FAYETTEVILLE -- A private, nondenominational religious school for preschoolers through 12th-graders will consolidate its three campuses in the city to one site on Joyce Boulevard after a Planning Commission vote Monday.
With a unanimous vote, planning commissioners granted Prism Education Center a permit to operate out of a site zoned for residences and offices. The 2-acre space in the 2800 block of East Joyce Boulevard currently holds vacant medical office buildings and a parking lot.
Next meeting
5:30 p.m. March 27
Room 219, City Hall
113 W. Mountain St.
Prism has three campuses at 10 S. Willow Ave. for preschoolers, 2190 S. Razorback Road for kindergartners through third-graders and 10 S. College Ave. for all other grades. The school mixes typical grade levels and has grown since its founding in 2009 to offer an after-school program, private school, and summer and early childhood education programs, according to its website.
Executive Director Misty Newcomb said the school's leases have expired with new owners set to move into the buildings. An attempt to move to property at 2030 Morningside Drive proved fruitless because of a lack of money.
The school has about 200 children enrolled at its campuses and will move them to two buildings on the Joyce property. A third building will be built to serve as a multipurpose space and gym but is still in the design phase. Administrators hope to move to the new campus by this summer.
Commissioners took issue with how an adjacent property owner has agreed to let the school use his property as an entrance to the school along with some parking spaces without a legal, binding agreement. The proposed exit would sit on the campus. Newcomb said she accepted the risk if the adjacent property were to be sold.
"I'll just be honest, I think there's incredible risk to doing this. I think you understand that," Commissioner Matt Hoffman said to Newcomb. "Frankly, if it was me I'd be doing everything I could to find another place. I think you've probably done that as well."
Commissioner Tracy Hoskins also expressed concerns over the proposed one-way entrance looping into a one-way exit off Joyce Boulevard but noted the extenuating circumstances the school faces. Hoskins said he couldn't think of any other time the city signed off on a "handshake" agreement between neighbors.
"Let's assume you get in there on Day 2 after you open your doors, the property next door sells and they say 'no trespassing,'" he said. "How would you propose to get cars in and out of this facility?"
Newcomb said the school has agreements with property owners before with its current campuses and could work out any possible issues through relationship-building. City Attorney Kit Williams said the school most likely would have options if the agreement changes.
The commission amended the permit so the school would have to notify city staff if the entrance situation changes and apply for a new permit. Commissioners also required the multipurpose recreational space comply with the city's commercial design standards, much like many of the other buildings in the area.
In other business, commissioners voted 6-3 to table until the next meeting an administrative item to simplify the city's outdoor mobile vendor code.
Planning Director Andrew Garner and Alderman Matthew Petty submitted the item to the commission. It would do away with the lottery system to allow an unlimited number of vendors to set up on public property. The change also wouldn't require permits for mobile vendor courts and sidewalk cafes. Additionally vendors could renew their permits annually, like a business license, rather than having the Planning Commission approve mobile vending permits every year.
Commissioners had disagreements over requirements for property owners of mobile vendor courts to make improvements to the site, such as with brick-and-mortar establishments. Petty said the proposed changes would add to those requirements, such as requiring vendors operating on grass to pave a lot, adhere to parking design standards and do perimeter landscaping.
NW News on 03/14/2017