you have infrastructure needs? So, if you say, yeah, we we need additional fire stations, we need, you know, additional parkland. Um, that sort of starts checking those boxes. But then when we look at those projects, we want to make sure uh that they're system level improvements. So, something that's going to provide a benefit throughout the service area and not a project level improvement. So, a great example uh would be, you know, if you had a street fee, you wouldn't want to you wouldn't want the fee to include turn lanes into a new shopping center because that's only providing a benefit to that shopping center. Uh they're the reason that you needed that. Uh so, that's a project level improvement, but you know, adding, you know, additional lanes to that arterial would provide additional systemwide capacity. Uh so again we're just making sure that any any sort of uh project that we're including provides that system level improvement and not just a project level benefit. Um then we start talking about benefit. So benefit we look at two two approaches. Um we

want to make sure that the fee payer is geographically close enough to receive a benefit uh from you know paying that fee. So, you know, if if you were a, you know, huge sprawling city, so, you know, Phoenix is a great example, you probably need to cut down the the city into smaller service areas because you may not receive a benefit from, you know, an improvement on the other side uh of the city. Uh the other part of benefit is we want to make sure that you're spending your money in a timely manner. So, in Arkansas, uh you are required to encumber the money within seven years of the date of collection. Uh so that doesn't mean you have to build everything within seven years, but uh you know if you're building a new fire station, maybe you're purchasing the land with the money you received in years one and two and then maybe in years you know three and four that money is going towards design. So there are ways to stretch this out. Um but that money does need to be encumbered from you know seven years from the time you receive it and you know every year of receipts that's a new seven years. Uh so just making sure that you're spending the money in a timely manner. Uh also we need to make sure the fees are proportionate to demand. So you'll see in the fee schedules you know there are a couple residential categories there are a few non-residential uh different land uses have different demand for infrastructure. So we want to make sure that we're using um you know demand indicators that are you know proportionate to the actual demand from different types of development. Uh so a long way of saying we're going to have different fees for different land uses. Right. Next slide.

I have a question really quick. Is Bella Vista large enough to have to separate you know fees for distance?

Not not quite. Um, you know, if you if you had a water and sewer fee and um you you had different pressure zones um because of you know elevation changes, you know, that might might trigger it. Um but generally, no, you're you're uh you're not going to be big enough to really need separate service areas. Okay. All right. So, there are three general methodologies we use in impact fees. They look at points in time. Uh so you know I briefly discussed you know sort of paying back the the cost of excess capacity. So that's you know that's a cost recovery. We're looking to the past. So it's something that exists today. Uh you built it in the past but you've got that excess capacity and you want to use impact fees to buy into that excess capacity. Um if we you know look at the present that's an incremental methodology. So we want to maintain the existing level of service. So the number of you know acres of parkland per person or uh the square feet of police facilities per person. Uh so we can take today's level of service and just maintain that going forward. Uh that way you know if essentially you're not overcharging future development because one really important thing with impact fees is you can't charge future development for a higher level of service than existing development receives unless you have an outside funding mechanism. So, you know, issuing debt. Um, that's a pretty good example. And, you know, in that situation, you might say, well, you know, we're we're here today. We want to be here. So, how do we get there? Well, you can issue debt, raise that level of service. And you know, this is essentially a plan-based approach, which is the the final methodology where you say, okay, maybe we're deficient today, but if we issue debt, we can raise that level of service and then we can charge future development this higher level of service because we are now providing it to all development. Uh again, just making sure that we're never charging future development for a higher level of

