Ready to call this meeting to order.

It's a Metropolitan Area Planning Commission 5 30 on the 12th.

Can I uh get a roll call if you would cast your if you're here?

Yeah.

I'm Lonnie.

Okay.

Yeah, okay.

Okay.

Um looks like we've got a quorum.

So if uh first thing order business, if we can do uh approval of the meeting minutes from last month's meeting a little move to approve.

We need a second.

Second minor.

Okay.

You would need a vote on that too, guys.

Hang on there.

Good.

Okay, that passes.

Um first order business is a sidewalk waiver at 903 Martin Luther King Jr.

Boulevard proponent for that.

Yeah, I'm John easily with Associate Engineering on behalf of the owners asking for a sidewalk payment for uh 903 Martin Luther King Boulevard.

R Dot is wide named Okay Boulevard, and they have land install sidewalks, therefore the requirement for us to do it is really non-essential.

Okay, uh city planner.

Yes, sir.

We we reviewed it and we would recommend approving the fee loop.

Forward motion to approve.

Okay, we have a motion and second.

Everybody cast your vote, please.

Michael's moving slow.

So while he's moving slow, is it still time for me to ask a question?

Sure.

Okay.

So that lie of fee.

I usually see it, I guess stated different.

This one look like a waiver.

That's is that the same?

It's the same, it's not a white rate is in lieu of, yes.

Okay.

But they usually have the square footage and everything on there.

Ready now.

Oh, you don't want to have one.

Okay.

Okay.

Um that passes, John.

Thank you.

Next item is a presentation from uh DPZ and CTA on the comprehensive growth plan and and uh street master plan.

Okay, you're right.

Great.

Dave Dav's the one who got uh the briefing on the technology.

Uh I'm uh Matt Lambert, partner with uh DBZ Co-design.

So I'm uh the team lead uh for our team.

We have Dave.

My name is Dave Roberts.

I am with Craft and Toll.

Uh we are Arkansas firm with 10 offices, uh including a Jonesboro office.

Uh and I'm a planner and landscape architect.

And then with us we have Brad Peterson.

Brad is a civil engineer that'll be working on the uh Master Street Plan update.

So we'll just go through just a little bit about um the firms uh working on this and then the sort of purpose and and process.

Uh the the team, and we'll talk a little bit more on detail is is made up of DPZ craft and toll and then Urban Three.

Uh they do uh economic analysis uh on on land use and and growth.

We've worked together as a team on a whole bunch of projects.

We've been around 45 years really focusing on building communities that people love and helping places really rise their raise their economic vitality and manage growth in a way that leads towards future success.

We've done quite a lot in terms of writing on the subject matter and advocacy and also sort of sharing sharing these lessons nationwide.

We've also worked on a whole bunch of different types of projects, development projects, projects for cities, zoning codes, comprehensive plans, development plans, master plans, sort of everything, everything in between and all over the country, including all over all over the state of Arkansas too.

That's uh includes a whole bunch of uh zoning codes and innovative innovative zoning codes across Arkansas, uh across the US, um internationally.

So just to say we we've done a whole bunch of work uh across the entire spectrum of growth and development from the municipal side as well as the private development side.

So just briefly, Crafton Toll is about 62 years old.

We have over 300 employees, uh, 10 different offices in three states now.

Um I'm in the Little Rock office, and so is uh Brad.

Um you can see the type of work we do is planning, transportation, uh, engineering is our primary work, but we also do landscape architecture and architecture.

Um large scale, sometimes we're doing planning projects that are a couple for counties trail projects.

We do a lot of transportation, active transportation, recreation, and parks.

Uh, but we also do a lot of public engagement, and that's where we're gonna come in here.

And then uh Urban Three who will be joining us, like I mentioned, they they do analytics, so they're really looking at uh at how your city will financially perform uh as it grows.

How are you doing today, and how do different land uses uh contribute positively or or take uh more money than they actually produce in terms of uh long-term infrastructure uh construction and maintenance?

And I'll just point to some examples of of some of that work and what we do with them as we we look at all sorts of examples around your community and see well, what are you getting out of sales tax and property tax, where's that money going, and how much infrastructure is needed to support that type of development?

And then we look at growth.

How might growth uh occur and what is that gonna cost you in in the long run?

Uh we look at different scenarios, the current condition, uh, growth growth as is sort of expected today, and then different options for for growing in in different uh different manners, and we look at that from a fiscal analysis standpoint.

Not only placemaking, we're doing we're doing placemaking, but we're also looking at the long-term fiscal impact that'll have uh to the city.

Uh breaking down your uh your municipal budget and services, and then seeing how those services are paid for by housing and commercial development of different types.

Uh we look at at the market, is the market operating well.

Are you building the types of homes that are really in in demand, the types of uh places that are in demand, uh, or are your regulations uh in the way of that?

So we'll analyze all your all your regulations and sort of uh balance that with uh with demand to ensure that that growth is uh paying for itself and it's not being subsidized uh through uh lack of paying for for infrastructure.

So we're really looking overall at the at the long-term growth of the city.

You know, this is a you know 20, 25 year plan.

Uh we look at the different types of ways that that you grow, how much growth is in downtown, how much growth is is on the edge, what areas you have opportunities for for redevelopment, and to ensure that we're aligning all your strategies uh for development and growth to make sound fiscal policy.

Uh so I just wanted to touch a little bit on that because that's that's the way that we're working together with with Urban Three and their analysis, along with what we're gonna do in terms of uh looking at transportation, uh, land use, codes, uh, parks, and other city services.

Uh the the work is really we can call it in three phases.

The the first one is really about getting started, doing doing analysis, getting a website together, having uh one-on-one interviews, focus groups, just information gathering, and we'll talk in more detail.

Uh, the second piece is really about uh about engagement and creating the plan forward, so making the proposals, and then the third is really about taking those proposals into details and then bringing them to to you all and eventually to the council for approval.

There was a blank one.

So uh I want to talk to you a little bit about the engagement.

Um you all live here, and your community knows what works for you that might be different than any other communities we work in.

So it's not all data driven.

We need to hear from everyone in your community.

So you'll see these images are public engagement activities that we have, sometimes they're open houses, sometimes they're like a community party, and we have food and we have events there, we have you know fire trucks that can come out and drawings and things, giveaways.

