FORT SMITH - A complaint by a homeowner about the school district’s placement of temporary buildings has led city directors to seek recommendations for guidelines.
The Fort Smith School District has not been required to follow city regulations that govern the placement and movement of temporary buildings.
But city directors told city Development Services Director Wally Bailey during a study session Tuesday to assign the issue to the Fort Smith Planning Commission.
City directors also said that they would like the commission to recommend an amendment to city ordinances that would allow the school district to “have the flexibility they need,” Director Philip Merry said.
City regulations allow the Planning Commission to issue a 120-day temporary-use permit for placement of a temporary building. The commission also may grant an extension of the permit.
Fort Smith School Superintendent Ben-said that in at least the past 40 years, the district has never been required to seek a permit or extension from the commission for a temporary building. The permits, Bailey said, have been issued by the Development Services Department.
The directors took up the issue Tuesday because of a complaint by David Railey that the school district’s placement of a third temporary building at the site, which is across the street from his home, devalues his property.
Railey contacted city senior planner Brenda Andrews after he was unable to get the Planning Commission to enforce its zoning regulations for the temporary building the district placed at its Parker Center at 811 North T St. last June.
Andrews told Railey that the school district is not required to obtain a temporary-use permit from the commission for its temporary buildings.
“I find it somewhat remarkable that a school district would not have to comply with the zoning regulations from the City of Fort Smith like the rest of us mere citizens would,” attorney David Rush, who represents Railey, wrote to Andrews last month.
Rush asked Andrews in the letter for documentation that exempts the school district from the regulations. If there is none, he wrote, the commission should force the school district to remove the buildings.
Without documentation, Rush wrote, he would probably win a lawsuit to force the commission to enforce its rules and remove the buildings.
City Administrator Ray Gosack told directors that city action on Railey’s complaint will be delayed until the Planning Commission completes its work on the regulations and the directors act on the matter. Bailey said the issue will go before the commission at its July meeting.
Bailey told the directors Tuesday that the city has had an “administrative policy” for the past 40 years to allow the district to place temporary buildings on its campuses without going through the Planning Commission and without getting an extension from the commission if the placement exceeded 120 days.
“One hundred twenty days is no good to us,” Gooden said Tuesday. “It would not do us any good at all.”
Gooden said Tuesday that the district has 21 temporary buildings on its 26 campuses. Often, they remain in place for years.
The building Railey complained about is being used as the base for a group of school nurses who serves schools all over Fort Smith, he said.
He said the buildings are necessary to respond to population shifts and growth areas that occur in the district before permanent facilities can be built.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 05/29/2013