service than existing development receives. So any questions with the methodologies? Okay. Right. Next slide. Um we also need to look at credits. So the first one is really easy. That's a sight specific credit. Essentially in this case the a developer may construct something that's included in the impact fee study. All you're going to do is give them a credit against their impact fee. Um the other two debt service or dedicated revenues that's handled within the impact fee study. So essentially you say hey look we we we want to build this but we know that future development is going to generate revenues used um to you know build this same improvement. So it may be property taxes sales tax things like that. Uh so we include a credit in the impact fee study to reduce the proposed impact fee to offset those future revenues generated by future development. Any questions related to credits? Okay. All right. So, this looks the next 10 years. Um, basically what it's saying is you this is how we think you'll grow over the next 10 years. The most important thing here is the the 2025 base year. Um, because that's what we use to calculate the existing level of service. So, we look out 10 years. Uh, on the residential side, we're looking at the previous five years of residential permit history. And so the the thought here is you know you'll grow in a similar manner as you know how you have been growing. Uh so if you've been growing by a little over you know 500 housing units a year um you know we think that you would grow in a similar fashion. So over the next 10 years you know a little over you know 5,000 additional housing units. Um on the non-residential side we we look at recent employment growth. Uh and so with the thought there is again you would

grow in a similar fashion um and then we can convert that employment growth to actual square footage in non-residential development uh using demand indicators published by the institute of transportation engineers. So basically says you have different types of uh development have different employment convert that projected employment to projected non-residential floor area. So most of your impact fees, the proposed impact fees use an incremental methodology. So you could grow by 10 times what we're projecting. You could grow by half of what we're projecting. It doesn't change the fee calculation. It just changes the cash flow. So if you grow faster than we project, you generate more fee revenue. You build more. Uh if you grow slower than we project, it's the inverse. You generate less fee revenue, but you have to build less. Uh a lot of communities like the incremental methodology uh because it really insulates you know the city or the general fund from having to make up the difference um if there is you know a recession or a change in um the development pattern. Um but really here the most important thing is you know that that base year uh you know is the existing population is the existing employment uh you know is that accurate because we're using that uh for almost all your fee calculations to say this is your existing level of service. So are there any questions related to the tenure projections? Okay, next slide. All right so we'll start with fire. Um we're looking at a citywide service area. We're looking at two components. uh a basically a facilities component and an apparatus component both using an incremental methodology to maintain that level of service. Uh and so based on 10 years of projected growth uh you'd need about 9,500 additional square feet of fire facilities uh that would generate about $4.2 million in impact fees for those additional facilities and you'd

need about four and a half additional apparatus. Uh that'd be about $5.5 million to acquire those additional apparatus. It's important to note that, you know, this isn't replacement of existing apparatus. It's expansion of the fleet. Um, again, with an incremental methodology, we're maintaining the level of service. So, it doesn't say you're, you know, you're building a new fire station, you're buying these apparatus. It's saying you need additional square footage. So, it may be building a new fire station, but it may also be adding bays to existing fire stations. the incremental methodology gives you that flexibility to respond to, you know, where growth is actually happening in the community. Uh, and so if you, you know, have a lot more development on one side of town, uh, it allows you the flexibility to say, okay, well, we're going to put, you know, most of our impact fee dollars over here to add capacity to serve, uh, you know, this spike in growth. All right, the next slide that will show the proposed fire fees. Uh so essentially what we're doing here is just taking that cost per person or that cost per vehicle trip. We multiply it by the demand indicators. So for residential it's going to be the number of persons per housing unit. And that's uh that's calculated based on census data. For non-residential that's going to be the number of vehicle trips generated per thousand square feet of floor area using those IT uh trip indicators I mentioned earlier. Uh so essentially it's just the the cost per unit times uh the demand units uh for residential or non-residential. Uh and so you can see that you know this you know shouldn't surprise you uh because costs you know keep increasing you know construction costs are increasing uh that you know the cost to acquire you know new fire apparatus you know I'm I'm amazed every time I I see an updated number um but you know most of these fees are increasing and you know what I tell a lot of communities across the

country is even if you have the exact same level of service right now as you did in your previous study. We know that construction costs have increased. We know that the cost to acquire an apparatus has increased. So, even if you had the exact same level of service, your fee would increase just to offset those cost increases. Um, we do have a credit in here for the sales and use tax bond. Uh, so it's, you know, offsetting part of this increase. Um but you know we are seeing an increase across the board on residential and uh to your office and institutional uses uh on the non-residential side. We are seeing you know a slight decrease for retail and industrial. So any questions with the fire fees. Okay. So next up um this just shows the projection of uh impact fees essentially because we're using an incremental methodology. your fee revenue should be similar to the uh sorry your your expenditure should be similar to that fee revenue I said so the you know four and a half million dollars for uh facilities and five and a half for apparatus again because it's incremental it's just maintaining so u what we're showing on the left side you know those are potential uh fire facilities and apparatus that you could use your impact fees to fund but you don't have to um Again, you can use it on anything similar um but it just needs to be growth related. All right, next up we have library. So citywide service area um using an incremental methodology for the collection materials. So based on 10 years of residential growth, um you need about 15,000 additional collection items that would generate about 341,000

