Springdale council rejects rezoning appeals

Springdale City Hall is shown in this undated file photo.
Springdale City Hall is shown in this undated file photo.

SPRINGDALE -- The City Council took no action Tuesday night on appeals of two Planning Commission decisions. Both involved rezoning land, and the council's inaction meant the appeal requests were denied.

Ricky Allen Sharp requested his property at 2060 Ivey Lane be rezoned from single family residential use to agricultural. Sharp owns 17 acres and "just wanted to run some cows," he said during the council meeting.

He bought the land in 2016, built a house on it without knowing its zoning classification, he admitted.

All properties annexed into the city are zoned as part of an agricultural district, designed to protect agricultural land until it eventually converts to residential, explained Ernest Cate, the city attorney. Springdale's plan guides city planners and developers to gradually convert land to residential, said Patsy Christie, planning director.

The Enclave subdivision sits across the street from Sharp's property, and several others are planned in the area. The School district has purchased an adjacent property to build a school. But some of the land in the area remains zoned agricultural, and those owners do house a few horses and cattle on the land, said James Crouch, an attorney representing Sharp.

Greg Heger, president of the Enclave homeowners association, said residents-- about 20 of whom attended the council meeting -- opposed the rezoning.

Council Action

Springdale’s City Council met Tuesday and approved:

• A Planning Commission decision to rezone 16.8 acres on Gene George Boulevard from agricultural district to high-density, multi-family residential district and general commercial.

• A $215,750 contract with Engineering Services in Springdale to design street and drainage improvements for the extension of Ford Avenue in the city’s industrial district.

Source: Staff report

"When you rezone to A-1, it opens it up fully for anything from row crops to chicken farms to goat farms, which could leave us with a muddy manure field in some sections," Heger said.

"The folks in the Enclave aren't concerned about few, but the zoning change will be permanent until the homeowner or the next homeowner comes back asking it to be changed," said Steve Lisle, an attorney representing the association. He said residents weren't worried about Sharp's plans, but what a future landowner might do if the property was returned to an agricultural district.

Crouch presented the council with a pastoral scene in support of the rezoning. "I don't think this will detract from the neighborhood because this is the way it is right now."

Heger admitted after the meeting the scene did sound appealing, and said the association proposed Sharp be allowed to run a limited number of cattle. "But city ordinances say it's all or nothing," he said.

A conditional use of the land's single-family residential zoning would allow Sharp to keep a limited number of horses, but not cattle, Cate said.

Sharp left the meeting before he could be reached for comment, and a phone call after the meeting wasn't answered.

The council also took no action on an appeal to rezone land on Don Tyson Parkway, east of Savannah Lane to allow for low-density, multi-family housing. Developer Kevin Riggins planned a project of upscale duplexes, which would have been about 1,800 to 2,400 square feet and rent for about $2,000 a month, as described by his attorney Charles Harwell in the June 5 meeting of the Planning Commission.

About 60 homeowners from the adjacent Southwind subdivision came to the Planning Commission meeting to voice concerns, and about 20 were at Tuesday's council meeting.

NW News on 06/27/2018

Upcoming Events