Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Hallelujah. All right. All right. We're going to go ahead and call the October planning commission meeting to order. Um we'll uh we start with that normal housekeeping item. Commissioner Black, if you take the role, I'd appreciate it. Here

present. We have a quorum. All right. Has everybody had a chance to look over the minutes from the previous meeting? If so, what is your pleasure? Okay, we have a motion. Do I hear a second? We have a motion and a second to approve September minutes. All those in favor of saying I.

Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carried. All right. Okay. No unfinished business or no, we do have some unfinished business here. We have U the election of a vice chairman Don Jakamore rolled off the commission last month and we are we are needing it to elect a new vice chairman.

Okay. All right. We have a motion and second to nominate Commissioner Chot as the vice chairman. All those in favor acknowledge by saying I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carried. All right. All righty. All right. Item two, license a license in land to allow temporary closure of West Sea Street and North Fargo Avenue located adjacent to 2011 North El Paso submitted by Baron Associates on behalf of Sugar Creek Foods. Gavin, you have a staff report on that? Yes, sir.

So, the staff report is primarily unchanged except for a few additional comments as well as a change to one of the conditions. I believe it's condition five in the uh in theou. Um this is a memorandum of understanding license and land uh for 2011 North El Paso Avenue. Um the 500 and 600 blocks of West C Street as well as the northern half of the 200 block of North Fargo Avenue are surrounded by highway commercial C2, neighborhood and quiet business C4 and the downtown crossing zone DCZ. There's also heavy industrial M2 along the track train tracks to the immediate northwest of the area and further east is the central business district C1. The buildings surrounding these blocks are nearly all being utilized by Sugar Creek Foods with the exception of a building being used by Barrett and Associates. Sugar Creek Foods employs employees must cross the 5600 blocks of West Sea Street as part of their regular duties. They also operate heavy machinery such as forklifts, etc. across the street. Sugar Creek Foods insurance provider has requested that further safety measures be taken in order to protect employees from increasing probabilities of conflict with traffic passing through the area. Memoranda of under understanding for a license and land have previously been issued for properties in which the public is utilizing a portion of the rideway. In the past, this has been either for parking or fencing. This will be the first instance in which streets are being temporarily closed on a regular basis. The applicant originally applied for a vacation of rightway, but after consulting the city attorney, it was determined a license and land would be more appropriate as the streets are not being permanently vacated. A public meeting was held on September 23rd at city hall in order to take public comment for this potential change in traffic pattern. At the meeting, multiple business owners as well as city council members were able to voice their comments and concerns. The applicant

committed as well to covering 36% of the costs for road maintenance and improvements in the affected portion of West Sea Street to match the amount of time the road would not be open to the public when prompted by Mr. Keller. Anou license in land and it it in land is revocable at any time ensuring that the owner would be responsible for the removal of road barriers at their expense. Conditions for thisou license and land application shall include this license is assignable only for the allowance of a limited closure of the 5600 blocks of West Sea Street as well as the northern half of the 200 block of North Fargo Avenue. The limited closure shall only apply from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and the street shall be open at all other times. The Lency shall immediately coordinate with emergency services to provide free and immediate access by emergency services to the limited closure area at all times. The Lency shall immediately coordinate with city corporation and other utility providers to provide free and immediate access by utility companies to the limited closure area at all times. The lency agrees to cost share 36% of road maintenance costs with the city of Russellville for the 500 and 600 blocks of West Sea Street as well as the northern half of the 200 block of North Fargo Avenue. The Lency shall post clear signage indicating the hours and days that West Sea Street and North Fargo Avenue will be closed. The Lency shall not gain an interest in the land by the granting of this license. Future improvements to the right of way may require the Lency to abstain from using the land using land that this agreement may cover. The LE agrees that any expenditures of the license of the lency on the lots shall not be performed on the reliance of this license. The Lency agrees that there are no interests in the land to be coupled with this license. The lency shall not expand any

more development within the public right ofway than what than what is already presented as part of this application. The lency shall not build within the actual street of West Sea Street or North Fargo Avenue. The license is revocable by the licenser at any time provided written notice is given to the lenses. Care of the mayor's office 10 calendar days before revocation of the license. The lency understands and agrees that any improvement of the property owned by the lens or covered by the license shall be solely at the lency's expense and shall not be reimbursed by the lenser for any reason. This agreement shall be recorded at the courthouse at the expense of the property owner and tied to the parcel to be transferred to the subsequent property owner. And finally, the lency has read, understands, and agrees with the terms of this license. It is staff's recommendation that the memorandum of understanding for a license and land be forwarded to city council for approval with the 16 conditions listed in the comment section of the staff report as a results of the finding below. Um that the city legal department has determined that a memorandum of understanding could be approved. Uh that public works has no objections and there are no plans to improve this section of West Sea Street at this time. Are there any questions for staff? Thank you, Gavin.