uh to fund those. And the next slide should show the uh the proposed fees. So you not a very big increase here. Um and then the next slide should just show the uh the revenue and expenditures. So essentially the revenues equal the expenditures because we're using that incremental methodology. Yeah, Jay, I noticed here that unlike the fire um fees, we're not accounting for any kind of square footage here. Is there a reason why? Um, I am actually not sure. Um, we we could um use impact fees to fund the actual footprint. Um,

so I'm part of the foundation board for the library and the city does not own the building. The foundation does. And so if the foundation gifted the building or sold the building for a dollar or whatever, we could implement the impact fees for that expansion. Unfortunately, we have not done that in my opinion. And so that that part falls on my foundation.

I guess my my concern just is with the city growing so much, if we did need to add more square footage, right? Because we can add a ton of collection items and and add to our, you know, the items in circulation at our library, but if we don't have enough space for it, then that does create a problem. So, I'm not totally um anyway just wanted to ask that question on you know aside from this building um would you know would we ever need to build a different building or expand upon it um on on the city's dime I guess is just my question of would this could these funds be used for that just because we're not collecting the fee based on a calculation of square footage could we still use the the money collected for an expansion

so because you technically don't own any facilities. Uh, and I'm not an attorney, so I can't give legal advice, but um, you can't.

Thank you. Um, yeah. So, this is based on the collection of materials that you own. Now, you could use a plan-based approach to say, "Hey, we technically don't own any facilities today, but we want to." and then say, "All right, well, this new facility is going to serve, you know, everyone citywide and allocate the cost." But essentially, you're you're saying because we have no level of service, if we look 10 years out, well, that increase in growth is the growth share. The other part is what existing development has to fund. So, essentially probably issuing debt to to fix that. But if you bought a library for a dollar, you have an instant level of service and it's much easier to to have an impact fee.

And then at that point though, we would have to get back with you all and recalculate and change the fee. Right. That's correct. And like Bittenville recently did this several years ago. Their foundation did sell the um the building and they implemented impact fees and were able just to open last February a beautiful expansion piece that did like get like I think $4 million in revenue just from the tax impact fees. So that sounds incredible and I'd love for our city to have that. Oh, agreed. A question that I have is if I don't know, councelor Kelly, do we do we lease the the library building? Is that how we make

Yes, we have a long-term lease with the foundation for the building. We own the collection and we obviously the contents are ours. Yes, sir. I'm assuming. Yes, sir. But the building is theirs and the land is theirs and so we pay them what a rate based on the amount of area they provide. No, I don't I I have to go back and look at the lease, but it's a minimal amount of rent. It's dollars. It's like it's a it's just enough to support the lease agreement basically. They're not making money on our lease payment. So So they're not recovering any of the cost for the site. We pay insurance. Part of what we the main thing we pay is for the insurance on the building.

That's our financial state. we if we had a lease agreement and they do an expansion, our our lease cost would go up. And so would that be an eligible cost for us to consider? Your insurance cost might go up and and they did do an expansion and the lease didn't change.

