Agenda Highlights 6/4/24
At the Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting scheduled for 6-4-24, the Board will vote on a zoning change for 8820 Highway 271 to facilitate the sale of an existing single-family house on the property.
The Board will vote on a zoning change for 8603-9001 Chad Colley, 9201-9599 Massard, and 9600-9700 Custer that would allow for the 54 undeveloped acres to be developed into the mixed use Serington development that would include single family homes, townhomes, rowhouses, multi-family housing, commercial, and office spaces.
The Board will vote on a change to the Unified Development Ordinance that would allow the Planning inspectors to issue citations for illegal fowl. Currently, they can only issue the property owner two 15-day letters and then send an affidavit to appear in court. The proposed change would speed the process by immediately setting a court date.
The Board will vote on amending the Unified Development Ordinance to create a Military Compatibility Area Overlay District and if the MCAOD is passed they will vote on repealing the moratorium on residential construction near the airport. In June 2022, the City passed a moratorium on residential construction in the area near the airport and the moratorium was extended in October 2023.
The Military Compatibility Area Overlay District would include the entire City and the extraterritorial jurisdictions. But only 3 areas of the city would have City regulations, the Lighting MCA, Noise MCA, and Security MCA. The Lighting MCA would apply to property within the runway buffer and prohibit use of search lights, lasers, and high intensity advertising lights. The Noise MCA would cover areas near the airport in the 65-80 decibel noise contours and would require new noise sensitive land uses to meet sound transmission classes for their noise contour. The Security MCA would cover property physically contiguous to the airport property and would require a buffer of 30 ft for all property with a shared boundary with the airport, would establish a 35 ft max height above the Established Airfield Elevation for buildings, and would require Board of Directors approval for all property sold, transferred, or developed by any non-US entity or its agent.
The Board will vote on allowing taxi cab companies to use any licensed local mechanic to perform the car inspections required by the City rather than continuing to attempt to maintain a list of vendors contracted with the City to perform the service. This issue was discussed and tabled for further discussion at the 3-26-24 meeting and discussed more at the 5-14-24 meeting.
The Board will vote on declaring the property at 724 Garrison to be excess to set in motion the process that would allow for an appraisal and survey to be obtained and allow for the process to sell the property to begin. The property was discussed at the 5-14-24 meeting in response to a request from the owners of the 720 Garrison building next door that has been leasing the parking lot from the City to purchase the lot.
The Board will vote on partnering with Good Shepard Humane Society to have their mobile veterinary unit visit Fort Smith twice a month through the end of the year to provide low-cost spay/neuter surgery, vaccinations, and pet wellness checks. The first visit would be at First Presbyterian Church on 6/22/24. About 30 animals could be sterilized per visit. The total for the 14 visits would cost $28,000.
The Board will vote on whether to spend 65,000 for repairs to the HVAC system and other repairs and cleaning for the former Baker Center senior center building at 3600 Albert Pike. The roof is also in need of repair from storm damage but that is anticipated to be covered by insurance. The Board will also vote on whether to lease the building to Washington Community and Cultural Center.
The Board will vote on replacing the traffic signals and poles at Rogers and 10th and Massard and Dallas and replacing two signal poles at Kelley Highway and I-540 at a total cost of $873,811.50.
The Board will vote on contracting with Forsgren for $3,127,825.32 for 2.8 miles of street overlays.
The Board will vote on installing a statue honoring Dr. Micheal Liggett in Creekmore Park in view of the Parklane Dental Clinic that Dr. Liggett founded. The late dentist’s family and friends have commissioned artist Jonathan Cromer to create the statue and paid for the statue so the public artwork would not cost the City.
