Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I call to order the December 11th, 2025 planning commission meeting. We'll start with the invocation and pledge. So, uh, could you please lead us in the invocation? Yes sir. Let us pray. Eternal God, we thank you now for this opportunity to come together to prepare and to share uh things concerning your citizens and this wonderful city that you have blessed us with. We pray that you will help each one of us as commissioners and citizens to do this in a way that pleases you, that honors you, but that benefits the city. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Okay. And the pledge of allegiance, please. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Thank you. Let me just uh read a couple of meeting procedures, please. So, when your name is called, if you're here to speak, please come to the podium and address your comments to the planning commission, not to the audience. Any questions you ask will be answered once everyone who has signed up has spoken. Uh, it's a factf finding hearing. No need to repeat what has already been said. If a previous speaker has stated the points you wish to make, you may simply acknowledge that so the hearing may proceed. The applicant has five minutes to speak. Other speakers will each have three minutes. So, please respect those time limits. Uh, Miss Sweet Dopps, could you please call the role?

Yes, sir. Rick Ramik, and he notified us that he would not be available this evening. Ashley Campbell here. Brian Gerky, Wally Stone here, Corey Scott here, Leante Walker here, Bill Vowel, and he also let us know he would not be available this evening. Bill Lamond here, Janice Davis here, and Bart Stafford

here. All right. So, now we need to approve the minutes from last meeting. May I have a a motion and a second for approval of last month's meeting minutes? I move approval of last month's meeting minutes. I second. All in favor? I I. Any opposed?

All right. So, now we need to approve the agenda. But there's one modification on the agenda I want to point out. Uh there was an item listed on the uh original agenda that uh was item number one and that has been deferred by the applicant to the next regularly scheduled planning commission meeting on January the 8th. So if there's anyone here for item number one as it was originally intended uh that will be moved to January the 8th. So having said that, may I have a a motion and a second for approval of tonight's agenda? So moved. Second.

All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. Motion passes. So now we move to the consent um part of the agenda. Uh there were no items this week or this month on the consent agenda. So we'll go on to new business. Um, Director Shelman, would you please introduce the item? Thank you.

The first item is RZ 251 178 at 675 Beayshore Drive. This is a zone change request from RR to RS zoning for approximately.8 to 8 acres of land located at 675 Beayshore Drive. Okay. Um, a motion to approve merely gets the matter on the floor for discussion. A motion and a second do not necessarily mean that you are in favor of an application. May I have a motion and a second to approve the item with staff findings and recommendations?

So move. Second. Okay. Director Salman, could you please present the staff report on the item?

Yes. Thank you. The applicant and property owner is Jonathan Hartness and he is seeking zone change consideration from rural residential RR to suburban residential RS. Um, this property is at 675 Beayshore Drive as a future land use plan map designation of residential suburban and is located in board of directors district number six. The subject property is currently developed with a single family home and has approximately 275 feet of street frontage along Beayshore Drive and about 135 ft of frontage along Peninsula Drive. It is located close to Lake Hamilton and is located just inside City of Hot Springs limits. There's more.

The application demonstrates compatibility with surrounding development and zoning and implements an approved city plan, including the comprehensive plan forward hot springs 2040. Adjacent and nearby parcel sizes within the surrounding areas on beayhore lane, Beayshore Drive, and Peninsula Drive. vary in square footage ranging from 20,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet and more. The requested residential suburban zoning RS would be compatible with surrounding zoning and development as well as aligning with the future land use plan map designation of residential suburban. The applicant has successfully demonstrated that the standards for favorable consideration have been met. Uh planning commission should be able to establish a basis for recommending to the board of directors that the proposed change demonstrates compatibility with surrounding development and zoning and is consistent with the objectives of the zoning code. The recommendation to planning commission is as follows. that you recommend that the board of directors adopt an ordinance to amend the zoning map by designating the subject property RS residential suburban district because the change demonstrates compatibility with surrounding development and zoning is consistent with the objective of the zoning code for the RS district and is consistent with the future land use plan map designation of residential suburban. And that completes the staff report.

Okay. Can we please get the applicant to come forward and give your name and address for the record? Yes. And let us know if there's anything you'd like to add. Okay. I'm Jonathan Garrett Hartness. Address 675 Bayore Drive. I didn't realize you guys were going to read that application, but I was just going to give a summary of that. Um, ideally I'm I'm just making the best use of the land as an investment. And I plan to if the zoning is passed just to subdivide that one acre into two halfacre lots and retain them both as an investment. Okay. No plans to even utilize that. But it does have access to all the utilities just as all the other lots on that street do.

