SPRINGDALE -- The City Council on Tuesday unanimously accepted an easement for a detention pond to accommodate for a concrete slab which encroached on the city's required easement around the pond.
Steve Patton, who owns the Patton Industrial Park at 2075 Long Road, was working with the staff of the city's Planning Department to build a cell tower on the property. Planning Department inspectors viewing the site found a 30-by-40-foot building not included on the large-scale design documents approved by the city in 2019, explained Rick Barry, the city's assistant director of the Planning Department.
The building encroached in the setback area around the pond by 9 feet. The city requires a 20-foot setback around retention ponds to allow for overflow and maintenance.
The council approved a 9-foot easement only in the areas of the pond around the shed.
Pasty Christie, director of the Planning Department, asked Patton to submit a revised large-scale development plan and an easement document with a legal description of the easement in the pond. The staff will review the documents for approval.
The industrial park includes three large buildings and a 28,000-square-foot retention pond for drainage. Patton said the buildings hold manufacturing and warehouse areas, but he declined to share specifics.
Patton said staff of the city's Engineering and Building departments, after reviewing the situation, were not concerned by the encroachment and told him to ask for a variance to the required easement.
"But the Planning Commission treated me like I was a second-class citizen," Patton said. "I didn't get the building permit and that made them mad."
"We're asking for forgiveness," said Randy Ritchey, an engineer hired by Patton. "It was an honest mistake. We weren't trying to cowboy something in there."
The shed was built up 4 feet above the level of the pond to prevent the shed from flooding, Ritchey said.
Dale Tyler, chairman of the Planning Commission, told the council that when people come in asking for forgiveness for not doing what was supposed to be done, the commission nearly always will deny the request.
"It probably would have been different if the building hadn't been there," he said.
Patton said that in the past month he has torn down the shed.
Council member Jeff Watson said Patton had done the right thing by taking the building down, to start over.
When the commission denied the variance in July, they also declined to vote on a new large-scale development plan that would include the cell tower.
Christie said an encroachment by a concrete pad is not as problematic as a building encroaching on a drainage easement.
Patton said he thinks the pad has probably been on the site since the 1950s. It originally was two pads, which he joined together, but the part joined was well away from the drainage pond's easement, he said.
Patton said, once this issue has been settled, he plans to pay $50 to the city for a building permit and rebuild his shed.