FAYETTEVILLE — Changes approved Tuesday by a divided City Council will make it more difficult to build tall apartment complexes or commercial structures next to houses downtown.
After nearly three months of discussion, aldermen voted, 5-2, to change building height limits and setback requirements in two downtown zoning districts.
The changes aren't in line with a proposal from Alderwoman Sarah Marsh. They stemmed, instead, from language drafted by City Attorney Kit Williams and presented Tuesday.
The changes, which will go into effect next month, require multifamily, commercial, office, parking deck and mixed-use developments taller than 24 feet to be set back at least 15 feet from side and rear property lines when next to single-family houses, duplexes and triplexes.
The developments can be no taller than 36 feet, or roughly three stories, in the 15-foot setback. After that, a building must step back an additional 15 feet before going higher.
Maximum height in downtown general and main street/center — the two zoning districts in which the regulations will apply — will remain 56 feet and 84 feet, respectively, after the new requirements.
Downtown general encompasses many of the neighborhoods south of Dickson Street as well as land near Walker Park. Main street/center includes land along Dickson Street, Block Avenue and around the square.
The new provisions will not apply to development next to low-lying commercial, office or retail buildings. A developer who wants to build a single-family house, duplex or triplex next to another residential structure will not be affected either.
The ordinance is intended to prevent a tall, obtrusive structure from going next door to a house.
“This is an amendment that indeed recognizes the homeowners’ rights for adequate sunlight and room for air and wind,” Alderman Mark Kinion said Tuesday. “It also recognizes that this is an ordinance that is brief and to the point that handles the situation that we’re faced with here in the core of our city.”
Marsh’s proposal, after several revisions, would have required 5-foot side and rear setbacks where there aren’t setback requirements. It didn't discriminate between single-family residences and commercial or multifamily structures. It would have applied to nine zoning districts throughout Fayetteville — not just main street/center and downtown general.
Alderman Matthew Petty, who with Marsh, voted against the change Tuesday, said a 15-foot setback would discourage downtown development — especially on small lots.
The owner of a 40- or 50-foot-wide lot wouldn't be able to build anything except a house, unless the building was shorter than 24 feet, Petty said.
Developer Haitham Alley, whose family owns five parcels south of Dickson Street between Block and Church avenues, where the Divinity Hotel was once planned, said Tuesday, “A 15-foot setback will absolutely kill any development on our property.”
The property borders a house at 221 N. Block Ave. built in 1906 and owned by Nina Shirkey.
Marsh’s proposal began, in large part, as an effort to ensure compatible development next to Shirkey’s home.
Seth Mims of Specialized Real Estate Group, the Fayetteville-based company that has built or is building large apartment complexes at West Avenue and Lafayette Street and at Duncan Avenue and Center Street, said the new requirements will encourage large developments outside the downtown area.
“You will for sure be pushing downtown to the outskirts,” Mims said Tuesday.
Kinion said the council can always come back and make further adjustments if needed. He added developers such as Mims can always seek exceptions to city code, as they have for past projects.
Kinion also said Tuesday he wanted to end a moratorium in place since Sept. 10 when Marsh presented her proposal to the council.
That 90-day moratorium has prevented building permits from being issued for any development affected by the height and setback proposal.
Marsh said Tuesday she didn't think the new ordinance would encourage walkable, mixed-use developments downtown.
“This is just a gross distortion of what I initially presented,” she said.