Growing pains

Renée Hunter

The Conway Planning Department's challenge is to help the planning commission oversee Conway's growth in such a way that it is orderly, contributes to quality of life and benefits citizens.

With the rapid growth of recent years, the challenge can at times seem overwhelming, the planning staff says.

The department's 1999 year-end report is filled with numbers:

19 annexation requests reviewed, 12 of which were completed in 1999, for a total addition to the city of 254 acres, giving Conway an area of just over 35 square miles at year's end.

58 new subdivisions reviewed, which in time will result in 1,108 new single-family homes, 35 new duplexes, two new offices and 13 new business premises.

34 replats to change boundaries of existing subdivisions.

44 rezoning requests, of which only four were denied, resulting in rezoning changes for nearly 400 acres.

Nine conditional use permits, eight building-moving permits, and three site plans granted.

Three planned unit developments worked on.

Subdividing, replatting and PUD work resulted in the creation of 971 new lots, 790 in the city and 181 outside the corporate limits.

Eight analyses of variance requests, of which six were granted and two were denied.

The rest of the story

But the numbers don't tell the whole story, according to Planning Director Bill Polk. Every request made to the department and every action taken by the commission results in hours of work for the planning staff.

Most subdivisions, for example, receive at least two reviews before they are filed as completed and building permits can be applied for. In aid of each review, the planning staff does field work to verify details of the preliminary plats, researches ordinances to discover where the plat is in compliance and where commissioners need to approve exceptions, provides the commission with copies of location maps and plats and writes a report that includes staff comments and a "punch list," or exceptions that need correction or approval.

Most planning actions, which may take two to 10 minutes at a commission meeting, require a similar process by the staff.

One job of the planning staff is to write or review ordinances that affect city planning.

In 1999, the staff reviewed or wrote ordinances amending the zoning, subdivision and annexation codes to:

Provide a procedure for establishing overlay districts.

Raise subdivision and replat fees.

Address the location of real estate "pointer" signs.

Establish annexation procedure.

All were adopted by the council.

The department also worked on six ordinances to accept or close streets, alleys or easements.

Besides planning work on which public action is taken, much is done that does not result in public action for years, if at all.

Polk has worked for several years on a rewrite of the Subdivision Code, which had not been updated since 1980. The work continued through 1999 and included attendance at various meetings and extensive research for the Subdivision Ordinance Committee and Impact Fee Subcommittee. The new code was approved by the council in January without impact fees.

Last year, Polk and cartographer Christy Sutherland met with the mayor and Alderman John Thompson on the issue of unannexed county islands within the city. Mrs. Sutherland and the department interns researched county records to find owners of affected property and provided maps and legal descriptions of the islands. Many have not yet been annexed.

The planning staff works with the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department and Metroplan on various future projects, among them the western loop around Conway, the Dave Ward Drive widening and a possible full interchange at Highway 25 and Interstate 40. These joint ventures required many hours of meetings, telephone calls and e-mailing back and forth in 1999, Polk said.

Polk also worked on grant applications of various kinds, including work with finance officer Perry Faulkner and City Engineer Ronnie Hall on the federal Community Development Block Grant and work with the chamber tourism committee to apply for the recently received grant to extend Tucker Creek Trail.

The staff also worked on dozens of minor ordinances related to zoning, signs, construction and the franchise ordinance, according to the report.

The rest of the job

Other duties of the planning staff in 1999 included:

Staffing and developing educational materials for the Conway Transportation Advisory Committee, created in January.

Helping select consultants to propose a plan for a railroad overpass at Salem and Meadowlake roads.

Two meetings on development of a mall behind Acxiom Corp., which Polk said will probably not happen because traffic and parking problems result in anchor stores not being interested.

Preparation of a map and legal description of Miller's View and contact of owners along the road so a deed to the right of way could be legally filed.

Preliminary work on obtaining AHTD funding for a possible public transit system in Conway.

* Training for and extensive work on emergency planning procedures for Conway. Polk was chairman of the mayor's Emergency Planning Committee.

* Development of a satellite-aided Geographic Information System that will provide specific information for more accurate mapping of the city.

* Extensive updating of city maps to include new subdivisions, annexations and streets. Mrs. Sutherland draws these maps on a computer, with a separate layer for each zoning district.

Planning technician Bryan Patrick uses her work to provide maps as needed for the staff report sent to commissioners and aldermen prior to commission and council meetings.

Besides maps of each request considered by the commission, an average of 18 per month, the staff also prepared a city traffic accident map for 1998; new mapbooks of the city for distribution to city officials and departments, one with zoning and one without; large wall maps for various people; five computer maps; and numerous specific-use maps, such as ward maps, aerial maps and multiple maps of Dave Ward Drive.

A planning department website, which went on-line in June and got about 1,400 hits in the last six months of 1999.

"That saves us a lot of time and makes the information more readily available to the public," Polk said.

Patrick built the site, which still does not include all the information he would like. Patrick's latest project is to make the site Macintosh compatible. Patrick said he adds to the site or updates it two or three times a week, and would like to spend more time on it.

"I just don't always get a chance to pick and poke at it the way I want to," he said.

Assignment of street addresses in new subdivisions and newly annexed areas. In 1999, Assistant Planning Director Ken Pickett assigned 971 addresses in new subdivisions and replats and assigned an additional 55 addresses to existing lots. He also serves as contact person for 911 addressing in Conway, which results in frequent meetings and communications with the Faulkner County 911 staff to resolve address problems in the city-county transition area.

Computer training, committee meetings and field work to update maps and databases for Census 2000.

"This year so far I would consider myself an employee of the Census Bureau," Mrs. Sutherland said Thursday. "I have done nothing for the planning department."

In 1999, electronic address databases were supplied to the fire and sanitation departments as a result of the census work.

Attending meetings relative to planning, including ward, council and Metroplan meetings, as well as meetings of chamber and special committees.

Speaking to Conway's civic clubs and organizations about the importance of city planning and methods used to do the job.

(Staff Writer Rene Hunter may be reached by phone at 505-1266 or by e-mail at rhunter@thecabin.net)