Yes, sir. Thank you. All right, we have uh some people signed up to speak. Scott, if you wanted to step up there, state your name for the record.

My name is Scott Van Horn. I am one of the owners of Sugar Creek Foods here in Russellville. uh put a little and y'all got all some handouts I gave got a little slide so everybody can see what's up there. Uh I want to give a little bit of history if you don't mind about the plant. Talk a little bit about the economic impact the plant has on on the community uh because a lot of the objections we're getting are based on economics uh for our our city and for different businesses. So, just wanted to share a few things there and then answer any questions that we can. Appreciate y'all giving me the time to do this. You know, we had a public hearing like a meeting like he mentioned. Unfortunately, after that, this blew up social media, which is always uh uncomfortable when that happens. So, I appreciate the time to come and clear some of this stuff up. Um, the plant has been at this location for over 80 years since the mid 40s. Uh, plant has employed thousands of families and peoples over that time period. Uh two times the plant has been scheduled to close. Once was back in the mid 80s uh and at that time my father bought it. Uh got it revitalized, got it thriving again and turn around and sold the business back in the mid to late 90s. Uh then in 2007, current ownership took it over. It was scheduled to close again. Uh company out of Canada was shutting it down and basically going to walk away from it. Uh so me and and my partner came in, bought the facility. there was no business to buy because they had already sold the business. So, we walked in the door in '07. We had a plant, 23 employees, and not a single customer. Uh both of our wives thought we'd lost our minds, but uh fortunately, it's worked out for us. Uh our current ownership has invested about $8 million in this facility and upgrades since we bought it. And we've paid out owners uh in wage current wages through two since 2007 roughly about $29 million in wages

that have been paid to citizens of the city of Russellville. Why is this needed? The number one reason is safety. I hit a button there somewhere.

Space bar. All right. I'm I am it challenged, so bear with me on that. Safety for our employees. Our employees cross these streets numerous times a day. Uh unfortunately we're landlocked there. We don't have room to move. So we have production on one side of the plant. We got warehouses across the road. We got dumpsters across the road. We got warehouses down in the old co-op facility where we store stuff. So we got forklifts up and down the road. We've got employees across from the trash putting dumpsters numerous times a day. Lots of activity during our production day across that road. Uh you know, we would love to pick this thing up and move outside of town. We've got land we could build it on. We've got another facility that sits on Almy Myer Street that makes our packaging we own for this plant. I got room sighted to build. The problem is you're looking at a 25 to30 million investment to move that facility. The investment just does not work for the current ownership or for anybody as far as that goes. The ROI doesn't work. So that's really not something that we can even do u or we would have already done it. uh our insurance obviously our insurance continues to have concerns. Uh we had an insurance company and and that uh opted to discontinue our insurance this past year uh with concerns of of different things. One food plant, two safety concerns around the multiple facilities crossing streets, different things. Did we get new insurance? Absolutely. We got new insurance. Uh but be quite honest with you, we were shocked when when this has happened after 18 years in business. All of a sudden, insurance companies said, you know, we just don't think we want to do this anymore. It appears that they're getting a little more finicky about what they do and what they don't do. Uh on that. So anyway, that that's the reasons that we're asking for this uh project discussions. Uh you know, people talking about how some people didn't know about everything. You know, we attended the

city council agenda meeting in July and discussed options with the city council. Uh during that meeting, alter alternative options were discussed. We talked about speed bumps. We talked about stop signs. We talk about flashing signs. We talked about lots of different things that might might help with the situation. We did get city a few years ago to put us in a crosswalk. We thought, man, this is going to be our saving grace. It's almost like that creates a obstacle force because when people see somebody come out the door or across the parking lot, it's almost like they race to get across the sidewalk with a car before you get there to make sure they don't have to stop for you. So, it's almost created more of a hazard than helping to be quite honest with you, which is concerning to us. Uh so, we discussed all those. the city uh agenda council agenda came up with the solution that we're offering to y'all which basically is to put up some temporary gate or some gates that can be temporarily closed during business operation hours. With that, I want to throw a little a little thing in there that that I've been thinking about is that we don't run production five days a week. Some some days we work five days a week, some days we run production three days a week, some days we run production four days a week. It varies. There's some weeks we don't run any production. I mean, we're a seasonal business. We sell ice cream. So, December, January, we don't we don't sell, you know, we don't produce a lot. On those days that we're not running production, I'm more than willing to leave those gates up because I don't have forklifts up down the road. I don't have employees running across the I'm sorry, uh running across streets carrying trash. So, you know, so instead of saying it's going to be happen five days a week, you know, we could look at only doing it on the days we run production when we have that heavy traffic of employees and forklifts on the streets. You know, we can make that we're we're trying to find compromises here to make things work and keep our employees safe and and that's our our main goal. Uh then we presented the planning commission on September 3rd. I want to apologize to those of you