Okay. So, do we have anyone signed up to speak on this one? Not sure. Did you sign in this week or that it's Jonathan Garrett Hartness? Garrett Hartness. All right. Okay. Okay. Very good. Then um given that there's no one else signed up to speak, um I guess the public discussion for the item is now closed. Commissioners, do you have any questions? Are you going to um build another house or you just want you just want it suburban because of Bayshore and

Yeah, I really and and if I could keep it the same zoning and just it's I'm just giving myself the ability to subdivide the parcel in the future. So, but you already live there. Yes, but I I plan to sell that house in the future and for that land to go with it, it just seems like a better use of the land to have the opportunity for someone to build next to it since it's it'll all just stay undeveloped. But, um, ideally, I'm just going to hold it as as an investment. I don't I don't have any plans to build on it. Okay. No.

Any other questions, commissioners? Okay, no more questions then. So, Miss Sweep Tops, could you please call the role on the motion to approve? Yes, sir. Ashley Campbell, approve. Wally Stone, approve. Corey Scott, approved. Leonte Walker, approved. Bill Lamont, approved. Janice Davis, approved. and Barb Stafford approve.

Okay. The um recommendation to approve has passed and the board of directors will make the final decision. Um they will meet in this room on January 8th at 6:00 and Nope. January 6. I'm sorry. That is correct. Is it not Don? January 6. It should be. Yes. The Okay. first Tuesday. Sorry about that. January 6th at 6 o'clock and they will make the final decision um to consider the planning commission's recommendation for approval.

Okay. Very good. So, Director Shelman, let's introduce the next item and move forward. Okay. All right. The next item is RZ25182 concerning 526 Airport Road. This is a zone change request by the city of Hot Springs to change the zoning from RN5, which it is mapped now to CR, commercial regional. And this is to correct a mapping error that occurred at the time the new zoning map was adopted.

Okay. So, a motion to approve merely gets the matter on the floor for discussion. A motion and second do not necessarily mean that you're in favor of the application. May I have a a motion and a second to approve the item with staff findings and recommendations? So, move. Second. All right. Very good. Director Zone, could you present the staff report?

Yes, thank you. This application would correct an error in previous zoning map amendment action, that being ordinance number 6513 for 7.99 acres of land at 526 Airport Road. Approving this application will restore the parcel to its prior regional commercial zoning, now called CR. The previous zoning map depicted C4 regional commercial zoning ordinance 6513 exhibit B zoning map now erroneously depicts the subject as RN5 residential neighborhood 5. The future land use classification is linear commercial corridor. The parcel is in board of directors district number three. Uh let's see. The property's future land use classification of linear commercial corridor is consistent with adjacent and nearby CR regional commercial district zoned properties. Approval would correct an error in previous zoning map action. That's ordinance 6513 for land at 526 Airport Road. approving this parcel will restore it to its prior regional commercial zoning now called CR. Um the way this happened is that the um the act changing the zoning map um last year involved not only site visits to all over the city but also a lot of interpretation of aerial mapping. And this is a manufactured home sales operation.

And they have such a tidy site that it was interpreted as being a manufactured home residential area. So um this will just take it back to regional commercial as it should be. And um the recommendation is that you recommend that the board adopt an ordinance amending the zoning BAB to take it back to regional commercial zoning which is now called CR and correcting an error in a previous zoning map amendment action is an approval standard per hot springs code. That's that's it.

Okay. Very good. So given that the planning department I guess is the applicant here we are then uh we need to see if anybody else has signed up. Here we go. All right. Uh David Johnson I decline. That's okay. That is fine. You bet. Okay. In that case uh the uh public discussion is closed. Commissioners, any questions? Okay, no questions. So, Mrs. Sweet Dobs, could you please call the role on the motion to approve? Yes, sir. Bill Lamont,

approve. Janice Davis, approve. Leante Walker, approve. Corey Scott, approved. Wally Stone, approve. Ashley Campbell approve and Barb Stafford approve.

Okay. The recommendation for approval has passed and the board of directors will consider this on January 6th in this room at 6:00 p.m. and they will make the final decision. And we apologize for the map error, but there were more than 23,000 parcels. The odds of it being you are not great. So, got to come see all y'all in the We'll get you fixed up.

All right. Well, let's move to the next section of the agenda, which is the director's report.

