Greenland reopens to development
Posted on Thursday, August 14, 2008
GREENLAND - There are no more commercial or residential development moratoriums after the City Council adopted master land-use and street plans on Monday.
The council followed the plans' adoption by unanimously lifting both moratoriums. It's been a year and five months since the residential moratorium was passed and a year since the commercial moratorium was passed.
"It needed to happen three months ago, but we weren't ready," Alderman Bill Groom said.
Both moratoriums were put in place to stop development from running rampant in a city with outdated land-use and street plans. In March, the council charged the Greenland Planning Commission with updating the plans instead of paying $ 90, 000 for the professional design firm Community By Design in Fayetteville to handle the process.
Groom said he thinks that was a good decision.
"Now we're going to have design standards as well, which was not included in the proposed agreement with the design firm," he said.
Alderman Lisa Thornton said she was against the moratoriums in the beginning but now thinks they were the only way the city could get order in a chaotic situation.
"And it's only the beginning," she said. "We're nowhere near the end."
Planning Commissioner Brenda Reynolds has said that the colorful maps provide the commission a guide for future zoning. The commission worked with different zonings to create a nice layout with buffer zones between high-impact commercial and singlefamily residential areas, she said.
What has yet to be determined on the land-use plan is what types of buildings are allowed in each zoning. At an Aug. 4 public hearing, planning commissioners said they had a general idea of what each classification would include but the plans they had were just a draft and more work would be needed. The commission will hold workshops in the coming weeks to figure that out. The public is invited to attend. For Jose Mariseal, owner of Los Reyes Mexican Restaurant in Greenland, the lifting of the moratoriums could not come any sooner. Mariseal's building was gutted by a fire in October, and he was unable to get a new business license to rebuild his restaurant because of the moratorium. He said he planned to go to City Hall today to apply for the building permit and license. In other business Monday, the City Council accepted a settlement proposal from developer Willie Mooney and Brothers Construction Inc., both of Van Buren.
City Attorney Danny Wright said they have agreed to pay the city $ 18, 000 for drainage and other repairs needed in the fourth phase of the Lee Valley subdivision north of Wilson Street and west of Caleb Drive. In return, the city will drop the lawsuit against both parties.
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