FAYETTEVILLE — City Council members paved the way for two new developments in south Fayetteville on Tuesday.
Aldermen approved a pair of rezonings on land that could eventually become a large apartment complex and a Kum & Go fuel station and convenience store.
The first rezoning was for 12 acres on and around the former Washington County Livestock Auction, also known as the county sale barn. According to Justin Eichmann, an attorney representing sale barn owner Billy Joe Bartholomew, the barn operated for more than 70 years before conducting its final sale in 2009. Bartholomew has been seeking a buyer for his land since then.
The second rezoning Tuesday was for a 2.6-acre undeveloped property at the southwest corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Hill Avenue.
Aldermen approved the sale barn rezoning 7-0, despite concerns from surrounding property owners about compatibility with the neighborhood and increased traffic an apartment complex primarily serving University of Arkansas students could cause.
The property lies east of the Fayetteville National Cemetery, the final resting place for more than 7,000 military veterans and their spouses. Lauren Hawkins, who lives on South Duncan Avenue, urged the council to consider the effects of having multifamily housing nearby.
“I implore you that this is not a compatible situation,” Hawkins said.
The approved zoning for the sale barn, a community services district, allows for a variety of uses by right, including single-family homes, duplexes, apartments, restaurants, fuel stations and offices.
Eichmann confirmed Tuesday the rezoning was an effort to make the property more marketable for a potential buyer, Campus Crest LLC, the same North Carolina-based company interested in buying the land in 2009.
That deal eventually soured when council members rejected a rezoning request in September 2009.
Eichmann emphasized, though, after Tuesday's meeting the approved zoning doesn't guarantee the property will sell.
Brenda Boudreaux, Ward 1 alderwoman, who voted against the 2009 rezoning request, said Tuesday she was pleased to see roughly one-acre added to the southeast corner of the property this time around.
The addition provides access to South School Avenue, what Jeremy Pate, development service director, envisioned as the primary access route for any development.
Pate said a potential developer must wait 31 days after rezoning before a development request can be approved.
Aldermen supported a C-1, neighborhood commercial, zoning district for the Kum & Go location by a 5-2 vote, with Ward 2 Alderman Matthew Petty and Ward 4 Alderwoman Sarah Lewis opposed.
The action went against a 7-2 recommendation from the Planning Commission issued May 23 to rezone the property under a community services zoning district.
Regulations under that designation would have required the fuel station’s principal facade to be closer to the front property line than a C-1 district and would have required a building to occupy 65 percent of the property’s frontage.