Thrice delayed : Planning staff recommendation keeps SouthPass project tabled
Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008
A last-minute answer submitted by SouthPass developers to city planning staff led to a unanimous vote Monday night by the Fayetteville Planning Commission to table the developer's request for zoning and landuse approval on the project. It's the third time the commission has tabled the issue.
At an Aug. 11 Planning Commission meeting, staff asked that developers pinpoint during which phase Shiloh Drive would be extended into SouthPass. Todd Jacob of the Appian Centre for Design said he was unable to give the information to the planning department until Monday morning.
Jacob told commissioners that the road would be extended during phase 14 in the 18-phase development, or year 20 out of the 25-year plan to complete SouthPass.
Jeremy Pate, director of current planning, said that the staff had not had time to review the impact of the answer and asked the commissioners to hold off another two weeks before passing the final reading on the request.
"We're still looking at that information internally," he said.
The commission did hear about the plans for the creation of the 200-acre regional park that the city plans to build within SouthPass, the proposed 900-acre development in south Fayetteville.
Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Division staff gave the commission a presentation showing the need for a regional park and included how they planned on turning the SouthPass land into an area that every citizen in Fayetteville could enjoy.
Connie Edmonston, director of parks and recreation, said that baseball, soccer fields, picnic areas, water parks and dog fields are some of the things the division would put in the park.
She said the division has broken up the park into five phases that would cost a total of $ 15 million and create "one-stop recreation "for citizens. The total dollar amount did not include infrastructure costs for the park.
The first phase would include new soccer fields for the department to use for its youth and adult leagues. David Wright, superintendent for the division, said that currently the city leases land from the University of Arkansas and Fayetteville High School to host the league and both contracts run out within the next 10 years.
Edmonston said that the division already has $ 2. 8 million saved for a regional park and that when the deed to the land was in the division's possession, she planns to start a capital campaign to raise the rest of the funds. SouthPass developer Richard Alexander has also pledged an additional $ 1 million to the park.
Commissioner Jill Anthes said that she was interested in the exact timeline of how long it would take to complete the park.
"I think the public really wants to know what that projection is," she said.
Edmonston said that the park would be built as fast as the money came in and there was no way of putting a definite timeline together at the moment.
In other business, the commission voted 6-2 to grant a conditional land-use permit to Smith Communications to construct a 15-foot flagpole-style cell tower for T-Mobile at 1060 E. Township St. The site already contains a 150-foot cell tower and a 120-foot water tower with cell antennas on top of it. Commission Chairman Sean Trumbo and Commissioner Porter Winston voted against the issue.
A lengthy discussion among commissioners showed that they were not happy with the options they have when it comes to making decisions about cell towers. Commissioner James Graves said that the state requires that municipalities not hinder the ability of telecommunication companies to do business but the commission really has no third party expert to discern how big a tower needs to be technically to perform the functions the company requires of it.
Graves said the commission is left with no option but to trust the companies' representatives. Commissioners agreed that they needed to look into some sort of cell tower expert to act as a consultant in the future.
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