And there's been talks about other expansions that had been like I think put on pause or back burners because the insurance cost would be um substantial to the city and so the foundation has not gone forward with that information. All right. Any other library questions? All right. So, next slide. Police. Again, a citywide service area. We're looking at three components this time. Uh, so we have a facilities component, which is plan-based, and then we have a vehicles and equipment uh category, which is incremental. Uh so, you know, with the plant-based component, uh you know, we're saying it's a different level of service than you currently provide. Uh and so we're looking at, you know, a special operations facility. It's about 3,700 square feet. Um generate, you know, a little over a million dollars over the next 10 years toward that facility. Uh for vehicles to maintain that level of service, you need, you know, about 23 additional vehicles. So expanding your fleet uh by 23 vehicles generate about $1.6 million and then for equipment 85 units or about $17,000 in uh cost related there. All right, next slide should be the fee schedule. So again just looking at you know an increase compared to your existing fees uh which again the price to acquire a police vehicle is more than it was a few years ago. uh construction cost of facilities is higher than it was a few years ago. Uh so you know it's not surprising that this this fee would increase compared to your current fee. All right. And then the next slide uh is just you know some potential projects uh and then the revenue generated from impact fees. uh you do see that you know that difference between uh what's projected in your total cost is because it's that that plan-based approach on uh

the the facilities component. So any questions with police? Okay. All right. And the paved pathways uh fee. This is a citywide uh collection area. Uh we're using an incremental methodology to maintain the existing level service of paved pathways. And so you would need about 1.2 miles over the next 10 years and that would generate about 1.2 million in impact fees. Uh the proposed fees uh assessed only to residential development. On the next slide and so you this one it's you substantial fee. This is actually to residential and non-residential. um you know about $200 per single family unit to you know about $150 per multif family unit. All right. And the next slide should be the revenue projections. So again because this is incremental uh the the revenues are essentially equal to uh the the expenditures related to pave pathways. All right. And this shows the fee summary. Uh you can see, you know, average single family unit is going to be about, you know, $2,300 compared to your existing fee about $1,100. Uh so essentially doubling the the current impact fee. But again, because you know costs have increased, uh it makes sense to see this fee increasing as well. And then I think the final slide is a comparison uh to some of your neighbors. Uh so that that gray column is you know the the draft fee and then just to the right of that is your current fee but you can see uh you know comparison to Rogers, Springdale, Bentonville and Fateville which we were in uh my corker and I were in uh Fateville this morning uh kicking off their police and fire impact fees. So that number uh that'll

increase uh soon. uh and then uh you know working with some of your neighbors. Um so you know there there's a lot of impact fee updates right now and you for the most part it's because this area is experiencing you know pretty aggressive growth and you know costs are increasing. Uh so where we might see you know communities opening every five years um you know it's it's sort of trending towards every you know three or four years um just to keep up with the the changes to the growth projections and the costs right and I believe that was the final slide um but I'm available for any you know questions or comments. I had a question. When you list the numbers for a multifamily,

uh is that for each unit, mayor? Yes, that would be per unit. Uh so and that's important to know because you know we have had communities uh you know some of our other clients where you know someone would come and pull a building permit for a multif family development and they would charge the unit rate instead of you know well they would charge one but it's maybe 200 units but they would be charging that single multif family unit rate. So it is per multif family dwelling unit not just that total uh multif family development. All right. Any other questions or comments?

Do you often see a increase like we have on the single family here where it's basically doubled

this update cycle? That's actually the norm. um just because construction costs have increased you know exponentially um you know some states do have limits on you know how much you can increase a fee like Florida they cap it at 50%. Um but you know this is truly passing you know that that cost of growth on and you know this is this is what construction costs. Um and you know I think your you know your persons per housing unit is pretty similar to your last study. So this truly is you know you have a similar level of service. You have similar occupancy factors. So it's just that you know passing that higher construction cost along to new development.

Uh Larry

and looking at this table at the bottom line it says the total for single family residential and the first thousand square feet of retail. When I when I look at the current Bella Vista, the proposed draft numbers, and then when I look at Bentonville, uh they're way above us in terms of single family units, but way below us in terms of commercial, uh and then I look at Springdale and they're two and a half times what we have for for single family and uh three times almost for retail. And the same thing with Rogers. Now, how do you get those numbers up that high for those other two communities? How do we get our numbers up that high?

So, Rogers and Springdale, they only assess water and sewer fees and generally water and sewer fees are So, water and sewer fees are in the Springdale and the Rogers and they're not in ours. Correct.