that were here and I was not. Uh I was out of town and did not know was on the agenda or I would have canceled my trip and been here. I apologize for that. Uh as being one of the owners, I should have been here for that meeting. Uh so at that point, that's when y'all requested a public hearing. Uh we had a public hearing uh at the here at the city council or at the city hall. Uh signs were posted on Sea Street on September the 4th announcing the public hearing. Uh so they were they were there for the public hearings on 23rd. So they were there over two weeks almost be what almost three weeks prior to the to the public hearing. So there should have been a lot of notice for people plus they were also on the city's website. Uh they were on I believe the city's Facebook site as well I believe. So uh for people that that use that road and did not know about it uh they had lots of options there. uh personal meetings. Uh after the first meeting that they had with the planning commission, I actually felt bad because I had not got to talk to the local businesses on that road. I meant to do that before that, but I didn't know it was on the agenda. So, after they did that, before the public meeting, I went and sat down with Mr. Posey, uh Mr. Miller, and I need to hit a button, don't I? I know I talk and don't pay attention. I apologize. Yeah. Uh uh Mr. Miller and Mr. Moore and Mr. Sperry. Uh did not talk to Mr. Mayan. I apologize for that. To be honest with you, I did not know he was on that street. Uh and that's my that's my mistake. Uh met with Mr. Posey. We sat in his office and visited. Had a very nice conversation. His big concern at the time was what would it do to the property values of his property if the road was closed? I told him I couldn't answer that. I don't know. Uh, and we sat there and visited for a while, had nice conversation, and neither one of us

knew if that was a real thing or not, but we come to conclusion neither one of us knew. I asked him about sales. He said majority of his sales is online anymore. He has very little walk-in business at that time. Uh, in fact, I was surprised. He says he even does stuff out in Texas, which is phenomenal. Uh, so we had that conversation. Uh, met with Mr. Miller. Uh, Mr. Miller at that time, his concerns were uh getting his delivery trucks in there, which he says comes in two days a week. Uh we visited about that and I assured him that we would make sure that they had access to get to his facility. Uh during that time, if they needed through, we let them through. Although I'm sure his trucks are a lot like mine during all the downtown construction, we found alternate routes. Uh they may not be as convenient, but there we would never block anybody from getting delivered to their their facility. Uh, another concern that he had uh was that a lot of his customers come down that road that they'd have to detour over one block to get to his facility. Uh, we we had that discussion. I'll just leave it at that on that. Uh, Mr. Moore, visit Mr. Moore, his big concern at that time was a sea street access to the hospital. We talked about how there's other uh Main Street, Parkway, B Street, there's other alternative routes there. Uh and after we visited for a while, Mr. Moore told me he had no opposition uh to the to the process. Uh Mr. Sperry visit with him, he had no opposition at all. Uh public hearing then when we had the public hearing, I'm you Jeff throw rocks at me. Uh at the public hearing, Mr. Posey was in attendance and he confirmed the same concerns when we visited uh in his office. Uh Mr. Miller uh he was in attendance as well. We confirmed the same concerns when we as uh when asked about that, but he also added some some

additional concerns. He was concerned about loss sales to to walk-in business that would buy Milwaukee tools and air filters for people's residential houses. Uh be individuals. Uh I don't know what percentage of his walkin his business is walkin. I don't have any idea. Maybe he can share that with us this evening so we know. Uh Mr. Moore was not in attendance at the public meeting. Uh Mr. Sperry was in attendance and confirmed no opposition again. Uh Mr. Mayhem was in attendance and voiced concerns of potentially losing two to three walk-in clients a year u in his appraisal business as well as property values possibly decreasing. During our discussion there, uh he did say that if he could have a advertising sign on Main Street that he would have no opposition to the road closure. Uh there were some commissioners and council members in attendance at this meeting. They asked some questions. We answered them. It appeared that they were answered in a satisfactory fashion. If not, I did not hear anything on the negative side. uh at the public hearing again I invited anybody there that would like to come by the facility visit face to face let me show them what our concerns are and why they're there that we would open that opportunity uh did not get contacted by anybody uh except for Miss Clare did come by and we visited a little bit and I appreciate appreciate that. So, uh, discussion points a little bit. We're talking about economics. Uh, I'm sorry. Uh, Sugar Creek Foods, we roughly put about four three $4.3 million annually to the local economy. Uh, that's between payroll, that's between using local contractors, buying local supplies. Uh, you know, we're not like a lot of the other industries around here that are out of stateowned. When we do something, we use local people. We use them for everything. We don't use outside contractors. We don't buy outside supplies. We support our

