BELLA VISTA -- An ordinance amending the zoning chapter of the city's code of ordinances was one of two ordinances discussed during the Bella Vista City Council work session Nov. 14.
The meeting, held at the District Court Building, also included discussion of an ordinance that will make it easier to purchase salt and sand for the Street Department as well as a resolution addressing access to the salt and sand storage facility and another dealing with the 2022 city budget.
The items will be listed on the council's November regular session agenda. That meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday.
A third resolution, calling for a revision and approval of new service charges for ambulance services provided through the Bella Vista Fire Department, is now being pushed back a month while more information is gathered by Bella Vista Fire Chief Steve Sims.
The first ordinance, listed under unfinished business and scheduled for a second reading at the upcoming regular session, calls for amending city code to define short-term rentals, to provide for inclusion of short-term rental uses within the table of uses, to determine a short-term rental usage as of right or with a conditional use permit within particular zones, and for other purposes.
The ordinance will help determine in which zone a short-term rental can be located.
Mayor Peter Christie said recently the ordinance is "simply a housekeeping item." It was first brought to the council when council member Doug Fowler entered his initial ordinance regarding short-term rentals earlier this year.
"We had it in there when he first brought it to the table," Christie said. "The thought was, they'll both flow at the same time, but then we hit all the bumps in the road, and we decided to move ahead with this one because we've got nothing that addresses STRs in our table of uses."
The first item discussed in new business was the ordinance waiving the requirements of formal competitive bidding and authorizing the purchase of street salt and sand based on price and availability by informal price quotes through Dec. 31, 2023.
This ordinance will make it easier for Street Department Superintendent Mike Button to purchase the salt and sand used by his department to cover the city streets during ice and snow events.
The first resolution discussed Nov. 14 authorizes the mayor and city clerk to enter into a limited terminable license agreement with Bella Vista Village Property Owners Association for the purpose of providing additional access to the Street Department's Salt and Sand Facility on Glasgow Road.
The facility -- located in the building that formerly housed the Bella Vista Fire Department's No. 3 Station at 201 Glasgow Road -- can only be accessed from that road by crossing a stretch of POA property.
The final resolution addresses a situation that has to be discussed every year at this time and deals with adjustments that need to be made to the year's budget due to any donations that may have been received by any of the city's departments.
"Every year the finance director has to show a listing of all the donations that each department has received for various things," Christie said. "For example, it's like, 'Here's the opening balance, here's the closing balance and here's what was spent in the middle.' It doesn't affect the budget at all, but by law we have to show it as an assigned asset. It is actually assigned to a certain thing."
He continued, "As you know, we have a contingency of 25% of unassigned revenue. So this revenue -- donations -- is not included in the calculation of that 25% because it is assigned to a specific purpose or specific department from a resident or somebody else, like trails from the Walton Foundation."