But the idea is that we need to hear from your citizens.

We need to know what they want to see in this plan because it's gonna be a shared vision for the city to move forward with.

And so some of that is online, some of it's online surveys, so we can gather that data and those answers and plug those into the information that we need to move forward, and and from that we can see live data.

We'll have stations where people can come out and take the survey, even from laptops at these events, and we can see that data uh populating as as the information is is is downloaded.

Um then some of it is stakeholders, some of it will be some of your leaders from your community.

You'll probably have an advisory group that will be moving this project forward, uh, and sometimes there's a technical group and one-on-one.

So there'll be some some of your business leaders in the community.

Um, we need to sit down with them and hear from them.

So in this phase, it's a lot of gathering uh information as well as the data, and you can see that we take that information and then we start to look to see how that could work for some solutions in the future.

And by the way, the word charret is the same thing as a workshop.

Yeah, so fancy work.

Yeah, and I think half the time we name it something different.

I'll talk about it uh a little bit in a slightly more detail here in a moment, but I think it's also important just to point out that uh what we what we're explaining is sort of the the process, but we don't have an you know an end goal in mind.

That's what we have to really figure out by by talking to you all in detail, talking to community leaders, talking one-on-one, doing the surveys.

That's really to figure out what the community needs, what the community wants, so that we can chart the path uh forward.

So uh the phase, the first phase of this is really that sort of understanding.

So diagnostics, really looking through all of your existing plans, um, and ensuring you know ensuring they're coordinated.

You know, that's really a big part of this to align all of your plans in in one document as opposed to having a whole slew of documents that may have different purposes, and then to update that for uh for the community's preference of future growth.

That's also looking at physical aspects of of the city, how how has development uh occurred in different places, uh, what is needed in different places because different parts of the city uh well they're they're they're not the same.

So one solution in one area is gonna be different from another area.

So we do a lot of analytics about what the actual physical environment is like throughout the city, where there's opportunities.

We'll do uh demographics, projections, growth, uh, these sorts of analyses, um, and then also that land value uh productivity that we mentioned from Urban Three to see how different land uses through the city are contributing positively or or negatively towards uh towards your physical bottom line.

We went through some of that.

Uh engagement, as Dave said, this is really uh still part of this phase one.

That's those one-on-ones, board meetings, uh, uh public survey, presentations, other events.

We'll sort we'll figure that out with the steering committee to fit the community best.

Figure out who to who to connect with, who to talk to, uh, what sorts of meetings work well for for your community, uh and then organize our input sessions uh based on based on those recommendations.

Um and then we get into uh into charette planning.

We can ditch the charette term, sometimes we call it design week, you know, it's basically uh a long series of uh of workshops.

We we work in person, we present, we get feedback, we make changes, have a real interactive loop of plan creation.

Um, and so in this first phase, we're sort of planning what that should be like.

Where are the areas that we've heard from your community that really need attention, and we'll ensure that we're organized to focus around that, what sort of topics are of interest like mobility and connectivity.

And that brings us into the work plan phase.

Uh here we start with that design week that charette.

So that's really seven seven days.

We have uh designers uh here in Jonesboro, uh, someplace central where we're working on on drawings on illustrations on strategies, and then we present those to uh to focus groups, we present them to the public, we get their input, and then we change those plans.

We throw out drawings, we we draw anew, uh so that we can get to the point of having uh good goalposts for uh for how the plan should come together in the end.

So that that's uh testing concepts, getting that feedback, focusing on special areas, so those special areas that we identify that we hear from the community, and also opportunities that we see uh throughout the city uh will focus on make drawings such as these uh in that seven, seven-day period and revise revise uh so that we can come out of that with a preliminary direction.

So it's it's about uh focused work so that we're efficient in writing the plan, because plans can be complicated.

So we'll come out of that with a preliminary set of direction, which we will then uh test through surveys, get more input on that uh that leads us into actually producing the comprehensive plan document, which is much more specific, uh detailed.

Um then after that we'll work on refinements.

That's with the steering committee, that's with uh review from uh from this body, uh review from the staff.

Uh after we've had that feedback, we'll get into much more technical detail uh such as the implementation steps necessary by different city departments and uh different boards and so forth in terms of uh how we get to the end goals of uh 25-year plan.

And what's good about those implementation steps are it'll show who who owns those items and if they're near term, midterm, or far term.

So you'll have departments that know uh we got a budget for this thing in five years or this thing in 10 years, because you've got kind of a roadmap of what it's gonna take to implement what you're seeing in the plan.

Yeah, and that's where it's instead of having uh fractured plans, this is really about bringing the plans together, so everybody's working on the same page.

Uh one thing uh we also bring in here and and uh and why we have Brad is that the master street plan update uh is also uh a part of this uh process, and it's really critical to align your land use and and streets, and very often they're not aligned, so street design happens outside of land use, but the the design, uh how many lanes you have, do you have sidewalks, are there bikeways, uh, do you have do you have planting areas and trees?

That depends on the land use.

And when they're when they're not coordinated, uh the character of the street could cause your uh your land, you know, if you have commercial uh development in a in a walkable area and you have a street with no parking, it doesn't work.

Uh but if you have uh that in another area where you're carrying traffic, that's uh that's fit to that land use.

So we'd be uh combining and coordinating that transportation to ensure you're efficiently spending your transportation dollars and that it supports the type of development that you want uh along those streets.

Um so that's really a lot of the aspects of the plan uh it'll be reviewed uh by the steering committee staff uh by you all, uh, and then we get to to uh to adoption again, which is coming coming through you all, uh recommendations to uh to to council and then a typical uh adoption process.

This usually takes between 18 and 24 months.

The actual schedule uh we'll refine uh once uh once we begin the process and deal with holidays and school and really uh align our engagement with existing community events so it can be effective, um, and then uh sort of design that review and revision period such that you all get the review necessary, the uh public is the review time necessary as well as the steering committee.

Uh and really the purpose, like I said, is is organizing all of your plans towards uh a single goal uh so that you're uh moving forward efficiently and towards uh towards an outcome that you want as a community, but one that's also going to be uh very fiscally uh responsible and sound with your decisions going forward.

I think that's that's it in a nutshell.

We're trying not to dwell on any of it, but we're happy to uh to answer any questions that you have.