community 100% on our projects. Uh the only time we don't is if we can't find inside the city of Russellville and we're forced to go outside. Uh Sher Creek plant activity on the days we run production. You know, our employees probably cross those roads 140 times a day. Uh that's between taking out trash, going to lunch, coming in to work, out of work, uh going across the street to get supplies out of warehouses. It's just a constant move all the time. Uh forklifts cross the streets probably 15 to 20 times a day. Those are mainly going from warehouses to the production plant to move uh raw materials over there for our daily operations. We receive between 35 and 40 semi-truckss per week into our facility. Most people don't realize that that that's a quiet little plant, but it is it is busy. Uh, you know, some concerns that people have talked about is like the downtown revitalization. You know, what's this going to do when it affect it? Well, we've we've assured everybody that when there's activities downtown, these gates will be open. Even if we're running production, we will open them for those activities. Uh, you know, we allow during that time period, people use all of our parking lot for downtown stuff. We will continue to do all that. None of that's going to change. Uh so but you know one thing I would like to talk about is Sher Creek is probably and I don't know I don't have any facts or any numbers. Sher Creek is probably the largest uh employer and and economic contributor in the downtown area. Now we got lots of places when they did the re downtown revitalization. Not a single time did anybody walk through our door, pick up the phone and say, "Here's what we're doing. Is this going to negatively affect your business?" Not a single call, not a single email, nothing. And so we let it go to they'll take care of us. Well, you know, we've narrowed roads. We've made

it hard for trucks to get and out of, but we will deal with it and and and continue on business as as we see fit. It been nice to have a little discussion where we narrow down El Paso to from three lanes to two lanes. It's made some pretty good challenges uh getting trucks in out at time. So anyway, you know, so trust me, we're not trying to do anything to to to do anything negative to downtown Russellville. I've been in this town. I was born in Russellville. I've been here 60 years. My family has spent years supporting and trying to help grow this community. Uh and and we do it because we love it. That's not going to change. We continue to support and we will continue to support it. license and land recommendation. I know some people said, "What is that?" I don't know, but it's what was recommended to us by the city. Uh, and we read the criteria of it. We said that that was something that we were more than happy uh to abide by. I know people talk about precedence. If you do it here, somebody else can make you do it. For me, precedence is is is a is an ugly word. To me, you do what is best for your community. you do what is best for uh well for your community. I'll just leave it at that, you know, uh as a whole. And what do you do? You know, because we can talk about precedences all day long. We've set precedences in this community that we don't abide by. I mean, we've set precedents where we can walk around downtown Russville with a beer in our hand. Well, you've set the president. You ought to be able to do that anywhere in the city then. I mean, you've already set the precedent. So, then it's okay to do it. you know, uh, our community as a whole too, when we have new industry come to town, we bend over backwards to support them. We run utilities to them. We help them locate property. We help with all that. But when we get an existing business, especially a small local one, it's almost like, ah, they're stuck here, so we really don't have to do anything for them. I mean, I'm gonna be honest with you, this is how us small industries feel. Uh that I can remember when I walked in in the door when we bought the

thing in 2007 and we're looking at buying it and I went to the city. I said, "Hey, this thing is going to shut down. We're trying to figure out how to save it. Is there anything you can help me with? And I'm not going to say who it was, but I'm going tell you the words were set to my face. We don't save businesses. We just bring in new ones." That hit hard after being in this town as long as I've been here. and as hard as my father worked to help build this town. So, we just don't ask for anything. This is the first time I have asked for anything to the city since 2007. And when I got shut down then I said I'm not doing it again. Well, here I am 18 years later. Uh so, trust me, this is not where I want to be tonight. So, uh that's I just wanted to lay that out. The risk factors I want to tell you the risk factors that that us as owners feel. I hit slide. Okay. uh risk factors we have is if if it gets to the point where we can't get insured and I don't know if that'll happen that that's hypothetical. It may happen next year. It may happen 10 years. It may never happen. But it's the same as property values changing. We don't know. They're hypothetical. We don't know what's going to happen unless it happens. So, uh, but if it gets to the point where we can't operate to the point where we as owners feel like the risk versus the reward makes sense, then we have two choices. And really, to me, one, we sell the company. Uh, and when we sell the company, I tell you, we get offers probably every two to three months. I got one today for that company to buy that facility. None of them are going to leave it in Russville, Arkansas. They're all going to move it because none of them want to be in downtown Russville any more than I do with a facility. They've all got other facilities in other states. So, it's probably not even going to stay in the state of Arkansas. It's probably more than likely when that happens going to go. I'm going to be honest with you, about 10 years ago, me and the partner, we had six months of

