Agenda Highlights 6/28/22
The agenda for the Fort Smith Board of Directors study session meeting scheduled for 6-28-22 begins with a discussion of the design plans for the new dog park to be built at Chaffee. The design includes 24 acres with woodlands, a dog wading pool, dog washing station, agility course, dog playground, and restrooms.
The Board will discuss possible changes to the Unified Development Ordinance limiting where mini-storage facilities may be permitted along high traffic commercial and retail corridors. At a previous Board of Directors meeting, Director Morton expressed his opposition to mini-storages on commercial thoroughfares, that surrounding businesses are more dense and a mini-storage takes a big piece of commercial property ideal for other commercial development, saying that mini-storages “work just as well off of major thoroughfares as on thoroughfares”. Currently, they are allowed in areas zoned Commercial Heavy or Industrial.
The final item on the agenda is discussion of a proposed change that would allow zoning changes to be reverted after being approved if a building permit is not issued in a specified time. This item was placed on the agenda at Director Morton’s request at the 3-15-22 meeting in response to a couple of fairly recent zoning change issues that were hotly contentious, yet after the zoning change requested was obtained the development did not happen and the property ended up just being for sale after all. He voiced his concern about that wasting the time of the very busy Planning Commission and the Board as well as creating public uproar for no reason.
If the change were to be made, it would make Fort Smith one of the only cities in the state with such a reversion clause. There will be discussion of issues related to the matter including the administration and tracking of the zoning reversals and permits, exclusion of corrective rezoning, zonings required with annexation, and rezoning requests that may not require a building permit. It was pointed out in a letter to the Board by City Attorney Canfield that the Unified Development ordinance already contains infrequently used language related to time limits for starting developments in both the Planned Zoning Districts section “the Planning Commission may impose a time limit for the development as described in the project booklet” and in the conventional zoning section about “ abandonment of a final development plan- failure to commence construction or obtain a building permit within the 18 months approval period”. Canfield stated that Arkansas courts have not addressed the issue of reversion clauses but added “provisions regarding zoning reversion are more likely to be sustained and upheld by the courts if there is express legislative authorization by the General Assembly for such procedures”.
