BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials approved plans Wednesday for a youth baseball academy.
The Planning Board voted in favor of the plan submitted by Dave Montgomery, project manager. The proposal is for a baseball training academy in a 7,500 square-foot building on the 5-acre site at 9949 E. Arkansas 72.
The academy is supposed to include four indoor batting cages and one baseball diamond. The diamond area will be used for base-running drills, for example; there will be no dirt infield space.
Montgomery and Tracy Barnes, one of the property owners, asked the board last month for a variance from the parking regulation to cut the number of parking spaces from 38 to 20. The board granted the variance Wednesday.
The board also told Montgomery and Barnes last month they needed to provide information about the number of people who will be at the business during any normal business day to be sure the septic system is properly sized. Starr Leyva, head of the Planning Board, said the number has to show the total daily use. The plan was approved with limits on the daily use as recommended by the state Health Department.
The board also resumed its discussion of fees for temporary permits for fireworks stands and tents. John Sudduth, the general services administrator who oversees the Planning Department, said last month the fee amount was apparently omitted from the most recent fee ordinance.
The Planning Board adopted a process last year to govern fireworks stands and some other uses allowing them to go through a review process that included planning staff and the fire marshal rather than appear before the board. That process included a fee as provided for in planning regulations.
The board also asked planning staff to have an update on the status of the Osage Creek Amphitheater project for it's next meeting. Leyva asked the staff to invite Greg Smith, the property owner, to present information on the long-running project. Rick Williams asked Sudduth about the structural integrity of the structures in place at the site. Sudduth said most of the permanent structures done to date were concrete and steel.
"As far as what's out there, it's not something that's going to be damaged," Sudduth said.
Curtis suggested the length of time the work has been under way points to the possible need for the county to require construction bonds for some large projects, such as the proposed condominiums on Beaver Lake, which were never completed.
"When you're tearing up that amount of ground it has to be reclaimed in some fashion," Curtis said.
NW News on 04/02/2015