And what about Bentonville? Uh with Bentonville, it looks like uh the park component um is really driving the impact fee there. You know, it's 2500 of their, you know, 3,800. U so that's that's really what's, you know, driving their fee increase. Uh non-residential, I I'm not sure, you know, off the top of my head what's what's causing that, but um it could be that more of the cost in Bentonville is shifted towards residential development and so it's reducing that the share that goes on is passed on to non-residential development.

So if we were in and in Bella Vista we're unique because we don't have a water system and we don't have a wastewater system. The other communities do. So those are in their numbers but not in ours.

Correct. So to look at the case for case, uh we would need to add the cost of our POA water and our village wastewater company charges for sewer into each of these two categories to figure out where we sit in relation to them. If if that's a capacity fee or impact fee, yes, if it's just a connection fee, um then that wouldn't be, you know, a good comparison. But even, you know, compares, you know, comparing a fire fee to another city's fire fee, you know, it's not always an applesto apples comparison. uh because you know what if you know one is sort of heavy on new facilities or they have a much higher level of service compared to you know you with you know maybe you don't have as many apparatus. So you there are a lot of there are a lot of caveats to this type of comparison.

Also we don't own parks and wrecks and we don't own that we don't provide those services. So it uh we probably can't add those in. Right. Right. So it's it's it's sort of tough to compare. I mean if you're trying to figure out okay what is you know the the impact fee impact to development. Yes. It's good to show the summary but again it's not an apples to apples comparison in you know every community. And really quick, whenever I think you mentioned it already, but just to clarify that this fee gets paid at the time of closing. Is that what is that what I heard? I believe it's paid the time of closing.

When are we collecting it, Tyler? It can be either we I've got to go back. I have to go back and look at

the latest you can pay it. Um but every community Let me see. I did notice I was on council when we first started the impact fees and I we did not have a single complaint not a peep from anybody going from zero to 1100 on building and Carson Bice has always told me that you know people think somehow the impact fees are going to affect demand and it's his opinion it has zero effect on demand. it is a signal to the development community that you're going to continue to invest in your community. Uh so you you there's a reason people want to move here. Uh and you know without capital improvements you know you you start to erode that you know quality of life that you provide. Uh so yeah, it is a signal to the development community, hey, we're we're going to continue to make these improvements uh and we're not going to let you know that sort of uh you know, level of service decline.

So on the collection issue, um we are collecting it at the time of application. The law gives them that they have tells them that they have to pay it no later than the issuance of certificate of occupancy. So, we're actually taking it sooner, but they they um we have to collect it no later than the issuance of the certificate of occupancy. And there's a couple of caveats to that, but that's what we do. Okay, Shay.

Um first, I just want to thank the mayor and the staff for undertaking this project. Um for casual listeners or for citizens who might be listening to this, I think uh it's important that we all understand what impact fees do for our city. We have really limited uh revenue in the city because of our lack of commercial development. So impact fees really do help grow. As we saw from Taylor's presentation, our housing is growing significantly. Uh, some would say, and this is not me speaking on behalf of the city, that every time we add a new household, it debatably costs us more to serve that household with our city services than we will recoup in their property taxes. Um, if you do some math, it's pretty easy to see that that is likely the case, but it is hard to prove. So, the impact fees will really help us support ourselves as we grow, and I do think it's fair to ask for those coming into our city to help us maintain the level of service. So, I just want to thank the mayor for looking at these fees again and making sure that they are up to date. I did have a couple of questions. Um, procedurally, do we adopt these as a council? Okay.

Yes, there'll be an ordinance that that imposes makes these changes. You you've you've what you have now is approved by an ordinance and so an ordinance will be required to change.

Okay. And then I just do have one more point. I know we touched on streets in in the very beginning. Um, and I know we can't just sherk the law or um or do anything overly creative. I didn't know if there's a world where capac I guess I would just ask that we look again at if there's a world where capacity could be seen as supporting the weight of the vehicles. And I do mean specifically our trash vehicles. When our streets were originally constructed, we didn't have that technology and we weren't collecting trash in that way. And now that we do, um, it really damages our roads, which weren't built with the capacity of that in mind. And so, I don't know. I know everyone's very smart and worked very hard on this, so I'm not trying to question anyone's work, but I would just love to understand that a little bit better because I know it would make a huge difference for our citizens and for the quality of our roads and avoiding potholes and things like that.

