Land Slated For Residential Office
Residents Come Out To Voice Support, Concerns
Last updated Tuesday, August 19, 2008 10:16 PM CDT in News
By Richard Dean Prudenti
The Morning News
BENTONVILLE - Residents and the Bentonville Planning Commission agree residential office zoning east of McCollum Road near the intersection of Arkansas 72 is a reasonable compromise.
The Bentonville Planning Commission approved Tuesday rezoning the 3 acres at 800 and 802 McCollum Road from medium density residential to residential office.
Their unanimous vote came about five months after commissioners, with the exception of chairman Patrick Carroll and then-commissioner Rick Rogers, voted against Mor-Wise Investments' request for neighborhood commercial.
In March, the commission and residents said they'd consider residential office as a compromise, after residents voiced complaint a commercial use would increase traffic at an already hazardous intersection near Interstate 540.
"We felt like we have listened ... This would be the highest and best use for this property," Paul Esterer, agent for Mor-Wise Investments, told the commission Tuesday.
Esterer obliged the commission's request to see plans for the property, although this practice is not required for a rezoning. He showed pictures of one-story brick office buildings he said would be similar to the future buildings on McCollum.
Darlene Nicolau who lives across the street from the proposed office complex said she would prefer the developer eliminate plans for an access point from McCollum.
"There is no need for that," Nicolau said. "My driveway is directly across the street. It would undermine the integrity of our lifestyle."
The conceptual plan also shows an access point onto Arkansas 72.
City planners assured Bryan McEuen, who lives on Garden Place off McCollum Road, the residential office zoning doesn't allow for restaurants without a conditional use permit.
A restaurant was a part of development plans. "That is what we have been most adamantly against. The major concern was noise pollution, odor, trash, that kind of stuff you have with restaurants and retail sales," McEuen said in a phone interview last week.
Esterer said the developer is not planning a restaurant.
Uses within the residential office zoning including travel agencies, bakery and floral shops, bookstores, stationary and drug stores and dry cleaning, said Brian Bahr, current planning manager.
Two single-family houses sit on the 3 acres, which are bordered on three sides by nonresidential properties including the Bentonville Fire Department to the north, Interstate 540 to the east and Arkansas 72 to the south and a church on the opposite side of Arkansas 72.
At A Glance
Bentonville Planning Commission
Officials approved on Tuesday:
• Rezoning 7.75 acres at 334 Greenhouse Road from agricultural to neighborhood commercial. Richard Whitehead plans to develop an 8,000-square-foot shop for dive equipment and instruction on property about 800 feet south of Southwest 14th Street and Greenhouse Road.
• Conditional-use permit for Paradise Dive Adventure at 334 Greenhouse Road.
• Conditional-use permit for a daycare at 4400 S.W. Lilly St. in the Wildwood subdivision. Janett Self plans for no more than eight children at Janett's Tiny Tots.
Source: Staff Report
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