Cooper have one question.

So go forward with this.

You have a timeline of what we'll see, when we'll see.

Yeah, so that's um I had mentioned it's usually 18 to 24 months in terms of the the total timeline for uh for doing a comprehensive plan.

Some of that will depend on you know when holidays fall and things like that.

So it would a year and a half to two years, but um, so there's different pieces uh early on uh we'll have meetings with with you all, uh, we'll have meetings with with the public, so there's engagement there.

There will be a website uh online with with all those materials.

Uh we'll we'll do analysis and then we'll publish that uh on the website, uh, move into to a survey, uh, then move into uh into the design week or charette process, which would most likely be in the spring.

Then after that process, we would review publicly the outcomes and materials and produce the first draft of a document, which would be, you know, probably I guess around this time next year for your first review, and then we'd go through refinements after that.

I have a question.

So as far as getting the public engaged, what what do you guys what do you do to get the public as you say there's a room full of people here tonight on rezoning requests?

But how do you go about getting the public engaged in these meetings?

So uh social media is a good a good tool to put the word out because most people do follow whether it's the city or any of the groups that are related to your city.

Um so the idea is to get the word out to tell people we're gonna have events.

Sometimes you can have multiple ones in different locations if people don't all come to one place.

Um we helped the city of Cersei just last year with a bond.

Uh we were doing some master planning work with them.

We had a lot of public engagement events, and one of them was a giant party, like I alluded to.

We had um 450 people show up to this.

We set it at 5 30 where people could hit it right on their way home.

We had grills going, feeding people.

Um, the police and fire were there with some of their equipment, there's bounty houses, but we had stations inside so people could go around the room and do the information gathering that we needed at these stations.

And radio station was there out front, live broadcast, so we just made it a big community event.

Sometimes that works great in some towns, sometimes it doesn't.

So your student committee could kind of tell us what works well, and we've got a lot of tools in the toolbox, but online is another way to gather information too.

So we'll use we'll balance it between in-person and online, and then um, like we mentioned, there's gonna be that charrette, that workshop that's a week long, and that's an open house where people can drop in to where we're located, our whole team will be here in town in one of your storefronts or at the university or wherever is easy for you guys to access, and people can just come and go and see what we're drawing.

I mean, right there when we're doing it, and then we'll have a presentation at the beginning of that week and one at the end of that week.

So we're giving updates through the process.

Um, and you all as leaders can tell us, hey, the best place to do these bigger meetings is in this location or in that location, but we'll also have different ones that are per year, different wards.

So there'll be a lot of different kinds of engagement opportunities.

Any other questions?

Yeah, I got one.

Uh this Monero.

So your company, why why you're a company?

So um Craft and Tall is planning engineering architecture, landscape architecture surveying here in Arkansas.

We do comprehensive plans like these, but we don't do the bigger towns.

We bring in the national pros to help us with the bigger projects.

So we've worked with them now.

This team's done five together, I think, uh, in the region.

And so we're the local in-state.

Um DPZ is elsewhere.

They're they're national.

They have offices in Miami and Oregon and New York and elsewhere.

Um, so we um we know Arkansas and we live here.

Uh we have employees that work here in your town.

Uh so when we hear about a comprehensive plan like this, we pull together the A-Team because we've done it elsewhere and have had a lot of success.

Does the planning that you put together just develop new new places, or does it involve retro retrofitting in the power of inverted, I mean of condemnation to say this has to be taken because we need to do this, or we need to do that, because sometimes you know, we have a um had a recycling plant that kind of creates an issues.

Well, then the things that develop around a recycling plant aren't necessarily what might be otherwise the best use of acreage that's right on the edges of downtown.

And how I mean it does plan to include to say, you know, we got to go in here and say this is we the city's got to take this and redevelop this, even though that may make individual landowners maybe not so happy.

Well, we'll we'll we'll take into account both, I mean, it's both new development and redevelopment.

There's there's that type, and there's also just any sort of uh redevelopment and infill that's gonna be different if it's downtown or on the major roadways and shopping centers.

Uh some something like that.

Tip for the for the most part we try to align the the land use such that the the marketable value will uh result in the natural redevelopment of something like that.

just any sort of uh redevelopment and infill that's gonna be different if it's downtown or on the the the major roadways and shopping centers uh some something like that tip for the for the most part we try to align the the land use such that the the marketable value will uh result in the natural redevelopment of something like that uh but you are you are restricted to some extent in terms of what you can do uh as as a city but if there's specific issues like that we can look at what what are your your legal options to to be able to uh to to address that and what are the market uh based options that might naturally cause uh the change to occur do I I mean I've just read things in other cities where they have you talk about doing things across the country where other cities and across the country say we just got it the city says we're gonna take this land and redevelop it and buy everybody out and you ever worked in projects like that yeah and there's there's a few different strategies you know there's there's the the buyout you know approach to it uh and and then there's the uh the the condemning approach but the condemning approach is more uh restricted like you can you can build parks or you can build roads basically so you have those those are basically your your options if you're if you're actually taking property uh as a city um but you can there's all sorts of other mechanisms um that you can use so but absolutely um there we've got experience in other cities um out of those different types of approaches i i think what in in the planning process our goal would be is to to identify the issues and understand what the what the community thinks in general uh about them and then the best strategies forward uh in in terms of the the options like I said that are that are legally approachable um for the city and options that may be possible from from the market yeah one more question how far reaching are your plans are you strictly bound by the city limits are you bound to downtown Yamafer or you do you look for future how far out would you reach well it's it's the city limits but if we're talking about um growth and and the type of growth so we'll we'll project the the you know the population uh growth and see uh how much land and and and where that goes and sort of determine from there so it's really based on what the growth looks like but yeah the the boundaries are the are the city it's not just downtown but the the entirety of the city limits um whether or not that goes anything goes beyond the limits is certainly something that we can uh discuss uh during the process well my concern is we have development that goes on outside the city and some of the development does not meet any kind of city standards and then they want to annex and you know where does it go from there.

