Board of Directors - Regular Meeting

Well, welcome everyone to I see Little Rock board of directors agenda meeting where we will set the agenda for September the 15th here today Members of the board any questions on the consent agenda Any questions on the consent agenda Seeing no questions on the consent agenda, board members just want to make certain. Any questions on the consent agenda? All right. All right. Are you going to press one, Director Lewis? Director Lewis, now.

I'M JUST MAKING SURE, NUMBER ONE, DOES THAT ENCOMPASS ALL OF OUR PROJECTS THAT WE HAD A SERIES OF MEETINGS OVER MAYBE A COUPLE MONTHS AGO?

YES.

THANK YOU.

ALL RIGHT. DIRECTOR PICK, DID YOU HAVE A QUESTION? ALL RIGHT. MOVING FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA, ANY QUESTIONS ON THE PLANNING ITEMS? Vice Mayor Weirich.

I'd like for someone to give a report on ordinance number 15.

Director Miller, and what item was yours on as well? Before Brad, so he'll just be aware. Sorry about that.

I just need to get caught up on those items on Ward 1. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know.

Yes, that's the one.

Yes, ma'am. This applicant requests to rezone the 5.8 acre property from C3 to PCD. This project rezones an unplanted heavily wooded tract for a mini warehouse and mixed commercial development. The use mix is C4 permitted uses plus contractor maintenance yard, gymnasium, and warehousing and wholesaling. The surrounding properties have a mix of zoning uses. Access to the property will be two accesses, 36 foot wide drives from Mapleville West Road. Separation from these drives will be around 300 feet. The setbacks respectively are the front 25, rear 25, west is 45, east is 21. The northern half of the lot will have three 12,000 square foot flex spaces with a lay down yard behind each of those. And the southern will have three buildings for boat storage, car, and RV storage.

Okay. This is next door to the east to Mabelville Middle School, is that right?

It is.

Yes. Okay. So I got kind of confused because it says it's located in Ward 2. I'm thinking that has got to be Ward 7. That's why I wanted to make sure exactly where that was. We'll make that correction. This is a Ward 7 project. At one time, I think there was 20 acres that was in that parcel. Are they taking off the five acres across the front? Across the front, yes. Is there still access to the back parcels of that? Was any of that talked about in the application?

There was nothing talked about that in the application. Okay.

Am I right? Was it 20 acres that was there?

I'm not sure. The only thing that they're asking for that we were made aware of was this 5.8 acre piece that they platted off.

Okay.

And is there going to be, with this PCD, will there be any open display items or is everything going to be Undercover?

There could be. There's going to be a lay down yard and it's C4 permitted uses. So that's outdoor display. So there could be.

In the back? In the back.

Yes, ma'am.

Not in the front.

Yes. The parking will be adjacent to Mabelville West up front. And so everything will sort of be behind the development, the front two buildings, 12,000 square foot buildings.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Director Miller.

Thanks, Mayor. Hey, Brad, that's award one show, huh?

It's award one show, yes, sir. That's good. Residential.

It is good. Hey, tell me a little bit about ordinance number 16. It appears that it was a staff denial and then came back with a staff recommendation. Tell me what all went on with that.

Sure, sure. I can give you the... TikTok of it all. Originally, the developer had asked for six residential units with no off-street parking. He came to the Planning Commission. We were recommending denial of the project. for that issue in particular. At the meeting, he saw the questions he was being asked, I guess the writing on the wall. He went back and he redesigned. He pulled it. He pulled it. All right. Redesigned it, and instead of six, he's asking for five, and he is using that extra lot for five spots.

Okay.

So the neighbors weren't objecting to this. Initially, they had Oh, sir. Some buzz about this one, but everything's off street now.

Everything's off street now.

Church is happy.

Church is happy, yep.

Coming in from the alley, and so it looks good. Congratulations on that. Appreciate it. Tell me a little bit about number 17. Number 17.

My numbers are mixed up here, sir. 10280A? Yes. This is an applicant request to rezone a 1.4 acre property from R3 to I3 and PDI to allow for expansion of a beverage distribution facility. The existing 4,600 square foot office warehouse is located within the north half of the property. The access drives and the truck parking access will be located along East 15th. The southern half of the property is currently undeveloped. So this will take in part of the East 16th Street that was abandoned. So it's just an expansion of the existing facility.

You say part of East 16th was abandoned? There's a street that we give up our rights to as a public and private property? Yes, sir. There's not any residential areas around there?

No, sir. He owns both sides of the property.

