Officials vet Bentonville Community Plan adjustments

The Bentonville City Hall is shown in this photo.
The Bentonville City Hall is shown in this photo.

BENTONVILLE -- Adding two historic districts and removing possible funding options were the two largest changes to the latest version of the Bentonville Community Plan, which was presented to the Planning Commission and City Council on Tuesday.

The two bodies met after the commission's meeting to hear about changes made to the plan to guide growth for the next 15 to 20 years.

Commission action

Bentonville’s Planning Commission met Tuesday and approved:

• A property line adjustment at 3100 S.E. Pointe Ave.

• A lot split at 101 N.W. Olinka Pass St.

• Development plans for 7th and B Townhomes phase two at Southwest Seventh and Southwest B streets.

• Rezoning property on Southwest 14th Street from agriculture to general commercial.

• A permit for Reset Church, 2003 S.W. Regional Airport Blvd.

• A permit for Benton County Coroner, 1300 S.W. 14th St.

Source: Staff report

Houseal Lavigne Associates, a Chicago-based planning, urban design and economic development firm, has been working on the plan for three years.

John Houseal said the process was 85 percent complete a year ago, but numbers, the market and development kept changing.

"The last year has been a recalibration to get that last 15 percent right," he said. "It's been challenging."

He walked commissioners and council members through several changes made after the last round of meetings, work sessions and public comments in August.

Most were minor changes with word choices and correcting inconsistencies.

One of the larger changes was adding two historic districts -- along West Central Avenue and Southeast Third Street -- to the plan's chapter of land use and growth.

The other was removing 20 to 30 funding sources for the plan's implementation. Some the city may not have wanted to use while others were only going to be around for a few years, Houseal said.

"It's not that the city wouldn't utilize those or any ones they wanted," he said. "They're just not in here."

Much of the hour and a half discussion was around how to inform property owners of the pending changes to the Land Use Map. The map guides what zoning classifications would be best there, Jon Stanley, city planner, said earlier this month. Map designations aren't regulatory, as zonings are.

Stephanie Orman, council member, expressed concern about property owners whose nearby land near would be redesignated on the map.

"My concern is that if we can't understand where we're changing the Land Use Map and justify that to the public -- why we're doing that -- we're going to have some real issues down the road," she said.

She asked if there was a way to have a map with the changes overlaying a current map.

Houseal said that would be difficult because there are different land designations in the map in the plan.

He explained it's taken two years of data analysis, one-on-one interviews as well as a public workshop to make the changes made.

Houseal used Eighth Street being widened from two to five lanes as an example of a project that will change an area. Many properties zoned residential have changed to commercial on the map.

"We want to be proactive with planning on how can we manage this change over time as opposed to being reactionary," he said.

The plan is designed as a guide, a road map, and isn't a law, said Shelli Kerr, interim community and economic director.

The plan will go before the Planning Commission on Oct. 2. There will be a public hearing.

The plan will go before the council Oct. 16 if the commission approves it.

NW News on 09/19/2018

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