Well and that's that's an interesting new new issue that you're dealing with just now with the the new uh state legislation right where you you no longer have your extra uh territorial jurisdiction over the lands outside of the city limits right so we could we could certainly um you know we're gonna be having some of those county level discussions elsewhere and in terms of the the reality from from a county standpoint that you have two choices you can either restrict growth in the county or you can grow county government to deal with the sorts of services and maintenance that you need for um for for actually having growth that you have to manage within the county like most of them aren't set up to maintain roads uh local roads and developments uh nor nor the infrastructure uh and so this that's definitely something totally new that uh that all communities in in Arkansas are now now starting to deal with um so I I'm sure that will be an important thing for us to uh consider in this process thank you all right one more yes so with our current city codes and you guys coming in and doing your uh comprehensive planning will we use those existing or would that be um say something after your planning that we would be required to change our codes to match whatever your planning could possibly be.

Yeah we'll we'll make recommendations so we'll analyze say that one more time we'll we'll make recommendations on your codes so we'll analyze them and and see in terms of uh different preferences for for growth uh and different types of growth whether whether or not you are set up to to allow that to happen so we'll we'll do the the the planning for what that growth should be uh and then we'll see if if the codes aren't gonna work uh we'll specify why and and how they should be updated and and and when and usually that's a a sort of right away thing uh to get into code updates if they're if they're gonna be in the way of uh future growth goals again for us that would come back just like a regular okay okay thank you any other commissioner questions is there anybody ready to make a motion what we're looking for tonight uh commissioners is a recommendation to send this uh presentation to full council so is there anybody ready with the motion it's not an approval it's just I think the city has chosen direction that they want to try to move us forward and do planning and hopefully it's the right move

Is there anybody ready to make a motion?

What we're looking for tonight, uh commissioners, is a recommendation to send this uh presentation to full council.

So is there anybody ready with the motion?

It's not an approval.

I think the city has chosen the direction that they want to try to move us forward and do planning and hopefully it's the right move.

And I move motionly approve.

We have a middle second and a second.

We need a vote.

Would cast your ballot, please.

One more we don't know why it's not working.

Okay.

Thank you.

It passes.

Okay.

Next item is a preliminary subdivision.

Um preliminary plat for Sarrus Crossing phase four.

Good evening.

Hi, Mark.

How y'all doing?

It's been a while.

Yeah.

Uh my name is Mark Morris.

I'm the owner of Sares Crossing Subdivision.

We're seeking preliminary approval for 54 lots on 15 acres.

This is our final phase of the subdivision.

We're connecting uh the existing SARS crossing to Maple Valley back to the east.

I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

Okay.

Mr.

Darrell.

Yes, sir.

We reviewed it and it does meet the requirements of uh for the subdivision code, so we would recommend approval.

Anybody ready with a motion?

Or make a motion to approve.

Second.

There we go.

Now we got it.

Okay.

You've been approved.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Next item.

That's our first rezoning request.

Um rezoning RZ two five thirteen at 2106 Bridger Road.

Uh recommending or looking for a rezoning of approximately 6.79 acres perponent.

Good afternoon.

I'm David Baker.

Uh with me today, Mr.

Garrett Dunham.

Uh we're with Fisher and Arnold.

Address for the record is um 404 Creeth Avenue.

Um, with any uh as with any rezoning, uh we have to provide the justification uh or or request for that rezoning.

Uh we feel that there's a significant need, I mean, with this, the way the housing is the interest rates and so forth, that there's a need uh for uh affordable quality housing.

And the second part of that we feel like more importantly, uh that there's been significant change in the area uh since uh this property was uh originally zoned.

Uh if you look at it for with the justification, our subject property uh is is located here.

Uh this is Johnson Bridge or Road is here.

Uh if you look to the southeast, there is a higher density uh assisted living residential community uh directly across Bridger Road to the west.

Uh there's a mobile home community as well that is a higher intensity type use.

Uh as you look at future growth in the area along East Johnson, uh there's more and more commercial developing every day.

Uh and then at the intersection of Johnson and Bridger, uh, feel like that will be a major retail um as well in an office type uh area.

Additionally, our request uh compliance with the comprehensive land use plan, this area calls for a high intensity uh use, and we feel like uh all these justifications uh are in line with our request.

So having said that, I'd be glad to try to answer any questions that you all just happen to have.

Okay, thank you.

Uh there, sir.

We have reviewed it, and like he said, it does um the area is in a high intensity growth sector.

So with that in mind, um, we would recommend approval with the following conditions.

Um that the proposed site shall satisfy all requirements of the city engineer all requirements of the current stormwater drainage design manual and floodplain regulations regarding any new construction, final site plan subject to all ordinance requirements shall be submitted, reviewed, and approved by the planning department prior to any redevelopment of the property.

Any change of use shall be subject to planning department approval in the future.

Okay, with this being a rezoning request, I'm gonna open it up for public comments.

Is there anybody here from the public that would like to speak on this matter tonight?

If if you would come to the microphone, name and address, and we're gonna try to.

We want to hear everything we can, but about five minutes is about all each person can have.

Okay.

My name's Dave Nance.

I live at uh 5017 Eden Cove.

Uh I'm also uh representative of the uh Eden Hills States POA.

And I've also spoken to several people, uh Mark Morris and uh uh Paul Willis, uh you know some of these other people that live up in the area here.

Haven't had much time to look at it very much, in fact, only today, but uh with everyone I've talked to, the opposition is pretty much united, and united basically on three reasons.

First, the property values of the properties that are already owned in the area, second, quality of life, third, infrastructure.

With property values, apartments, you know, most of that up other areas I understand it is R1.

Single family, sometimes multi-acre, and those kinds of properties are almost always, every place I've ever lived, been devalued by multiple family apartments, and that's that's my experience.

Now, I've you know I've lived for 14 years down in Naples, Florida, which is a very highly developing developing area, has been developing for 40 or 50 years.

That's my experience there.

Raleigh, North Carolina, Montgomery, Alabama, Memphis, Tennessee.

I've lived in all of these places and seen the same thing.

So one of the other things is no matter how nicely these things are built, they are going to deteriorate because ownership almost always devolves to somebody who doesn't live here in town.

They always look beautiful, but they always deteriorate because ownership has no particular commitment to the values.

They just want to basically build it and either sell it to somebody else who sells it to somebody else, and you know the drill.

Okay.

Quality of life.

You start pushing people more crowded like this, crime is an issue.

Not necessarily major crime, but petty crime, and petty crime affects quality of life.

It affects it quite a bit.

