Planners Deny Rezoning Request

— Planning commissioners rejected Tuesday a rezoning request for multifamily housing near Dixieland Road and Brooks Place.

Burke Larkin with Whisinvest Realty, representing PWX, requested 21.18 acres west of South Dixieland Road and south of Brooks Place be rezoned from a mix of residential office and highway commercial to residential multifamily with 18 units per acre. The condominiums would be individually owned.

The request was tabled at the Jan. 15 planning meeting after neighbors in single-family zoning near to the project complained.

At A Glance

Commission Action

Rogers’ Planning Commission met Tuesday and approved:

• A request for a conditional use permit for an ice machine at 2525 N.E. Hudson Road, highway commercial zone.

• A request from Yong Shan Lin for a conditional use permit for a private club in the Asian & Sushi restaurant, 2603 Pleasant Grove Road, in Tuscany Square Center. The property is zoned highway commercial.

• A large-scale development plan for Habitat Restore at 1200 W. Commons Drive, light industrial zone.

Source: Staff report

It was suggested at the January meeting Larkin meet with the neighbors and their attorney Bill Watkins to see if an agreement could be reached.

“We met with Mr. Watkins on two occasions,” Larkin said.

“We are willing to work with the neighbors if can, but we must have a certain density of units or the project isn’t financially viable,” he said.

Larkin offered to keep the 80-foot-wide, 1,320-foot-long residential office buffer in place and landscaped. He also said he was willing to reduce the number of units from 18 per acre to 15 per acre.

Mark Myers, commission chairman, said the buffer zone between the single-family housing and the multifamily housing was not the problem.

“It would be a hard sell to get me to support even 12 units per acre. We usually don’t go higher than nine units per acre in that area,” Myers said.

Commissioner Jim White asked if Watkins could address the commission.

“I know this isn’t a public hearing, we already had the public hearing, but I would like to give Mr. Watkins a chance to talk about what the neighbors want,” White said.

Watkins said 16 acres of the property is zoned commercial which would allow 35-foot-tall buildings next to the residential office zoning and just 80 feet from his clients homes.

“The difference is people don’t live in commercial office buildings, they go home at 5 p.m. and aren’t there on the weekend,” Watkins said.

“The buffer zone offered is fine but my clients don’t like the heavy density of 15 units per acre.

Commissioner Mike Shupe called the question and made a motion to approve the rezoning after a few minutes of discussion and the motion was seconded.

On a roll call vote commissioners voted unanimously to reject the rezoning proposal.

“You can appeal the decision to the City Council,” Myers said.

Larkin didn’t indicate whether or not his client would appear the decision to council.

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