BELLA VISTA -- Changes will be made to Bella Vista's zoning/rezoning map after the City Council approved an ordinance amending the map Sept. 27.
The measure passed by a 5-0 vote. Council member James Wozniak was not present during the Zoom meeting.
Twenty-three properties were originally brought forward for consideration to be rezoned from P-1 conservation (flood plain) district to R-1 single family residential. One of the lots was removed from the list prior to the Sept. 13 planning commission meeting after it was discovered to have already been zoned R-1. Multiple complaints were brought up where three other lots were concerned by several citizens during the public hearing portion of that meeting, and those lots were later marked off the list.
Staff attorney Jason Kelley reminded the council this was a "city initiated rezoning, not an application by the owners (Cooper Communities)."
Bella Vista's mayor, Peter Christie, said combining the various lots into one group made it easier to process information and to hold talks about each parcel.
"We've had a good discussion about this. It's something we've seen before," he said before the vote. "You'll recall at the last council meeting we knew we were going to get a large number of these and some of you asked if these could be bundled all together, and that's why they're all together now."
He continued, "Let's remember by (bundling these together) the planning commission went a lot smoother. The public that wanted to raise concerns about specific properties did not have to wait for 16 public hearings until they got to the one they wanted to talk about. People were able to talk about their concerns right up front, and it enabled the planning commission to move quickly. From my perspective, that was a save for the planning commission, a save for the public, and this evening we don't have to go through 20 of them; we can do it all with one ordinance."
At the outset of the meeting, the council voted unanimously to suspend the rules and read all proposed ordinances and resolutions on the agenda by title only, including the ordinance to amend the map, which was up for its first reading.
Council member Larry Wilms said he opposed a third and final reading.
"By our initiation of the zoning request of the 23 original parcels, we've saved the developer I don't know how many thousands of dollars -- probably approaching 10 grand, maybe more -- in terms of effort, advertising notifications that had to be sent out to adjacent property owners as well as publications (like) the paper," he said. "So we absorbed all of that cost, including the application fees, so we're out in front here with helping a friend out, namely Cooper Communities. So I'm not comfortable moving to a third and final reading at this time. I'd like to have it out there for another month so we can get other input."
But after more discussion, the item was advanced to a third and final reading by a 5-0 vote before passing by another unanimous vote.
The council also passed an ordinance providing for the elimination of a separate board of adjustment and to provide for the planning commission to sit as a board of adjustment.
Three resolutions passed during the meeting included one approving the mayor's appointment of Shelli Kerr to the Bella Vista Arts Council, one authorizing and levying the millage rate of ad valorem real and personal property tax for the city of Bella Vista (for the year 2021 to be collected in 2022), and one authorizing the mayor and city clerk to enter into a real estate contract with Mercy Health systems of Northwest Arkansas Communities in the amount of $136,050.00 for the purchase of right of way necessary for the Mercy Way Bridge Construction Project.
All votes during the meeting were unanimous.