FARMINGTON -- Farmington City Council approved Resolution 2021-08 concerning the future land use plan in a vote of 8-0 during its meeting, Monday, Oct. 11.
The future land use map is a guideline the planning commission will use when they are dealing with zoning issues and zoning requests, according to Mayor Ernie Penn.
"The planning commission has spent a year and a half working on this land-use plan," Penn said. "They've had several work sessions, several public hearings where you could kind of participate."
Penn credited the planning commission for the plan, as well as Sarah Guertz, a consultant with Earthplan Design Alternatives, who assisted the commission in helping to create the plan.
Planning Commission Chairperson Robert Mann said the city started working on the future land use plan before the coronavirus pandemic hit and the plan was put on hold.
The planning commission kept up with the work sessions and they had it ready to go until there was hearing on May 24 and several citizens voiced their concerns over the plan, Mann said. The planning commission tabled the plan and brought it back later, Mann said.
He also thanked Guertz for her help crafting the plan.
"If it weren't for her, I don't think we could have made it the way it was," Mann said.
There was only one member of the public who spoke at the meeting. Attorney Brady Ghan, a Farmington resident, commented on the plan and reiterated some of his concerns from an email he sent the planning commission.
Ghan said he was opposed to the future land use plan as a homeowner, a taxpayer and a citizen of Northwest Arkansas. Ghan's urgent request was to remove the highway commercial land use on White Street.
"Designating my neighborhood as highway commercial means that the brand new homes that were recently put up along with the newly renovated historic homes like my own will be an area now approved for pawn shops, dry cleaners, motorcycle repair shops," Ghan said.
As a taxpayer, Ghan said he was concerned with the increased infrastructure costs associated with this type of broad commercial zoning along arterial roads like U.S. Highway 62.
Ghan mentioned University of Central Arkansas Professor Dr. Michael Yoder, who did a case study on suburban sprawl in smaller towns, called "The Sprawling of Small Cities of Arkansas."
Ghan quoted Yoder's study saying stretched linear development which represents a spreading out of functions traditionally found in downtowns and traditional neighborhoods require greater public investment in roads than traditional neighborhoods.
He also said continuing to focus this development on serving outsiders rather than people who call Farmington home puts a priority on city funds on outsiders rather than serving people who live in town.
Ghan said his opposition to the plan as a citizen of Northwest Arkansas is due to a lack of desire to have developers dictate the landscape of the community.
He concluded by asking the city council to do away with the broad highway commercial zone present in the plan specifically along White Street in favor of a central commercial zone in keeping with the urban planning principles and to protect his neighborhood and others like it and to ultimately invest in Farmington's future.
Following public comments, Penn asked the city council if they had any questions. Council member Diane Bryant had questions about the trails and if the master plan overrides the Northwest Arkansas Regional Council's master trail plan.
Mann said the trail is part of a different plan. Mann said the city overlaid roads because that is what's going to dictate a lot of what will grow. The planning commission also merged the city's master transportation plan.
"So that was overlaid to kind of show where traffic is and then what traffic is made up," Mann said. "We didn't ignore the trail but don't look at that map and say there is a trail there because that's not going to work."
City Business Manager Melissa McCarville said this is just a land use plan and that no transportation elements will change.
Council member Linda Bell asked if it would be feasible to go back and look at the commercial highway. Mann said he lives over there and understands what Ghan is saying but also said this is just a plan and anyone who wanted to set up a business would have to have the land rezoned.
"You can come to the planning commission and ask to have it rezoned based on the land use map but if it don't fit, you don't have it," Mann said.
After the council members ceased their comments, Penn said the planning commission did a great job.
"It's not perfect, but it's better than what we had," Penn said.
In other business, the council approved:
• Entering into a contract with Air Cleaning Technologies for $83,300 for the installation of a vehicle exhaust removal system for Fire Station #1. The city will use a $77,169 Assistance to Firefighter Grant toward the costs.
• Ordinance No. 2021-17 to levy a tax on the real and personal property within the city of Farmington for the year 2022 fixing the rate thereof at 5.0 mils and certifying the same county clerk of Washington County, Arkansas.
• A motion acknowledging the presentation of the city's 2020 Legislative Audit. City Clerk Kelly Penn said the audit showed no financial or accounting issues.