ROGERS -- The City Council on Tuesday established a second entertainment district in the city, allowing alcoholic drinks to be sold and consumed throughout parts of the Pinnacle Hills Promenade.
The council unanimously passed the ordinance establishing the Bellview Entertainment District in the shopping center northeast of Promenade Boulevard in addition to the nearby commercial area east of Bellview Road and south of Hampton Place.
Within the district boundary and at certain times only, alcoholic beverages served by restaurants, bars, breweries and vendors at special events can be carried and consumed outside. Signs will mark the boundaries of the district.
Shopping areas around Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy and PetSmart and around Bass Pro Shops, Target and Twin Peaks will not be a part of the district.
Justin Pounds, city events coordinator, said the new entertainment district will operate very similarly to the Railyard Entertainment District in downtown Rogers, though it will have different hours.
The hours of the Bellview Entertainment District will be 11 a.m. to midnight seven days a week.
The downtown district's hours will change to 4 p.m. to midnight Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to midnight Saturday and Sunday.
Participating businesses will provide wristbands for customers. Drinks will be required to be in designated district cups.
The downtown entertainment district opened in May 2021 and was expanded last January.
Entertainment districts became legal in Arkansas when the state legislature passed Act 812 of 2019.
Fayetteville, Springdale and Bentonville have each established entertainment districts in recent years.
In other business, a temporary traffic signal will be built at the intersection of Arkansas 112 and West Pleasant Grove Road.
The council unanimously approved an ordinance to pay for the design, construction and materials related to the signal. Funds for the $70,000 project will come from the city's street fund reserves, which totaled about $7 million at the end of December, according to Finance Director Casey Wilhelm.
The intersection on the west side of town opened in August, according to the city's website.
John McCurdy, community development director, said there have already been accidents at the intersection.
The city anticipated traffic problems before the intersection was finished but was not allowed to install a signal on the state highway without proving through observed traffic counts that the signal is warranted, according to McCurdy.
The Arkansas Department of Transportation could have designed and installed a signal at the intersection immediately but did not, he said.
A roundabout planned by the city is delayed due to the state department's Arkansas 112 widening project.
"Our heart goes out to the people who have been injured. It's something that we saw coming, unfortunately. I don't know of anything we could have done to avoid it," McCurdy said. "This is money that is being appropriated out of the city of Rogers on a state highway for a problem that we identified very early on. Other than fairly quickly saying yes to us, the state really hasn't helped us at all in any objective, monetary way."
The signal may be up within a couple of weeks or so, he said.
Other business
The council also unanimously approved:
• Waiving competitive bidding for the purchase of a Dodge Ram truck from Superior Dodge in Siloam Springs.
• An update to the city’s schedule of uses, which adds the use “Wholesale Trade Establishment/Warehouse and Storage Services” as a permitted by right use in commercial mixed use and uptown commercial mixed use zoning districts.
• A request by Fernando Adame to rezone 0.82 acres east of East Spring Street and south of East Walnut Street from the residential duplex patio home zoning district to the neighborhood transition zoning district.
• A request by Laura and Efren Coello to rezone 1210 S. 45th St. in west Rogers from residential single-family zoning to residential office zoning.
• Waiving competitive bidding for the purchase of 13 vehicles from Superior Chevrolet in Siloam Springs. The city will pay up to $791,725 — $583,567 for nine two-wheel drive Chevrolet Tahoes, $134,906 for two four-wheel drive Chevrolet Tahoes and $73,252 for two Chevrolet Traverses.
• Designating Central Bidding as the city’s vendor for an electronic bidding service. During 2023, the bidding service will post advertisements of notices of intention to receive bids for both public works projects and historic site renovations for the city.
• The final plat for the Pinnacle Village subdivision.
Source: NWA Democrat-Gazette