BELLA VISTA — The Planning Commission voted to recommend amendments to the city’s street plan after a public hearing Tuesday at Riordan Hall.
The original proposal included closing the median along the highway at Oldham Drive, but planners didn’t include the change in their recommendation Tuesday following comments during an Oct. 25 meeting.
The recommendation will be discussed by the City Council at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Highlands Crossing Center.
Chairman Jack Wingate said infrastructure suggestions, put together by a street advisory group are an attempt come up with solutions to issues of safety and traffic congestion along Bella Vista Way in the area of Dartmoor Road and Oldham Drive.
“The dotted lines are in the general vicinity of where proposed streets in the future might go,” he said, adding the location of new roads would be up to engineers and determined by cost and topography.
David Brandenburg of Hornby Lane said during the public hearing he wished to see the Dartmoor extension connect to Chelsea Road at London Road, and no additional traffic routed to Cunningham Drive.
Resident David Oliver said the city needs to come up with a solution for all, not only for some, that routes traffic off the busy highway.
Chris Suneson, planning director, said installing a left-turn lane at Dartmoor Road was favored at the Oct. 25 meeting. However, only 26 of the 54 attendees completed surveys to offer suggestions.
“The lines drawn could happen in the next 18 months or could happen in the next 18 years. They are not going to happen overnight,” Wingate said.
In other business, plans for a Casey’s General Store were removed from the commission agenda before the meeting.
Wingate said the developer is working with the city to adhere to construction codes for a store at the intersection of Bella Vista Way and Riordan Road. Preliminary plans called for a 4,300-square-foot building with 16 fuel pumps.
A Kum N Go store was rejected by the commission at the same location in 2010 for a larger building — more than 5,000 square feet.
Suneson said building a secondary access drive is causing an issue for Casey’s. State fire code mandates two entrances and exits at the location.