Yeah. Unfortunately, I believe it Baldwin County, Alabama is the only jurisdiction allowed to um use impact fees to repair their roads and it's so in Alabama each county has their own act uh and so it is essentially written in but they're also capped at 1% of the improved value of that new housing unit or you know non-residential development. Um, but yeah, they're the only one allowed by law to do that. So there's no creative way of saying we're in increasing the capacity of the street to support.

I would I would say this, being legally creative is very very expensive because the the litigation costs and the attorney's fees and when you guess wrong, the refunds um are crippling financially and so you don't really take a risk on that. I think the way there there could be some Arkansas legislative clarity that said, hey, you can do this, too. That would certainly make it clear in terms of impact fee. Um, but um otherwise, I think you've got to look at a fee in Lou in terms of of new development uh as a fee. Um, you know, you do have the I mean, we haven't really gone into this. You can go to the voters and say approve this this fee and and and let the voters approve it. You can do a lot of things with voter approval, but that's a whole different discussion, of course.

So, I just want to clarify then. So, you said we could go to the voters and ask them to approve an impact fee type of streets. Okay. No, it would be a just a it would be a whole unique new sort of tax to do that. Thank you. Any other questions? I think the main thrust of uh Tishler Bice and the study the point of this is is they come up with some numbers and they say you can correct me if I'm wrong.

This is the maximum we feel you can legally charge for impact fees with the facts you've given us. I think that's the point of the study, right? These are the numbers. So we can charge this or less. We can't charge more. All right. I have one one question for you. We we don't have a municipal sewer system in Bella Vista. We have a private system that covers uh a small portion of our our s of our city in areas where u historically uh they're unable to support on-site disposal. Okay. Because of the soils, whatever. Uh my question would be is can we implement an impact fee to do a study as to how we address the ultimate failure of all of those on-site private systems. Now, it's not a not a short-term thing. It's going to be some here and some there over a long term because we have no spare um leech bed sites on the lot. the lots are small smaller um and so we have some issues that long term are probably pretty serious in potential. So could we do an impact fee to do a study as to how we address a solution of those guys who are on septic systems?

You would not be able to use impact fees for the study. Um but if you know if you said hey we we definitely need to provide some sort of wastewater you know treatment facility to serve the collection system is the big big giant in this so you would need to either either the city would have to own it or basically a government agency would need to own the system uh and that's sort of the first test um because Arkansas's impact v act says you know it needs to be you know a city or a government agency. Um, so essentially that's your government agencies are generally going to be your, you know, utility systems. Um,

I I think un undoubtedly that the city would be the lion in the pen dealing with that solution of that problem when it occurs. And so the question is whether it'll be localized uh or whether it would be more extensive. Uh there are different theories about the life expectancy of an on-site disposal system. So people say they're if you take care of them, they'll last you a lifetime, 50 or 100 years. And there are some out there that are well over 100 years. Um not abused, not you, not overused. Um Bella Vista has unique issues of soil challenges that some are marginal but will support the system for design. Usually those are on houses with fewer bedrooms because the soils are are are marginal. Others are good soils. U but nonetheless it is likely um that we will need some municipal sewer in some areas maybe more uh as time goes on. So,

so anybody has done anything like that? Uh, generally when we we see

sort of planning for the conversion from septic to uh sewer, it's you know in a community uh where you're you're already serving sort of the surrounding areas. So, a great example is, you know, one of our current clients, Apache Junction, Arizona. And, you know, they they have a lot of uh seasonal RV and mobile home parks. Uh, and as those systems, those older systems start to fail, they have to connect to the the sewer system. Uh, and it's much easier there because you already have the infrastructure surrounding these, you know, older RV mobile home parks. Uh, so it's easy just to connect them to that. It it sounds like here it may be sort of spread out and you may not have the the collection infrastructure in place to easily connect. So, it's There's a lot more discussion that would we would need to have to figure out if an impact fee would even really be helpful in that situation because if you only have, you know, one or two homes that need to connect on, you know, a street, you know, is it cost effective to you use an impact fee to build that collection system out? Because you don't know how long it's going to take to repay that uh once you likely issue debt. to put in the collection system and then you're sort of waiting for people to have their system fail to then connect. Uh now they're a new connection to your system. So they would, you know, they could pay the impact fee.

