SouthPass decision awaiting zoning proposal
Posted on Wednesday, August 20, 2008
SouthPass is on hold indefinitely, although indefinitely could be until October.
Jeremy Pate, director of current planning, recommended the Fayetteville City Council table the South-Pass annexation until the planned zoning district is forwarded by the Planning Commission.
"I would simply recommend to look at all this package together, the annexation and the PZD, so we understand all the ramifications and all the decisions to be made," Pate said.
PZD is the land-use designation required to enable developers to the use the land as called for in the SouthPass proposal.
If the PZD is approved by the Planning Commission Monday, he expects it will be ready to be heard by the council in October. It is on third reading for the commission.
SouthPass is a planned town-sized development that is expected to bring more than 4, 000 residential units, a 200-acre regional park, churches and businesses, and possibly schools, to about 910 acres near Interstate 540 and Cato Springs Road.
That puts it in Ward 4.
"Lucky us, we're putting in a city," said Ward 4 Alderman Lioneld Jordan.
Marian Kunetka of Fayetteville is one Fayetteville resident who does not want to see the huge project approved.
She brought the to council's attention the 2025 goals posted on the council chamber walls. The second goal, she said, is to discourage urban sprawl and, referring to another, she said she doubted SouthPass will have any low-income housing.
"I just don't think having a 200-acre park gives a reason for annexing this property," she said.
Kunetka said she is concerned about the city working with developer John Nock.
"We have a hole down on College Avenue presented by Nock and his associates. I can't understand how the city would be willing to get into something with him again before the hole is taken care of," Kunetka said.
She referred to the hotel and condominium project known as Renaissance Tower, which is to be built at the corner of College Avenue and Mountain Street. The foundation has been dug, but no vertical construction has begun.
"I'd like to see something happen there, even a parking lot," Kunetka said after the meeting.
Aubrey Shepherd of Fayetteville was the only other speaker on the topic and voiced concerns about the length of the project and getting it all approved at once.
Shepherd suggested the council could authorize part of the project rather than risking the project being started and not finished.
He suggested annexing 10 acres so developers could build on it and sell it.
"And it would be real and visible to us a few years from now," Shepherd said.
Like Kunetka, he referred to "the big hole," and also to Aspen Ridge, where people were removed from their homes but no new construction followed.
"I'm not sure the whole mass should be even brought into the city, much less a PZD that giant approved in one blow," Shepherd said.
In other business, with a 7-1 vote, the council approved a cost-share agreement with the University of Arkansas to hire Eva Klein and Associates for the first phase of an economic development strategic plan. Both will pay $ 75, 000.
Phil Stafford, president of the UA Technology Development Foundation, described the first phase as one of envisioning and creating a framework for implementation.
Ward 2 Alderman Nancy Allen cast the lone no vote. She said she didn't understand why the city needed to spend $ 75, 000 "to have somebody come in here to tell us about ourselves."
Stafford answered that the city would gain from the objectivity and experience of a consulting group.
An ordinance to allow multi-family dwellings as conditional uses in the Neighborhood Conservation zoning areas failed with a vote of 6-2. Allen and sponsor Bobby Ferrell voted for the change.
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