The general purpose of a Planning Commission is to prepare a plan of the municipality, make recommendations on public and private proposals for development, prepare and administer planning regulations, transmit to the legislative body (City Council) ordinances to implement plans and advise the city government, according to Tim Conklin with Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission.
Conklin, assistant director, and Celia Scott-Silkwood, regional planner, presented the state statutes governing municipal planning to Pea Ridge Planning Commission members and other city officials in a special meeting Thursday, July 27.
"The faster it grows, the more the need for planning," Conklin told planners. "Before you can do any planning, you have to have a planning map."
Scott-Silkwood asked where the city's planning map and street map were, noting they were not on the walls of the meeting room. Mayor Jackie Crabtree said the room is used for more than just Planning Commission meetings.
The former court room at the old downtown City Hall was where court, City Council and Planning Commission meetings were held. The city maps were displayed on the walls there. They have not been placed on the walls in the new court room.
"The master street plan is one of the more important documents you will have," Conklin said. "You have to make sure developers don't block future development... some cities have policies to require connectivity."
Conklin asked city building official if he was responsible to "make all the interpretations of the code?"
"Not all of them," Townsend replied. "Our zoning is so limited, we didn't spell out everything... therefore, anything that wasn't spelled out came to the Commission as a conditional use."
Conklin said it should be uniform throughout, consistent, and the Planning Commission should be making changes within the actual zoning.
Scott-Silkwood asked planners if they meet as the Board of Adjustments at Planning Commission meetings and whether all meetings are advertised in the local newspaper.
Referring to the state law, she said: "Each session of the board shall be a public meeting with public notice of the meeting and business to be carried on published in a newspaper of general circulation in the city at least one time seven days prior to the meeting."
Of getting out the agenda, Townsend said: "Some days I get it out five days ahead of time, some days it's five... it just depends on how covered up I am."
Planning Commission chairman Zach Hoyt noted the commission faces the same concerns over and over again with subdivision ordinances. Regional planners told him the city planners should not be approving multiple variances and those issues would be addressed in the ordinances.
"You need to avoid going down that rabbit hole," Conklin said.
"If you see a pattern, it's time to amend those things," Scott-Silkwood said.
Conklin said he and other planners have these discussions "all the time. I'm not sure there are two cities doing it the same way in northwest Arkansas."
Planners were given a draft of a 76-page ordinance to replace the current 196-page planning ordinance.
The Pea Ridge Planning Commission meets at 7 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month. Meetings are open to the public.
General News on 08/02/2017