Commission Delays Condo Vote

Project Would Fall Within Streamside Buffer

FAYETTEVILLE — A developer with plans for a south Fayetteville condominium project will go back to the drawing board in an effort to comply with the city’s streamside protection ordinance.

Planning commissioners voted unanimously Monday to reconsider an exemption to the ordinance at their April 8 meeting.

University Housing Group of Roanoke, Va., wants to build a 68-unit, 232-bedroom complex across from Baum Stadium on the southwest corner of 15th Street and Razorback Road, according to preliminary designs by Crafton, Tull & Associates.

Designs show a 234-space parking lot within 50 feet of a creek on the west side of the property. The creek flows into the Town Branch. The streamside protection ordinance prohibits a range of construction activity near waterways, including grading, dredging and dumping, in an effort to preserve water quality.

City planning staff encouraged the condo developer to explore other options on the site. Staff suggested eliminating parking spaces, removing condo units, installing parking on the ground floor or adding another level to the four-story development.

Steven Beam, an engineer with Crafton, Tull & Associates, told commissioners Monday that none of those options would work for University Housing Group.

The project, as first proposed in 2006, included 143 units and a parking structure. Beam said those designs had to be scaled back for financial reasons.

“This is as low as (University Housing Group) can go and still make the project feasible,” Beam said.

After the streamside protection ordinance was approved in 2011, roughly 1.6 acres, or 35 percent, of the 4.4-acre project became virtually unusable.

Derrick Davidson, an attorney representing University Housing Group, said that loss of developable property constitutes a “substantial burden” and should be grounds for an exception to city code.

Beam highlighted his efforts to meet the intent of the streamside protection ordinance. Preliminary plans show a rain garden on the west side of the property and previous pavement that would capture and slow stormwater runoff. Beam said University Housing Group also plans to replace invasive species along the Town Branch tributary with native plants. He said those improvements would do more to mitigate stormwater runoff than a traditional development would even if it were built farther away from the creek.

Several commissioners encouraged Beam to look at moving parking spaces closer to 15th Street and Razorback Road. That would require another exception to city code, which requires parking to be set back 25 feet from the street in the zoning district where the property is located.

“I don’t have a problem with your development on this site,” Commissioner Kyle Cook said. “You’ve just got to work it in with the requirements that we have.”

Beam said University Housing Group would like to begin construction on the project this summer and have condos open in 2014.

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