Agenda Highlights 10/10/23
The Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting scheduled to be held 10-10-23 will start with the Board voting on a zoning change for undeveloped land at 7600 and 7700 Massard to allow for a mixed use multi-family residential and commercial development.
The Board will vote on changes to the Unified Development Ordinance that have been recommended by the Planning Commission. One change is to allow ductwork, exhaust fans, and utility devices not visible from the street or residential property to be painted to match the building instead of being required to be screened. This is being suggested to offer an option other than applying to the Planning Commission for a variance for hard to screen equipment. The other change is to add data centers as a defined land use and for data centers to be allowed in Industrial Heavy, Industrial Moderate, and ETJ Industrial Moderate zoning areas and to allow data centers to seek permission as a conditional use in Industrial Light zones.
The Board will vote to renew the collection of the property tax at the same rate. The City’s share of the tax collected countywide is set at the maximum rate allowed by State law except for the portion going to the library. The City’s portion of the tax would continue to be 5 mils to the General Fund, 1 mil to the library, 1 mil to the Fire Department retirement and pension, and 1 mil to the Police Department retirement and pension.
The Board will vote on whether to purchase 113 acres of land for a bike park and flood prevention retention pond from ACME Brick for a price of $2,880,000.
The Board will vote on whether or not to purchase 10.6 acres of land and the building that was formerly Luby Equipment Services at 5601 and 5715 Wheeler Avenue to be turned into a maintenance facility for the Fire Department. None of the current Fire Department facilities are adequate for the repair of modern sized fire trucks. The building on Wheeler already has tall bay doors and a tall ceiling that would be ideal for the maintenance of fire trucks. The purchase would total $1,600,000. There is potential for 3 acres of the vacant part of the lot to be sold for an estimated $120,000-$150,000 or to use it as a site on which to build the Sebastian County dispatch center.
The Board will vote on insurance providers for City employees. The Board will vote on renewal coverage with Mutual of Omaha for death and dismemberment and disability coverage and renewal of dental coverage with Delta Dental. The Board will vote on switching health insurance excess coverage from AETNA to Evolution Risk and switching voluntary accident and voluntary life insurance coverage from Sun Life to Mutual of Omaha.
