BENTONVILLE -- A 600-unit apartment complex will be built in an area where it can use existing infrastructure, add density and be close to the parks system, a city planning official said after Tuesday's Planning Commission meeting.
Commissioners approved 5-1 plans for a 600-unit complex just over two miles south of the center of downtown on Southeast C Street while also tabling plans for a 236-unit apartment complex in the city's southwest.
Commission action
Bentonville’s Planning Commission met Tuesday and approved:
• Property line adjustments for 220, 226 and 230 N. Walton Blvd. as well as at Southeast C and Southeast 10th streets.
• Plans for Casa Castillo Daycare at 3906 E. Central Ave.
• Preliminary plat for Kensington Square Subdivision on East Central Avenue.
• Rezoning 206 S.E. Sixth St. to downtown mixed use residential.
• Rezoning 3700 E. Central Ave. to residential office.
• Rezoning Kensington Square on East Central Avenue to single family residential.
• A permit for Priato Pizzeria at 213 N.E. A St.
• A permit for Arvest 71 Branch at 602 N. Walton Blvd.
Source: Staff Report
Commissioner Richard Binns was absent. Commissioner Tregg Brown was the sole dissenting vote.
Walton Crossing Apartments will consist of 600 units over 31 multi-family buildings and a clubhouse facility on more than 25 acres long Southeast C Street between Southeast 22nd and Southeast 28th streets on "an overlooked parcel" of land, as Troy Galloway, community and economic development director, described the location.
The development will be on both the east and west sides of Southeast C Street.
"I didn't really ever expect that there would be an apartment complex there, but when you look at it, it's not a bad location for an apartment complex," he said.
The area around the site has been developed as a variety of uses including office and warehouse space.
The development will give the area some density where there isn't much now, and it's near places of employment as well as the parks system -- Phillips Park is south of the project site, Galloway said. It's also a bike ride away from downtown.
"It's easier on our transportation network," he added.
The number of multi-family developments planned or in the works in the southwest corner of the city will add a short-term strain to the area's transportation network as growth was quicker than anticipated, Galloway said, explaining the street network around Walton Crossing will be able to accommodate the increased density.
The project will include a traffic signal at Southeast C and Southeast 28th streets, commissioners confirmed with planning staff.
Each building will be three stories, according to meeting documents. There will be 902 parking spaces.
Commissioners also tabled development plans for a 236-unit apartment complex proposed at the southwest corner of Southwest Regional Airport Boulevard and Southwest I Street -- just northeast of the Bentonville Community Center.
A street light is needed at Southwest I Street and Southwest 41 Street. More time is needed for city officials and the developer, BC Center LLC, to work out who is going to pay what percentage of the light since the cost will be shared.
The light will cost $250,000, and the city doesn't have it as a line item in this year's budget, John Easterling, city landscape architect with the Engineering Department, said at the March 14 technical review meeting.
Officials discussed how the light will be used by many -- the apartment complex, the Bentonville Community Center and the Mercy Clinic to be built south of the Community Center.
"We don't want to foot the entire bill," said Nate Bachelor, with CEI Engineering, at the March 14 meeting.
Galloway said the city wasn't asking them to.
CEI Engineering is the civil engineer on the project, and Bachelor represented the developer at the meeting. Bachelor wasn't at Tuesday's meeting.
Commissioners also approved plans for the first phase of the Thaden School campus at Southeast C and Southeast 10th streets as well as plans for a new flight center at the municipal airport.
NW News on 03/22/2017