Yes, indeed. Well, I want to invite you all to a work session on January 8th, which is a Thursday at 5:00. We will have the reformatted sign code. I am hoping that our consultant will be able to get it together for us by then. I'm hoping. and um provide the the rearranged text. Um we're we're moving a lot of things around and taking out some of the things that are making this code very very long. We're hoping to be able to convert all of that text about new sign types into a table or chart that will um call out what the sign types are, what zone districts they can be in, what setbacks are, what the height limits are, um any size limits on that type of sign. Um, it's going to be a heck of a chart. So, we'll see how that works out. But, um, I spent all day with the code and Don sat in with me during, uh, much of that time. And I think I think this approach will be something that's a lot more accessible than what we've been doing. We've got your checklist. we know which things you want to keep and which things you think might need to be changed. Um, so we'll we'll put this in a new format and uh I I have extremely high hopes for how this turns out. We'll see. Um, but that's that's 5:00 on the

8th and then we'll have our regular agenda uh to take care of following that at 6. Um, also I wanted to update you on um some of the the other things that we'll be working on in the upcoming year and we don't have the work plans for those ready yet, but we will be looking at uh some changes to the subdivision code. Uh that is primarily a cookbook, so there aren't as many philosophical questions to answer there. Um once we got the zoning code done, we're we're threequarters of the way to getting the subdivision thing figured out. So that will be coming to us as soon as we finish up with this. Um we'll be looking at the street classifications at the same time and the engineering department is going to take the lead on that one. So um we'll be kind of in a consulting role with that project, but it's something that needs to happen. hasn't been done since 1997 and there have been many many changes to the streets and hot springs since that time. So, and many areas annexed to the city since that time. So, this will bring us up to date with that. And uh those those are the two main things that we'll be doing at the beginning of the year. And following that, we'll be looking at the final I hope uh big project for the year, which is redoing the future land use plan map, which we talk about all the time and never look at. So, um that that is going to be kind of uh complicated, but this is the group to do it. So, after

you completed that zoning code, I know you can do anything. And we'll be we'll be diving into that, I figure probably probably midsummer or so. Okay. So, that's about it. Um one one quick question. This this is something that continues to be on my mind. We had discussed looking at um housing, affordable housing. Mhm. We've got to obviously there's a lot of things to do uh before we get to that point. But uh I don't want to just lose that. I don't want to derail the the session next time, but

I just want to kind of keep that on the back burner that we still need to have a discussion on that. Okay. Um, did everyone get the update that we distributed? I think it was at was at an agenda meeting. Agenda meeting. Yeah. On the housing strategy. Yes.

Okay. So, everyone got that? Okay. Good. Um that is a key element of this. Um and speaking of the housing strategy, um I think we had a couple of good projects this year, um small projects, but I think that's the way we're going to get new housing is with some of these smaller projects um with Habitat's PDS that they did. And we are talking with someone now who is looking at creating uh probably about 10 smaller lots using your new R3 zone. So um that's good. We're seeing we're seeing something come from that new zone that we put together.

Yeah, that's interesting. So the R3 allows that smaller It does. It allows for a 30,000 square foot lot. These are actually somewhat larger than that, but they're they're still um intended for an affordable housing uh development to happen. Um did we have anyone that received part of the grant that we were passing out of that $750,000 grant

that has not been decided yet. We should know something by the end of next week. Um, between the uh reinvention of the federal government at the beginning of 2025 and then the disappearance of the federal government for almost two months um recently. Um, our progress on that has not been what we hoped. We've been working with the National Park Service. they were the granting agency and of course at the beginning of the year um many many many of the people involved in that department um retired. So uh it it's been an uphill walk on this one.

Yeah. But we will we will have someone who moves forward with it. We've got a couple more projects to look at and I think we'll have a better idea at the end of next week. Okay. But we did get applicants. Uh we did we had seven. Seven. Wow. Yeah, we did. Good. Yep. Okay. I think there's one thing left on the agenda. Somebody will probably pick up on what that is. Move we adjourn. Chairman, before we do that, can I ask one question? Oh, sure. Sure. Um, you set the work session on the 8th and we have a meeting that day. Yes.

I know the previous week is New Year's Day. Yes. The agenda meeting will be on Friday the 2nd. Thank you. Okay. For asking that question. It'll be Friday the 2nd at uh noon like we usually do. Okay. Glad you said that. Yes, I am too. Um, we talked about it, didn't write it down, and uh, so thanks for looking out for us. Well, do you send out or does the city secretary usually sends out a list of all the meetings for all the committees and things?

Yeah, if that hasn't happened, we'll go ahead and do that because I get them for BVA and yeah, I can send those out. They are on the You should have received it because they They've got it, but we'll we'll resend it out. Yeah. Okay. So, we were uh in the process of making a motion. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All right. All in favor? All right.