Uh, and so you've got that traffic is an issue.

We already have a lot of traffic there, and I know you know this, okay.

Uh, and so that brings me to the third thing, which is infrastructure.

Down in Naples, I was there for 14 years.

That area is growing like a big dog and has been for a long time, and it's beautiful.

It has been beautiful, and they've maintained the beauty, but the way they did it was some of the planning that one of your people earlier was talking about.

But the some of that planning involved the nature of the interstruct infrastructure, because what what they did in Collier County there was and a lot of other places in Florida, they required impact fees from developers.

These impact fees were comprehensive, and I just dare say these impact fees were draconian.

Uh they had to account for anywhere from a half a mile to a three-quarter mile radius from the proposed uh development.

The developer was responsible for building out all of the roads in those areas, whether they were brand new or whether they were just redone.

All of the intersections, all of the culverts, all of the bridges, they were responsible for the water drainage.

Bridger Creek right now is pretty much unworkable on the north side of Peachtree.

We've tried to talk to some people about it, and they've sent some people out, and the workers you've sent have done a great job, but they weren't given enough work to do.

And so the job is undone.

So this kind of stuff is needs to be involved in these impact fees in my mind.

Now, the other thing, police.

They were required to pay for the increase of police patrols, police equipment, police stations, if the population, you know, was such that it needed that.

They were required to uh improve the fire stations, the fire equipment.

They were in uh to hire the firemen, they were required to improve the EMT, the responses, the emergency rooms, and even the parking lot of the emergency rooms.

Uh, if that, you know, if it was determined that that population would affect this stuff.

They had to do the uh sewers, they had to expand the uh sanitation facilities that the sewers drain into, sewage treatment plants, uh, and of course, all of this is based on you all determining the level of the impact.

But I'm trying to help you understand from my perspective and the perspective of the people that I've talked to is how much this is going to impact and who is going to pay for it.

Because if you don't require the developers to pay for this in some way or another with the impact fees, then all of us as taxpayers are gonna have to pay these things.

So basically, all of the people that I have talked to, we are seriously opposed, not to development.

Jonesboro is going to grow, but this kind of development in this area.

Thank you.

Any questions or anything?

Yes, ma'am.

Hello, I'm Carol White.

This is my husband Rick.

We're our address is 5001 Nicole Cove, which is directly off of Bridger Road.

We've lived there since 2013.

I've never spoke publicly at a meeting, so I'm just gonna read my notes.

I thought them out.

Okay, so I am opposed to the rezoning of the property at 2106 Bridger Road for the following reasons.

Traffic on 49 is already extremely congested.

Cars take Bridge of Road as a cut through.

Bridger is very narrow with no shoulders, and traffic is already heavy on this road.

It's very dangerous to try to get out on 49, especially turning left, which we experienced tonight.

It took us quite a while.

The increased number of vehicles will make it increasingly dangerous and difficult.

With 80 to 100 new housing units plus approximately two cars per unit, will put added difficulty time and danger to those who travel this route, especially in the mornings and the afternoons for school and work.

It will increase the Brooklyn and or Nettleton bus traffic, picking up and dropping off children in the mornings and the afternoon.

The crime rate has the potential to increase because of the increased rental population.

We already have a mobile home park right across the street from this property, which seems to be extremely well managed, but typically that is not the case.

More renters creates a greater potential for crime.

Homeowners having a vested interest in the community typically tend to take better care of property and do not offer the same threat of theft, violence, noise, and property damage as do large numbers of renters who have no vested interest.

Noise levels, pollution, trash, and vehicle traffic will be greatly increased by this large number of uh new residents to this area.

The access to NEA hospital will also be negatively impacted from the increase in traffic.

In summary, this is a dangerous and unacceptable use of this property.

Please vote no on this rezoning of this property.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Uh my name's Lynn Childers.

Thank you, Council, for letting us talk.

Uh I live at 5108 Tracy Drive.

I've lived there since 2009.

Uh probably means something that I've been 19 years a full-time realtor.

Uh, in 2023, I was the president of the Northeast Arkansas Board of Realtors.

Uh my front door is no more than 500 feet on the same side of the street as uh the subject property.

So everything that's been said or things that I would have already said or that I would have said, so I'm not going to belabor that.

But I will say this.

I've been an advocate for homeownership.

I continue to be an advocate for homeownership.

I know that Jonesboro needs more housing.

I would be happy with a nice subdivision going in this property.

I think that would be something that would uh at the very worst not hurt our property values, but might even help our property values.

I'm not as enthusiastic about high density uh multifamily housing going in there.

I did want to elaborate just a little bit on the safety of Bridger Road.

Bridger Road is a narrow two-lane.

Uh there is no shoulder whatsoever.

Uh if you turn off of Johnson, uh the subject property.

My drive, uh Tracy Drive is the gravel drive, it's exactly a half a mile from Johnson.

It's in the middle of an S curve.

Uh once again, we're about 500 feet between our street and the subject property.

Uh when I come to Tracy uh to the end of Tracy Drive to turn left or right on Bridger, which I do every day, uh when I look to the left toward Johnson, toward the subject property, uh I can't see very far because of woods, trees.

Uh it's a somewhat blind corner.

When I look to the right uh toward Peachtree, uh there is a hill, and so it's a blind hill.

You have limited visibility either direction.

Uh people regularly, the speed limit is posted at 35.

Uh people regularly drive at 45 miles an hour and probably faster than that on that street.

And when they come through that S curve, they regularly, and when I say regularly, I don't know that I hardly ever see anybody who does not, they cross the center line and straddle the center line when they come through.

They're going through at a high rate of speed.

Uh they're probably afraid of the ditch because in that S curve, the ditch is deep.

If your wheels were to go off the pavement, you'd have to have a tow truck to pull you out because it's a relatively deep ditch, and there's nothing for your wheels to grab purchase of.

Uh I will say this on May 19th of this year.

My wife was pulling out of Tracy Drive.

She was turning left to go to Johnson to come into town to grocery shop.

Uh she looked, my wife's a very safe driver.

She's never had an accident.

Uh she's in her, she's 57 years old, never had an accident.

She looked left, looked right.

She should have looked right first and then looked left.

But as it was, she looked left, then she looked right, and then she proceeded to try to turn out left.