due diligence with a company out of Detroit that was going to buy it and move to Detroit. We fought with them to keep it in Russville and they agreed. We got to the to the ninth inning to sign paperwork and they changed their mind and we walked away from the deal because they were going to pull it out of Russellville, Arkansas. We could have sold it right then and we could have played golf the rest of our lives and never had to go to work again. But we did not want to see a facility leave Russellville. So we stayed with it and here we are still today. Now what we're trying to do is bring in the next generation. My son Dalton sitting up here in a gray shirt. I'm trying to slow down. He's speeding up. So, he's running the day-to-day operation of that plant now. I'm not uh doing an outstanding job of it. U to give him a little skin in the game. I've sold him 10% of the company. Trust me, I sold it to him. He didn't get nothing for free. My dad never gave me nothing. He ain't getting nothing either. You earn what you get. So, that's that's that's where we're at right now. But if that plant closes, you're going to lose $4.3 million in local economy annually. You're going to have four and a half blocks sitting down there vacant buildings. They're just going to be sitting there because the company's not going to buy the buildings. They're not even going to buy the equipment. They're going to move the volume to their facilities and that's what they're going to do with it. We're going to scrap out the equipment then, get every penny we can get out of it and don't know what we do with the buildings. They may just sit there. I have no idea. Uh when that happens, you talking about lowering adjacent values in property. Put a bunch of empty manufacturing warehouses sitting around an area that are just sitting there vacant, deteriorating. That's going to lower property values. You're also going to have 40 families that now have got to go find a job for a livelihood. and a multigenerational company has come

to an end in this community. You know, there's lots of hypotheticals. There's lots of things we can talk about. We're not trying to hurt anybody's business. We're just trying to protect our employees, plain and simple. You know, uh they work hard. They deserve to be protected in my opinion. Uh I don't like going down this these paths like this. Uh, and it was never my intention for it to get this way. Uh, but I think y'all needed to know some facts uh that had been misrepresented on fa on Facebook and other places. Uh, so that's why I wanted this. If anybody's got any questions, I'll do my best to answer them. I deeply appreciate y'all's time today. We have had two times Forklift has had an accident with a vehicle. We have yet to have an employee hit. Uh thank goodness because we emphasize very very hard with our employees. Watch out for cross traffic because they do not watch out for you. It's amazing to me that people the big lighted signs that got put up for our public hearing. People going, I never saw them. I'm going, if you don't see them, you're never going to see my employees in because you're not paying attention.

All right. Thank you, Scott. Thank you, Wendle. Thank you all. All right, Tom. If you are signed up to speak tonight, if you would, when you when you do step up to the mic, you need to state your name for the record.

Uh my name's Tom Posey. Uh Posie Printing. Uh been here for well as long as sugar cream, you know, we've been here since 1978. Been in that location since 1985. Um I can't give you a lot of numbers like how much payroll we've paid, what we've done community. I've had four kids. My father worked there till he retired. All the kids have worked there and moved on have businesses here in town. So, we have we've got roots here. Um, we did put together a letter and u I visited with Mr. Moore. Kevin and I have been neighbors for pretty close to 40 years. Um, we talked about it. Then we talked to Mr. Maym, talked to Mr. Miller back there on the R& supply. And there wasn't a single time that it was ever said. I can say this honestly, no one ever said, "You're going to be better off." I mean, that was never conveyed to me. I mean, it's it's just understood. We don't know exactly, but we're but no one's ever said, "You're going to be better off." Okay. So, that's where we are. Um, between these four businesses, we've got probably at least 20 employees. So, there's a sizable group there. There again, what kind of damages? We don't know. Uh, it's a dead end street. That's all I can when I sit there and I'm going to be the one next to the end. It's a dead end street. So you know you just with whatever connotations that come. Now do I

understand Mr. Van Horn? Absolutely. We've all got challenges and even more now than ever is so hard and I think many of you know it's so hard to be able to uh to survive much less thrive in the environment we're in. But um I don't know everybody I had that I could send an email to. I sent you an email of what we've gone over. You know, I can read through that if y'all would like. Um and probably should do that just to catch everybody up where we stood after talking m with Kevin Brian Corey. uh we felt like this is what we should do to be to be uh good stewards of what we've been given and our opportunities and our opportunities for our employees. So just bear with me right here as stakeholders in this discussion. We want to express our concerns about the proposed temporary closure of Sea Street. Some of us have been operating businesses on Sea Street for over 40 years, and this decision would directly impact the desiraability of the real estate associated with our businesses. Reduce foot traffic, potentially drive customers to competitors with more accessible locations. Reduced traffic counts in commercial areas can also dramatically affect potential rents or resale values. We also want to acknowledge the concerns raised by Sugar Creek Foods. We understand their desire to create a safer and more efficient work environment for their employees. In the recent public town hall, Mr. Van Horn of Sugar Creek referenced the expense and/or potential loss of commercial insurance coverages as a result of pursuing temporary closure. While we sympathize with the difficulty

