BENTONVILLE -- Benton County planners on Wednesday approved part of a plan for a mixed-use trail connecting Siloam Springs to Lake Frances in Oklahoma.
The Planning Board voted unanimously to approve a variance to the requirements for lot size and building setbacks to allow a lot less than one acre in size. The proposed new parcel, at 5001 Wayne Trail, would be about 30 feet wide and 1,000 feet long, encompassing about .7 acres. This section of the proposed trail runs alongside the Kansas City Southern Railroad line.
This section of the planned trail is just outside the Siloam Springs planning area, south of the city, and running to the Arkansas-Oklahoma line.
In the Technical Advisory Committee portion of Wednesday's meeting the board reviewed the site plan for the section of trail. That plan was set for a public hearing at the Planning Board's meeting on Sept. 5.
Also Wednesday, the Planning Board approved plans for a new cell tower on land adjacent to Gentry.
The board heard revised plans for a 240-foot tall cellular communications tower at 12540 Collins Road, just east of Arkansas 59, near Gentry.
The board voted to table the Collins Road tower plan at its Aug. 1 meeting after voting unanimously to deny a request for a variance from the setback requirements from Collins road. The original plans showed the tower being 258 feet from Collins Road instead of the 290 feet required by the planning ordinance. The ordinance requires towers be set back by at least the height of the tower plus 50 feet from roads and residences.
In the revised plans the tower was shifted several feet to the east, moving to a location that would place it 291 feet from Collins Road, meeting the setback requirement.
Jim Grice of Kansas City, representing the proposal, said the lease site was large enough and flat enough that moving the tower didn't require any other changes to the plans.
The board opened the proposal for public discussion, but no one appeared to speak about the proposal. The board then unanimously approved the revised plan.
NW News on 08/16/2018