Well, in the meanwhile, someone came from Johnson at a high rate of speed, flying around the corner, probably driving 50 miles an hour.

My wife's car was totaled.

Uh that happened on May 19th of this year.

We knew it was just a matter of time.

Uh she was not injured, but it did total our car.

So uh I submit to you that if you approve this rezoning request and they add 50 or 100 doors on that street, traffic is going to increase 10 times or more.

I suggest that we're gonna have a real real problem with safety.

It's going to go up to a considerably higher level.

That's all I have to say.

Thank you for your comments.

Mr.

Biker, would you like to comment on any of that?

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Um it seemed like there was uh a pattern with that with traffic and infrastructure improvements.

As we move, if we're fortunate enough to get rezoned and move to the next stage, uh part of that will be a traffic impact study.

We'll have to go into a little more detail of infrastructure, water, so forth.

And uh we understand that that is at the developer's uh expense.

Uh typically with this uh Bridget Road, I think is scheduled for a like a three-lane uh cross section as a collector, uh, which we will have to dedicate and improve our portion as well as look at the signalization and so forth along Johnson.

So we will be addressing a lot of those concerns uh as we go through the process that that's kind of standard uh procedure with that.

Um infrastructure as well.

Uh there is, yes, water and sewer in the area.

Uh but uh as uh we move forward with detailed design.

Uh we'll understand that we will have to if there are improvements needed uh to upsize uh or um extend water lines or sewer lines, something like that.

That is at uh the developer's owner's expense for that.

So uh yes, sir.

I saw one more person.

Oh, I thought you would speak when you're done.

So I was okay.

No, that's right.

Okay.

Trying to get everybody in here, so thank you.

And thank you for your service to Jonesboro, Arkansas.

My name's Joanne Nally.

I've lived here about eighty years now.

So I can tell you about Jonesboro growing, and I can tell you about Jonesboro expanding.

You know, I used to live at 808 Strong, and then we moved out to Bridger Road out there.

We weren't even the city limits, and it wasn't time till guess what?

We didn't have to worry about not having any water, and we didn't have to worry about sewer and getting up in the middle of the night and flipping that switch because we had city utilities.

There's questions I have to ask, and I don't I don't know whether this is time or not, but I would like to ask them.

So I understand there's additional acreage there besides the 6.79.

So uh if this were to be rezoned, then would these people have the opportunity to add additional apartment complexes there?

Because I've heard some talk about it might be uh an 80 or it might be in a hundred that it might expand.

So, how many of you have driven down Bridger Road lately?

Gone down there, gone down that curve.

How many tried to get to work in the morning, as they've already alluded to?

So let's see.

I believe uh from January the first to June the 30th, there were over a hundred accidents.

Day before yesterday when I was going to work, there was an accident.

It's not one car that's involved in an accident.

How many cars are usually there?

Two, three, four.

How many families are involved in an accident?

What does that road hold?

Is it 24,000 a day?

Or is it 47,000?

I've heard two different things.

Y'all probably know that better than I do, about the traffic on Johnson.

And then if you go on past Johnson and you get on Red Wolf, there's about 76,000 accidents every six months.

And those are people that are coming from Brooklyn, coming from what Paraguay.

Those people all come into Jonesboro to work, don't they?

So, you know, I have some questions about that.

Well, we have a few petitions too.

I don't know who we submit that to, but we have over 325 petitions.

We're in opposition of it.

So we just want to make that very clearly.

But you know, I've spent my life here, and I've grown up around here, and I appreciate I even had a cousin served on your board, your commission many years ago.

So I I hope you will take a careful consideration when you think about this rezoning.

We've been around this community.

How many of you driven around Jonesboro out there in our area?

How many houses are here, and how many houses are there, and how many houses are there?

And then you get toward Brooklyn.

What's this gonna do to the Brooklyn School District?

What's this gonna do?

Are we do we care about our other little towns outlying there?

Because one day we may all be one big community.

So what's that gonna do?

What's that traffic?

What's that school traffic gonna be?

Now another thing we've realized, and there's a few people we begin to talk to.

You know, today people like to live in apartments, sir.

And I guess you realize are you from Jonesboro?

Where are you from?

I've heard of that place.

So so the guy that's buying this land, where's he from?

Is he in Jonesboro man?

Yep.

Oh, Miss Joanne, you you have to have to address us.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Keep me on track, okay.

Oh, you made me lose track.

Okay, well.

So, so please, please think about this critically about how that's gonna impact our community out there.

You see these people back here?

I bet you could have them raise their hands, and you'd see how many are came here tonight.

And a lot of them wanted to be here, but you know, we have to have jobs to work, so many of them weren't able to get here.

So please really consider this.

You talk about high density housing.

We've got we've got all kinds of homes out there.

We've got all kinds of.

You look at a family that lives in an apartment today because people don't want to mow their yards.

They don't want to do those.

So they want to live in an apartment.

And by the way, from what I've begun to observe, if you have an apartment, you don't have to rent to one family, you can rent to two families, or you can rent to three families all in one apartment.

You can rent to two families, or you can rent to three families all in one apartment.

And I was involved in a housing project some time ago.

And you know, they promised to keep it clean and neat and organized.

And I'd refer to somebody else, but you ought to slap my hands again.

So but that property went down.

It's nothing.

I even have pictures of that property and how it looked because they're off somewhere else.

They can't drive around and see what the property looks like each day.

Okay.

I could talk more, but I can tell by expressing hit her off.

Thank you for the comments.

I'd like to hear from Jared Woodard.

Okay.

One more.

Hey guys.

And Miss Duncan, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Jared Woodard.

I'm an attorney here in Jonesboro, but I'm here on behalf of my grandmother Ann McAllister.

She's 93 years old.

She owns the land just south of it, the 38.9 acres, uh, there on Johnson and Bridger.

Uh my great-grandmother was uh uh Mary Bridger, and so that was the uh sorry, great great grandmother was Mary Bridger, so that's hence the name of uh of the road.

And so she had asked me to be here multiple times, be a call, text.

Um she's probably gonna call me in a minute, uh, just to voice her opposition against this.

Um there was mention that uh by Mr.

Baker um make an assumption that there would be development along Johnson and Bridger of retail or apartments or housing, whatever it is.

And I can tell you my 93-year-old grandmother is stubborn as I'll get out.