Okay. That's fine. Thank you on that. Tell me about 18, the Hayes Triplex. East triplex. 10301.

10301. Applicant request to rezone a 0.16 acre property from R4 to PDR to allow the construction of a triplex. It's located in Ward 1. Located in the east end area, the site is currently grass covered and undeveloped. There's a mixture of zoning in the area. The developer proposes to build a two-story triplex on the property. The development will be accessed from a 20-foot wide concrete drive from Bender. Each will be a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath with a single-car garage.

So all three of them have a garage? Yes, sir. Perfect on that. No objections from the public that I saw on the right? No opposition, no, sir. Okay. And I guess the last one, is 2010324.

The applicant requests to rezone the .17 acre property from R4 to PDR to allow for the construction of two single family homes on two lots. This is really easy because these are just two single family homes on two lots. It was a double frontage lot. He's going to replant them. So one with them will be facing East 18th and the other will be facing East 19th.

Who's this developer?

Haddock.

You familiar with him? I usually know some of these folks. I don't know that one. And the final one that I had a question on or want some information, presentation about is 21. 21, is that the last one? Yes, sir. That's 10...

Affiliate request to rezone the 0.25 acre property from R3 to PDR to allow the construction of two duplex structures. This is Mr. Stanley Phillips, the developer on this one. This property is currently undeveloped and partially grass covered. There are higher zoning classifications and higher residential density in the area. Setbacks are front 30, rear 15. The sides, respectively, are 10. Access from the alley, there will be eight parking spots in the northern portion of the lot, and then the two properties will be down below.

Let me ask you, Mr. Phillips, he was doing some developing in John Barrow, wasn't he? He's done a lot. We've talked to Stanley a lot. No, I'm not. Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor Scott. Brad, on number 19. I know a few years ago we did away with the little committee that met on the Midtown design overlay because we didn't have a whole lot of stuff. So I assume that everything in here still meets those standards?

Yes. Yes, it does.

And no opposition?

No opposition.

Thank you.

Leland, if you'll just give a – I know board members ask any questions, but if you'll just give us a brief – recap or reiterate what you've already told the board before on item number 12. Yes.

Okay. Good evening, board, mayor, city manager. What we have today is a $5 million contract with Sasaki for the master plan process, actually taking the master plan that was completed last year all the way to completion of construction drawings, utilizing the Bezos Earth Fund of $30 million that we received in terms of grant funds. Those funds right now are sitting at the chamber. We'll have an MOU that we're working on. as we speak to finalize an agreement between the city and the chamber so we can utilize those funds as we promised or the mayor promised we would bring everything that we spend for this project to the board for approval and so we're just going through this process here to show that we're utilizing $5 million of that $30 million to do the next process of design for the project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Board members, any questions on any more items? Any questions? Director Adka? Yes, item number 23.

Can we have a presentation on it, please?

Yes, ma'am. 23. 23. Mayor, you want me to...

There's no members from the company here, from Faymanville, but this is a... Members of the City Board...

Famonville is a company that we recruited, I guess, about a year and a half or so ago, located at the Little Rock Port. I believe a few hundred jobs, lots of development in the port area for this process. And essentially what they do is they develop the hauling capabilities of other large equipment for... a number of different things for distribution and logistics, and they built their facility out near the port. It looks very nice. Some of you have been there for that grand opening, and so this is part of the process of the economic incentives with both the state and the city that were agreed upon.

That's correct, Mayor. And this bond issue is for tax abatement purposes only. So in order to get the sign of payment lieu of tax agreement with the company that abates their property taxes for 15 years, as the board adopted a resolution back in 2024 saying that the board intended to do that, we've got to do this bond issue. And so that's the point of this ordinance, authorizing the warrants. Thank you, Taylor. Thank you.

Taylor, are you here with the Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority as well?

Yes, sir.

Just say something. We see Gene and Mike and the team. How about Gene and Mike just wave their hands?

Yeah, so we have an ordinance or a resolution setting a public hearing for Little Rock Water Reclamation. They have been approved for about $4 million in state funds, the revolving loan fund program. And so we just approved $82 million in bonds for water reclamation. That closes on Thursday. This is just the next bond issue for their projects.

Thank you so much, Taylor. Yep. Board members, any questions or concerns before we adjourn the meeting? Any questions or concerns before we adjourn the meeting? Going once. Oh, Director Pick.

I just wanted to remind everybody and invite all to come to the grand opening of Fire Station Number 9 on Thursday. Originally it was at 9.30, but now it's 9 o'clock. So come. There may be some treats from you know where.

All right, all right. Meeting adjourned.