of navigating changing insurance environments, it is important to note that a shift in private insurers business model does not constitute grounds to alter public rideways. Furthermore, Sugar Creek has not made any apparent concession or appeal to the greater public beyond reducing the potential for accidents, something that could also be achieved through mutually beneficial traffic solutions, speed bumps, stop signs, or flashing crosswalks. Although Sugar Creek emphasizes that temporary closure would occur during their normal hours 8 to 5 and therefore be less intrusive, neighboring businesses share the same hours. So that is to me a full-time closure. The commission's responsibility to promote is to promote the common interest the community while reasonably accommodating individual business needs but not as expensive public infrastructure, long-term planning goals or the broader downtown community. Other issues, traffic circulation and safety. The planning commission and city council have already approved plans emphasizing the importance of maintaining and improving track traffic circulation extending the grid-like street pattern and reducing speeds without removing streets from the network. and as reverson comprehensive plan 2020 plan goal for objective three downtown master plan five-year downtown master plan updated February 24th 2020 temporarily closing sea street contradicts those of directives and could create congestion issues especially if a train is blocked on El Paso and Sea Street is closed closure of a key street temporary Closing a segment undermines the intent of the plan. The El Paso Avenue corridor also has a dedicated section in the plan highlighted its importance as a

connector. In addition, restricting access near the Prairie Creek Greenway trail head would make this amenity less accessible and reduce its effectiveness in a community asset. A precedent. Approving this temporary closure could set a troubling precedent. Other institution businesses in Russellville also own build buildings on both sides of rights away and some have been denied closure request in the past despite offering improvements to aesthetics and functionality. Granting this request opens the door to similar proposals gradually eroding downtown circulation grid and accessibility. alternative solutions and insurance considerations. Traffic calming P measures such as speed bumps, stop signs, or flashing light crosswalks, similar to those already in place in the city, present a more balanced solution. According to the F Federal Highway Administration, speed bumps reduce traffic by approximately 20% while maintaining circulation. These measures could meaningfully improve safety. While they not may not satisfy every requirement of Sugar Creek's insure, my view that does not justify altering public rights away. The commission responsibility is to promote the common good not to adjust city policy based on evolving requirements of private insurers. Use of license and land. I also note that the proposed use of license and land for this closure is unusual. In fact, the staff report acknowledges that this tool has not been used in the way before. Typically, temporary street closures are reserved for short-term public events like festival parades, not for the exclusive ongoing use of a private business. Further, a street being temporarily closed on a regular basis is indistinguishable from permanent closure while giving consideration to private businesses operating hours. Zoning code principles.

City's zoning code requires temporary enterprises that use public streets to demonstrate they will not become a nuisance to adjust properties or interfere with their use. While this is not a carnival or festival, it represents an even more frequent and long-term disruption from a traffic standpoint. By the same logic, regular closing streets during business hours interferes with the normal use of nearby properties and should be considered inconsistent with those principles. Summary. I respectful urge to oppose the temporary closure of Sea Street because it relies on the private insurance concerns of one business which could not dictate public's policy. Contradicts adopted city plans. Reduces traffic and safety, especially near the railroad crossing on El Paso. Undermines public investments like the Prairie Creek Greenway trail head. Sets a precedent that could erode the downtown circulation grid. overlook safety, safer, proven alternatives that improve safety without disrupting circulation. As a business owner on Sea Street for all these decades, I hope you consider these carefully. Um, as you probably know, this is the last place I want to be. I want to do my job, take care of my family, take care of my employees. and go watch ball game. I mean that's that's it. This is not what I want to do. Now um one note and I always look for you know how do we take care of everybody? I want them to be as successful as they can be. I want us to be accessible as we can be. I want our city to be successful as we

possibly can. and to find some way to do that. To me, and I'll be honest with you, if you started talking about this in July or June, if it hadn't been for a council member at a ball game, saying something about it, had no idea. No idea. I mean, it's the farthest thing from my mind that you'd be closing a street. And that bothers me a little bit. I I'll, you know, I'll be honest with you. It's really beside the point. But it does. It's like I would rather you whoever city agency or whatever would rather them just say, "We really don't care about y'all. We're going to do this." And just leave it at that. But don't is pretty well it's almost implied. So I was I was do you say hurt feelings? Yeah. But it did. It's like what are we doing? Why didn't we get together and say we got to figure out a way so everybody's good? Um and there may not be a way. I mean that's I mean it may be a situation where there is not a way but my experience and I'm to the age now where I got a lot of experience not all of it great but I've always felt like there's always a way you know that gets everybody where they need to be. Um, one thing I not to as I finish up and I appreciate your your listening. Um, as I thought about this for the last few days, I just kept coming back, you know, am I

my brother's keeper? If you really want to get down to the base, you know, am I my brother's keeper? And so, I'm concerned about them. I'm concerned about my other guys, you know, uh, and I feel like so many times in our society and in our government or whatever, we're not our brother's keeper. So, whatever that means, guys, I hope you consider alternate alternatives. I want them I want everybody to be successful. I want them to grow, be as big as they can possibly be. But I want to be able to feel comfortable too and I want to see everybody that we can on that street and say it's uh I just appreciate you being here. I just urge urge you to give it some serious consideration. I never want to say I want to advance so and make somebody else retreat or hurt them so I can go forward. Uh, so you just I guess just consider the I hope you consider the spirit in which I'm here today. So I appreciate it.