She likes it just the way it is.

It's 40 acres of pasture, uh hay, a pond, um, fence rows, deer.

Um that's about it, and that's what it's going to be for the the foreseeable future.

Um she wouldn't let me put a billboard on it years ago, so I can tell you she's not gonna put any kind of massive um structures on any time soon.

Um, and she is um echoed everything that's been said today about Bridger Road and how narrow it is and how dangerous it is, and that intersection being at the top is extremely dangerous.

Um the NEA Baptist uh light that is there.

Um we all know that the everybody comes to a stop real hard there, and then they go, and then I would almost think you'd have to add a light there, but that's that that that's out of my my purview.

Um the owner that is proposing this property lives in Cherokee Village, as it previously mentioned, he's an internist.

He's a doctor in Cherokee.

Um his um organization is um uh per the Secretary of State, includes uh Dr.

Surrender Paul Singh Shaw, S R A.

Uh he is the president and the one that is I understand proposing this.

The other organization or the other officers is are Natasha Sharrah, Karam Sarra.

Um, you know, this seems to be a family outfit, not a um you know, real estate operation or a bunch of members that are piling pulling their resources together to build it.

This is just a doctor that appears to make some money and wanted to make an investment an hour and a half from his home.

That's concerning.

Uh he doesn't have to look at it.

He doesn't have to drive by it every day, he didn't have to worry about what it looks like, and you know, the guys want to make a little money, obviously, but not not on our backs, and so he can do that in Cherokee or Sharp County or somewhere else, but don't think it needs to be here.

Um, the um the the growth in Jonesboro has been talked about ad nauseum about we don't want we want growth, we don't want bad growth.

Um we want our median income to increase.

We want uh Jonesboro to continue the direction it's going, but adding uh 80 more multifamily housing apartments in a place that probably doesn't belong, I don't think is where we need to be right now.

Um I I think uh as previously mentioned, uh possibly a nice resident, uh residential subdivision, uh, you know, with large acreage.

Uh you know, there's there's a lot of woods back there, it's pretty rolling land.

That seems to be most appropriate.

Um, but again, I I just want to speak on behalf of my grandmother.

Um that that she is vehemently against this, and as someone that um you know drives by that all the time on Bridger Road that 40 acres.

Uh I can tell you she she she doesn't want it there.

I don't want it there, and as everybody else said, I don't think it's appropriate and don't think it's needed.

Thank you for commenting.

Mr.

Baker, do you have anything else to say before the commissioners have their discussion?

Just a couple quick things.

Uh yes, to address uh Ms.

Nally's comment.

Uh based on the configuration, you know, requirements for detention, parking, and so forth.

The 80 units is uh what what this property uh can feasibly hold and and and uh sustain on that.

So um having heard and listened to everyone's comments, I don't know if it would be appropriate to table this until the next meeting for us to continue to uh maybe look at a lower zone and talk with the neighbors uh uh would would open that up for y'all's input and discussion on that.

Okay.

Well, I'd like to ask him another question.

Say that again.

The the property the reason why we did a concept plan on this was to see what the what the property could hold viably, uh you know, based on the Jones Borough's regulations for parking setbacks, you know, areas for stormwater detention that would be required right-of-way dedications.

Uh the concept plan that we came up with meets those requirements and and yielded about 80 units uh on that.

So uh the expansion of that to go to 120 and so forth, uh the property uh really can't handle that just because of some of the Jones requirements for landscaping open space.

So your conceptual plan has nothing to do with this rezoning.

I'm sorry.

That's correct, yes.

So I mean that's uh it's nice that y'all do that, but it has totally nothing to do with this rezoning.

We can rezone it and y'all come up with a totally different project.

That's correct.

I don't like to get in, I don't like to get into your conceptual plan or any plans of a rezoning.

Because it has nothing to do with it.

That's correct.

Sorry.

I was just mentioning it that that but based on the yield and so forth and the requirements that that was what it means.

But you are correct, yes, sir.

Okay, another question.

Just going off of what um he just said, so when you came if if that was allowed to table, you would still come back and ask for a rezoning of the same or lesser, but it wouldn't it would not still remain R1.

Is that correct?

We would look at uh and because part of that the comprehensive plan, you know, does call for a higher intensity, but also if you look at your traditional or typical land use planning, you have your higher intensity at nodes and highways, and then you move lesser intensity as you move away from the uh the traffic and areas of concentration.

So that would give us opportunity to talk with Dr.

Schraw.

Uh would also meet with uh some of the neighbors and maybe look at uh uh uh uh different little concept or a lesser zoning on that.

So I it's not enough.

I do think that I just want to make clear that according to our rules or your rules, that um an applicant can withdraw as of right one time and ask that it be set for another hearing, just so y'all are aware of that.

That's in your rules.

Um after the second withdrawal, then they have to wait 90 days before they can bring something back.

But they do get, and I know we've done this in the past, and most of you are familiar.

I just wanted to make sure that you understood that in the rules they they have the right to request a withdrawal one time as of right.

And it and it don't matter what the reasoning for it does not say that in your rules, it just says um only one withdrawal shall be allowed as of right after the 24th day of the month following the applicants filing for the rezoning or conditional use.

And then it talks about the second withdrawal, you have to wait 90 days.

So if that's what he's requesting, I I guess a withdrawal is a little different than a tabling, but I just wanted to make that that clear.

I feel like I'm doing a lot of talking, but I I feel like for the respect of everybody that's kind of shown up for this meeting for us to table this would almost say that we need y'all to come back.

And I don't I'm not real sure if that's what I would want them to do.

Especially if you're gonna come back with the same rezoning.

That's I'm only one vote.

Sure.

Okay.

So with that said, we can continue with comments and questions from commissioners, or you can ask to withdraw.

And we can take action on that.

So um strictly that's gonna be up to you.

If you're asking us to to if you're asking to withdraw, we can take action on that, or if you're not asking a withdrawal, we're gonna continue with questions and then we're gonna actually move forward with the vote.

Could you do questions and then we withdraw it at that point or uh how does the rules order?

I think you can withdraw at any time once of right.

Um withdrawals, that's not a vote on us.

That's correct.

That's his request to withdraw.

You don't vote on that.

That's correct.

But if he table whether we want him to table it or not.

Correct.

Correct.

