Plans for a fine arts auditorium at Pea Ridge High School were approved by city planners Tuesday. The large scale development plan was presented to the Planning Commission at the regular meeting June 3. Other than questions about a storm drain pipe running beneath a building, planners had little comment on the plans.
School superintendent Rick Neal and architect Steve Elliott appeared before the commission. Planner Heather Clark, whose husband Charley Clark is employed by the school district, abstained from the vote, which was otherwise unanimously in favor of approval.
A change in the large scale development proposed by Pat Tobin on Slack Street was tabled after being presented with changes.
"This whole thing was originally approved as Phase 1 with Phase 2 as the future ... both these buildings and parking lot and landscaping are changed. You've narrowed the fire lane," Tony Townsend, building official, said.
Planners questioned why the buildings had been completely turned around with large dock doors now shown on the front of the building.
"What is the intention of the building? Is it a mechanic shop?" queried Zach Hoyt, planner. "Are there any intentions to have ingress/egress doors besides these?"
"I could see that as a possibility," Evan Niehous, a landscape architect with Bates & Associates, engineers for the builder, said.
"It leads me to believe you don't know either. It's kind of hard to approve that -- just four walls," M.J. Hensley, planner, said.
"We're just flipping the building," Niehous said. "It was approved."
"You've changed the building around from what was approved," Jerry Burton, planner, said.
"Obviously if he's turned this around and done a 180 here, he must have some idea of what's going in there," Townsend said. "We need to know if it's approved for that zone."
"I make the motion that we table this again to get a better feeling for what we're doing here. This is the third time that he's been before either the tech review or Planning Commission and we're still questioning," Burton said. Hensley seconded the motion.
"This raises red flags," chairman Matt Powers said.
In other business, planners:
• Approved the addition to Messiah Lutheran Church as presented by Marty Adams and
• Approved a setback variance for a lot on Carney Circle.
General News on 06/11/2014