Thanks Tom Brown. I guess my concern is and I don't have the I don't have Brian if you could can you state your name for the record so we can have it on record.

My name's Brian Maym. I'm a I have a business on Sea Street. Um, like I said, you know, this whole thing, it's like what what Tom was saying, you know, I think my biggest concern here, I mean, I could I could talk about, you know, how my my how my business is affected and whatnot where I, which I think it is, but I think it's like my biggest concern here was like what Tom said, how we found out about all this. Um, I would have thought that, you know, when I look back at that September 4th meeting, there was a lot of stuff that transpired in that meeting that really did not sit well with me as far as, you know, we couldn't do the temporary barrels because someone quote might complain, you know. I mean, I don't like that. You know, I don't like finding out about this through word of mouth. Um, and it's just one of these things like I would think as as someone who who has interest on this road, we might have got some letters or something. I mean, everybody I have spoken to on this road has no clue what's going on. I talked to even the realtor board this morning which is on that on that street. There are 20 businesses on that street, structural businesses on that street. Whether they're in operation, they're churches, they're they're business locations, you know, I'm not talking about the not even talking about the land that's been purchased as business. There's there's businesses on that street. There's more businesses there are residential. And I guess my thing is is I just I wish we would have been notified rather than, hey, if we put these barrels up, someone might complain. I mean, why don't we put the barrels up? Let's see how how the public takes this. You know, I don't know. It just hits it didn't sit well with me how all this has just transpired as

um an individual who does have a business on that street who will be um affected by this. And you know it's like I've told Scott, I would love to find some solutions. You know, they could move their parking lot on one side of the road. They could move their dumpsters on the side of the road. they could do some night hours, shut it down at night where they can go across the street with their forklifts. We can find some solutions. I'm not just up here, you know, saying that I'm wrong, that I'm right, and he's wrong. I'm just saying I understand where he's coming from. I just think I don't think the process was handled correctly to get us to this point. And those are my concerns. And thank you for your time.

Thank you,

Dave. David Garza with Barrett Associates. So, our business is on B Street. We also use Sea Street uh for our when we leave, we've got three crews that leave, the survey crews, and they'll either if they're going south, they'll go south, but if they're going to the to the west, they'll use Sea Street. They've u been using B Street now since this has been going on and hasn't really affected us at all. We do have a warehouse back there that we own and it's not going to affect it either. But the one thing that I just wanted to say and I'm I'm friends with half these guys, Brian and I and stuff been friends for a long time. Um the traffic patterns have changed. Uh we mentioned that at the uh at the meeting at the public hearing where in 2010 Sea Street had a thousand vehicles going through. Today in 2022 which is the latest uh R dot traffic pattern it's dropped to 640 and I think a lot of that has to do with online sales. Uh we've noticed this year with ourselves that we don't get as many real estate agents coming to our office anymore to pick up plaques. You know, they they're the ones that usually orders them, takes them to the title company. Now we scan them and send them directly to the title company. So where we were making four copies, one for the title company, three for the client, now we just make one, I stamp it, they send it, and then we file it in our file system. uh everything we've we've noticed there's a complete change in the trend of how we're doing business. Um you know we're we're staying put you know we're doing everything online. We're doing

everything by phone uh by email by Zoom. We have our meetings by Zoom. I don't go to offices anymore. I have a really nice background on my Zoom. People comment so where are you at? You know I mean it's it's a changing world that we live in. Uh but but I still, you know, I still recognize there are some businesses that uh need traffic, you know, that that traffic has to get to R& you know, traffic has to get to it. It's further down the road. So I understand that, you know, um I'm just kind of looking at a life safety situation with a business that's been there since 1946. and u you know and if there is a way that they can make it work uh I'm all for it as well. Um but u that's that's really just all the comments that I have.

Thanks sir.

Mr. Are you Hello. Uh Corey Miller with Refrigerate Electric Supply on 1100 West Sea Street. I just wanted to reiterate my concern and uh kind of piggyback off of what Brian and Tom said. Um my my main concern is the exposure and what my customer base does. When I looked at the security camera footage that is road facing, over threequarters of my customer base does come in from that direction. I don't have cameras pointed that we'll see all the way down to uh El Paso, but I can only assume that that's where they're coming in through. Uh, I just wanted to readress those concerns and that is a concern of mine and I I understand where Scott is coming from, but it it seems to be the benefit of one company with the potential hindrance of five plus companies and that just doesn't seem right to me. Uh, I do hope there are things that we can do to have everybody work together on this like the speed bumps or flashing lights or even a gate. I I don't mind the gate, but make it to where it's more like a pedestrian crossing to where that they can press a button and a gate can close there. I think that is also a good decent idea. I just don't think closing during normal business hours is a great way to do that. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody that did not sign up that would like to speak? Anybody have any comments? Anybody have any questions? Okay. If you would step up to the mic. It's it's being recorded, so we need to be able to get Say my name again. No, you're one question. the Greenway Trail System. I'm not familiar with where it runs. Is that the big wide sidewalk that comes down El Paso Street now? Gavin, you want to help with that one? Okay. I'm just kind of curious where that is. I'm not familiar with it.