Yeah.

Is that what you're asking?

Yes, sir.

If you yes sir, if y'all will vote to see, see if we can table it and then we can look to withdraw.

So then you would have to have a motion and a second to table it, correct?

That's correct.

Correct.

That's correct.

And depending on how the vote goes.

Which it doesn't look like you're gonna get.

Right.

Sure.

Okay.

So you're asking to have it tabled.

Is that your okay?

Yeah, to be able to re-evaluate it on uh a lesser ditch deal and also have some more discussions or have discussions with the neighbors.

With that statement, I would ask for a motion for a table.

Is there a motion?

I make a motion to table.

I have a motion is there's second to table.

We have to have a second to vote, correct?

Correct.

Yeah, not on the rezoning on the table.

You see, I'm second.

We have a motion to second to table.

All those in favor tabling.

Say aye or record your vote.

Voice didn't record on this.

Oh, we can't.

You need to hit the green or the red.

No.

Green or the red.

See the minus.

I do.

We're voting to tap to table it.

Or not to table.

Or not to table.

No, you're not.

I knew that.

I don't want to show up.

Next to Jimmy Cooper.

You're hitting it.

Good.

Turn your microphone button on.

So you shows you vote.

You're gonna play this mayor.

Could y'all could y'all please log?

Okay.

It's not tabled.

It is not tabled.

That motion failed.

Okay.

So we will continue with questions and comments from the commissioners.

Any questions or comments from the commissioners?

What school district is this property located in?

City of Brooklyn.

Any other questions?

Commissioners?

Yes, we would ask to withdraw it, please.

Record to get that.

We'd like to request withdrawal, please.

Just just to be clear, that's a one-time.

If you withdraw a second time, you have to wait 90 days.

Correct.

Yeah.

Based on the rule I just read.

Okay.

All right.

Because we get rejected, it's what a year wait before we come back.

You are asking to be withdrawal.

That's correct.

Okay.

Withdraw an application.

We don't need a vote on that.

So thank you very much.

So make an announcement that we have.

Just to be clear for the public, the way the withdrawal works is once they prepare something to present back to this commission, they would have to re-notify.

They would have to re-notify you guys of when that's coming back.

So it may or may not be the next meeting.

It won't be the next meeting, my guess if they're going to try to have a meeting with the neighbors.

But they have to re-notify you of when that's going to happen.

Does that make sense?

It's like starting over.

It's like starting over a little bit.

Yeah, and they put the five same over by mail.

That's okay.

And so would they re-notify all the 300?

They re-notify what they were required to notify the first time.

Right.

But it'll still be on the website and in the paper and all those things.

Some of us are thank y'all.

Next item on the agenda is a rezoning.

Um let's give them a minute.

That's what I'm saying.

Oh, you did.

Okay.

That right there.

All right.

You're next.

I like them.

You're next.

Okay, Chairman.

Everyone, if y'all could if y'all could exit the building, we're still gonna have a meeting.

Ladies and gentlemen, we still have one more thing on our agenda.

You know, we play where's the law at place?

We still have we're still we still have more agenda items.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

You're the next victor.

I've never been to an empty room before.

Okay.

Next item rezoning request.

Plus or minus acres from PDM plan development to multifamily to PDM commercial.

Proponent.

Carol Caldwell.

We've got a grocery store that wants to locate on that three-lane street.

And um, so I want to change it from multifamily to commercial so I can get a grocery store.

That's good for the whole area.

The reason on that location is because the three-lane will be hooked up to Cobra House real soon.

Could y'all hear me?

That's better.

Trying to get them closed out.

There you go.

Thank you.

So uh we're required to change our pattern book.

So we have y'all have that.

And um here's the this is like 145 acres.

So right here is where it is.

This three-lane will hook on to Culver House two months, approximately two months.

So there's gonna be a whole lot of traffic through there.

So it's designed for that.

So I'm asking the rezone for multi-family.

I don't think they'd want to hear that.

RM16 to uh uh commercial for a grocery store, and then one little spot right here, come and goes right here.

So we're wanting to expand this one lot that's already been sold to just uh how much of an acre?

About a half acre.

About a half acre, so we're going from one zoning to the other for that, so I don't think it's any big issue.

We didn't uh mess with any of the green spaces.

We're still above the green space requirement.

But you're taking stuff away from senior citizens in that half acre.

I'm sorry, say that again what is I thought it says that would something for the seniors in that area that by coming there.

Not on that spot.

Not on that spot.

Well, just okay, I misread that.

I've still got lots of spots.

And uh what happens is always happened to me for 50 years on a big development like this.

What you start out with is not what you end up because you've got to go with the market.

So I've been trying to get a grocery store out there for three years.

Need one.

Three years.

Are you telling us one's coming?

Yeah, it's I mean maybe I've got to rezone it.

You don't have to tell us, and we don't get to ask me.

Without any further ado, I move we approve the rezoning.

Uh Daryl can do his thing.

Can we get Daryl's well hell?

Let him go ahead.

We have reviewed it.

Uh basically this isn't real, it's the zone is gonna remain PDM.

It's just inside the zone that's gonna change.

So it's a change of the pattern book, but it does um meet all the requirements for rezoning, and we would recommend the change with the following stipulations um that um the proposed site shall satisfy all requirements of the city engineer, all requirements of current stormwater drainage design manual and floodplain regulations regarding any new construction.

A final site plan subject to all ordinance requirements shall be submitted, reviewed and approved by the planning department prior to any redevelopment of property, and any change of views shall be subject to planning department approval in the future.

Still make my motion to approve the rezoning.

We have a motion and second, if you would please cast your ballot.

You didn't call for public comment, but I don't think there's anybody left.

Okay, no public comment.

I'm sorry.

I know multifamily room construction for a grocery.

Oh, your rezoning request has received a favorable recommendation.

public comment but I don't think there's anybody left okay no public comment yeah I'm sorry I know I'm a little beat up multifamily room construction for a grocery lady down there always okay your rezoning request has received a favorable recommendation thank you very much city council's agenda you can look at a site plan about 90 days for a grocery store thank you still got to get on city council's agenda yeah okay you gotta get that approved first uh I'm working on it was anybody have any comments or anything from the commission no how about move for adjournment I'll move I want Monty back yeah be back Tuesday miss you