FAYETTEVILLE -- A 538-bedroom apartment complex and a major addition to the Butterfield Trail Village retirement community won development approval from the Fayetteville Planning Commission on Monday.
Commissioners also recommended rezoning three prime pieces of property -- two near the University of Arkansas and one next to what will soon be a new stretch of Rupple Road.
Fayetteville Planning Commission
In other business Monday, commissioners:
• Approved a conditional-use permit for Princess Party Creations, an event space planned at 9253 N. College Ave.
• Tabled a lot-split request for 40.1 acres off of John Garrison Road northwest of city limits
• Recommended rezoning 0.23 acres at 1118 S. Dunn Ave., near the Fayetteville National Cemetery.
Source: Staff report
The apartment complex is planned on 17.7 acres northeast of Van Asche Drive and Steele Boulevard. The vacant land is on the opposite side of Mud Creek from Academy Sports and behind the Steele Crossing shopping center, where Target, Kohl's and PetSmart are located.
Watermark Residential, a subsidiary of Thompson Thrift of Terre Haute, Ind., is the developer of the project. The seven-year-old company has built or is building other "upscale" apartment complexes in Oklahoma City, West Des Moines, Iowa, Corpus Christi, Texas, and Lexington, Ky.
Tom Hennelly, project manager with Crafton Tull engineering, said Monday the project will feature a mix of 306 one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Designs show a large clubhouse, swimming pool and picnic area at the complex, along with a dog park.
Hennelly said he expects construction to begin by the end of year and take about 18 months to complete.
Work will also likely begin soon on a nearly 26,000-square-foot convocation center at Butterfield Trail Village, 1923 E. Joyce Blvd.
Jesse Fulcher, senior city planner, called the convocation center "essentially a large meeting hall and another use for the residents of Butterfield Trail Village."
The retirement community, which was founded in Fayetteville in 1986, has made several major additions in recent years.
An 8,670-square-foot aquatic center and 9,000-square-foot assisted living cottage opened earlier this year, and a large dining lodge was added within the past five years as well.
Two of the rezoning requests commissioners reviewed Monday were for land a block west of Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Hornsby Drive and for land north of several university dorms, where a major apartment complex referred to as Project Cleveland was once planned.
According to Rob Sharp, architect for the Hornsby Drive project, landowner Brian Reindl wants to demolish seven houses that are mostly rented to university students and replace them with owner-occupied homes.
At eight units per acre, the zoning district planning commissioners recommended Monday is twice as dense as what exists currently.
"We've worked hard to come up with a proposal that's appropriate for this site," Sharp said. "It's a real tricky site, because there's a 70-story-tall football stadium on one side and a single-story ranch house on the other side."
One neighbor, Margaret Clark, expressed concerns about traffic and vehicle parking on Hornsby once the development is built. But, ultimately, commissioners voted unanimously in favor of the rezoning.
The rezoning north of Cleveland Street and west of Hall Avenue is on 2.7 acres where Specialized Real Estate Group's plans for a 450-bedroom apartment complex were approved amid controversy in 2012.
The project came through as a planned zoning district, meaning zoning and development plans were combined into a single step. All development rights associated with the planned zoning district have since expired, and city staff initiated Monday's rezoning in an effort to take the property out of regulatory limbo.
Most of the land is now owned by the University of Arkansas. It was turned into a parking lot in 2013. Commissioners recommended rezoning that portion of the property for institutional purposes Monday. One lot of the six-lot tract features a single-family home. Commissioners recommended giving that piece of the property a single-family residential classification.
The largest rezoning request the commission reviewed Monday was for 102 acres south of the Mountain Ranch subdivision, which is south of Persimmon Street and west of Interstate 49.
The land will eventually abut Rupple Road when the street is extended 1.5 miles from where it ends next to Owl Creek School to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Jorgensen and Associates engineers requested a mix of zoning designations that would allow single-family houses, apartments and some commercial uses.
The land is currently owned by Fort Smith-based Striker Development, according to Washington County property records.
All three of the rezoning requests commissioners reviewed Monday will likely be up for consideration at the City Council's Oct. 6 meeting.
NW News on 09/15/2015