Sure. But but where's it running? But but how how where does it run since going to affect it? also by the depot. So it's not by sea street then. Okay. The mayor had his hand up actually. So actually with a gate there it would be safer

Okay. Okay. That's why the wide sidewalk and the loss the loss of parking spaces. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. So, so that that was my question because my thought was with the gate then it's actually safer for that trail system than without it. Okay. Thank you. That was that was my only question. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make a motion to deny the request for temporary closure via license and land with the recommendation to install stop signs on Sea Street at Glenwood, a raised crosswalk, and flashing lights. A raised A raised crosswalk is the entire crosswalk is like curb height with ramps up to it. Oh yeah.

I have a question for city before we move on. Go ahead. Um after we're looking at at your recommendations uh after the public comments, does this change your recommendations in any way?

Um in all honesty, staff has kind of gone both ways uh in discussions. um staff has kind of fallen on a um kind of not to not to straddle a fence but a kind of middle-of the road situation where um we feel either forwarding with approval or with denial. We would understand the um the the rationale behind it especially after public comment and and after today's comment as well. So what what we are looking at now is not what you're is this not what you're recommending now or is it

I believe the staff report said still said recommended forwarding with approval. Um we would just recommend forwarding flat out to city council. Then I'll make that motion to move to city council. Point of order. Point of order. We have a motion.

We have We have a motion in a second already. Um so real real quick. Um Mr. Van Horn, uh is this just kind of given the motion on the table at the present time the with the purpose that we've got in front of us for the application which was for insurance purposes to reduce cost or risk losing insurance. Have they given you any guidelines on what they're saying at this point?

They're not just control. I don't understand. thing is anything that we do what we're asking. doesn't eliminate track. I'm tell Els

I can't.

Mr. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, um could could we get the exact motion that is currently under consideration restated with its points, please? Why I have to ask the chair. It it would need to be

so to deny the request for temporary closure via license and land with the recommendation to install stop signs on C Street at Glenwood and flashing lights at the crosswalk. Is that is that going to be I mean that's moving to have it you know denied or whatever is but but putting conditions on that is that something the city is ready to back I mean is this something is this doable? Yes, it sounds like it is. Yes. Uh I would have to check with public works but I believe it would be doable. Yes. Is that all right?

Okay. Uh, I would like to address the concern with the the raised crosswalk. We have a very similar situation like this at our Little Rock facility. We are on the corner. We are in downtown Little Rock, right off of 6:30, off of a main thoroughare on Broadway. Um, and we are right on the corner. Our main parking lot is across the street. And then on the other side is a warehouse where we also have forklifts going to and from about twice every hour to get product. Uh, and it eats tires. those solid core tires on forklifts, it eats them. And a pallet of refrigerant is not light by any stretch of the imagination. Um, our solution that we found is going for a forklift with pneumatic tires, ones that are made to go over a rougher surface like a gravel or concrete or asphalt, something like that, where it's not just indoor warehouse space. Um, because we've gone I mean, we've just been eating through those solid core rubber tires. they do make forklifts that will be able to provide that facility for that. So I just would like to address that is what we have found. We are in a quasi somewhat similar situation and that has been our fix to address that concern right now because there is no way I could get downtown Little Rock's approval to shut down the street during operating hours. And we are one of two businesses on the block. The other business is a a storage facility that that's not open to the public. There's just no way that we could get that grow. So that's what we had to do to get that concern addressed for us. So I just wanted to make that uh a point to talk about. Mayor Fred Teague. Um, if we um if we're going to recommend denial, I would uh prefer recommending denial without any traffic suggestions so that our traffic department can make those decisions based on what they deem necessary to uh be the safest for that uh situation. And

I do respect you, Miss Clear, but I would just uh if we were going to make any motion and move forward, I would uh if you're going to recommend denial, I would let our traffic department, maybe the fire department deem what they would see necessary in that area that would be the safest. So that's what that's request. So um and if I could get you to resent that or to amend. deny the request for temporary closure via license and land with the recommendation that the traffic division come up with solutions to slow down the traffic. Okay, we have a motion. Do I hear a second? Second.

All right, we have a motion to deny with those with the conditions just mentioned. And we have a second. All those in favor acknowledge by saying I. Any opposed? Okay, go ahead and do a roll call on the uh

she's he's doing a roll call. Anytime it's not unanimous, we have to take a roll call for each indivision. Is that

okay? All right. And All right. If we have no further business, we are ajourned.