PLANNING OFFICIALS: Oakbrooke Moves Ahead

COMMISSIONER QUESTIONS MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENTS

By Skip Descant

Posted: November 24, 2009 at 4:09 a.m.

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FAYETTEVILLE — A new residential development of cottages, green space and mixed residential and office space in west Fayetteville got the green light Monday by the Fayetteville Planning Commission.

Even if it was a dim one.

The Oakbrooke Phase III development stretching across nearly 30 acres off of Rupple Road passed the commission 5-1. It needed five affirmative votes to get it to the Fayetteville City Council for final approval. Planning Commissioners James Graves, Sean Trumbo and Christine Myres were absent. Another commissioner, Jim Zant, opposed the project and its various conditions of approval.

“I’m going to become for the city council, the voice of dissent tonight,” Zant told the Planning Commission, adding he viewed too many aspects and details of the concept planned zoning district as “open-ended.”

“I would have liked to see the applicant and staff work out all of these details,” Zant expressed. “I like all the loose ends tied up.”

Zant also disagreed with the project mixing residential and commercial space — a key component of Fayetteville City Plan 2025.

Though he sees this planning style as nostalgic, Zant does not see it as entirely realistic in the world of big-box retail.

“I don’t envision it for the future,” Zant said after the meeting, referring to mixed-use plans that integrate residential into office or commercial areas.

“It’s not easily achievable,” he added. “But I think there’s something in the heart of every last one of us to say, yeah, that’s something to go back to.”

“There’s a little bit of dreaming that takes place in a project like this,” Zant said of Oakbrooke.

When the project came through the planning commission two weeks ago, it met a firm wall of resistance from the Bridgeport neighborhood nearby. Developer Tracy Hoskins said he met with neighbors and cleared up questions.

“I think once we had the opportunity to really explain the project we didn’t hear a genuine opposition.” Hoskins said after the vote was taken Monday. “I think it was just a fear of the unknown.”

Still, a few residents were leery.

“My main concern is that this property is going to turn into rental property,” said James Davis. The commission reminded Davis and others that it has no authority to demand that homes not be rented out.

Tom Fetner wondered if the city needs projects with the higher densities Oakbrooke proposed.

“How much density is too much?” Fetner asked the commission. “Is there really a need for that much density?”

Oakbrooke proposes 174 residential units, 31 of them multifamily, and 12,000-square-feet of nonresidential space.

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