Some states have a mandatory connection time after the system is operational. Uh others do not. Arkansas is very placid in that aspect of it. is uh I'd like to follow up on something you said a few minutes ago on impact fees on sewer. Uh if it was regional rather than a city, then it's conceivable you could use impact fees. So just had a a very similar discussion in Centerton. Um yeah, I bet you did

because of uh you know some some legal issues um about whether or not you can send additional flows uh anywhere. Uh and you essentially it's the same thing. You need to make sure the city owns it or they are an owner in the system. So, if you send your flows to a regional facility, um, again, I'm not an attorney, but I I believe the city would need to have ownership in that regional system if you want to collect impact fees to fund it. Thank you.

All right. Any other questions or comments? Uh, Greg, I withdraw. Okay. All right. Thanks, everyone. uh you send out any emails or if you have any followup um actual adoption. Thank you very much. Appreciate you coming. Uh if the council is amendable, I could have uh Jason Kelly uh write up an ordinance for next week. You know, it'd only be first reading. We have plenty of time to think about it and talk about it and be something to look at. an ordinance to implement these numbers. Yeah,

I would be inclined to do that. Yeah. Um have court Thursday. Uh it's already Tuesday and the meeting is Monday and this is a multi-million dollar ordinance and so I would request time to be a professional and do this right. Okay. So have that. Uh if it's you certainly could uh I would I'll do whatever you tell me to do. Okay. But I think that if you're in CL Thursday Thursday

and you have a one attorney legal department. Uh so what I would suggest to you is I don't know if you have any inclination want to wave three readings and do this at one meeting but you could just do it in March and then wave them at that time or go to the second meeting or or something second reading and sure it wouldn't necessarily have to slow the end result down is what I'm saying if we wait I understand I would like to point out our one attorney is really outstanding though. Well I'm glad one person thinks so. I appreciate that. No, I know others do. Thank you. Yeah, that's a good point. If Yeah, if next Monday's too much, then that's okay.

I I don't want I don't want to wave any readings on this if if that's what maybe I misunderstood, but I just my personal vote would be a no to wave any readings. That's that's up to the council. I mean, yeah, it's sometimes not a bad idea to take your time a little bit. So, One observation I have is I looked at our website for commissions and boards.

I'm sorry. I I looked at our website about commissions and boards and I I I found it to be very interesting. Travis brought it to my attention through the the issue with the minutes for the AMP commission and only only three of the seven uh boards and commissions really list when they meet. And so some of them say um as an example uh the council is an advisory board to the city council and the mayor and thrive uh to foster a a community in Bella Vista with with no date or time or anything how often they meet. Another one says we meet quarterly but they don't say what month or what day of the week in the month that they meet like the third Tuesday fourth Friday. Uh, so I find those to be interesting and I would encourage the the staff to uh follow up with the leaders there and and and add that information to our website. I think it would be beneficial to our community residents to be able to go to a meeting if they chose to without having to try and research it because they would know. As an example, um, as an example, the&mp commission meets quarterly at 2:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of January, April, July, and October. Plenty specific.

Yeah. Plenty specific to know when to go and when to plan on your calendar. So, February. that. So anyway, uh point taken. I think some of the uh u boards are a little bit flexible depending when neighbors uh members can make it. But even if that's the case, we could put a notice up on the website or whatever, you know, give people a little notice. Yeah. But some like the arts council that's probably not not a very good example

of that they need to meet regularly during the year. They probably have a meeting when they need something to talk about or have an issue to discuss. But most of the other ones I think there's something on their agenda that they would want to have specific day of the month. Four times a year, six times a year, two times a year. Just a thought, throw it out there. Okay, thank you. I think that's everything then. Unless somebody has uh something else. Uh is there a list of meetings I'm supposed to read or anything?

Yeah, that's next week. Okay. Ajourn.