Northwest Arkansas Times reports that Planning Commission approves parking lot at Mountain and College

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of site of former Mountain Inn in downtown Fayetteville, Arkansas.



City planners OK parking lot on Renaissance site
BY MARSHA L. MELNICHAK Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/69402/
The Fayetteville Planning Commission approved a conditional-use permit Monday for a temporary parking lot of up to 67 spaces at the Renaissance Tower site until construction of the condominium / hotel project resumes.
“For now, we’d like to have something to replace the large hole in the ground, or ‘ the pit’ as we refer to it, ” said Austin E. Rowser, project engineer at Appian Centre for Design Inc., an architecture and engineering firm working with the developers.
The Renaissance Tower site, at the corner of College Avenue and the Mountain Street, has been called an eyesore by city officials and has been the subject of at least two special reports to City Council in part because of its dilapidated condition.
Removing the foundation pit, the chain link fence and construction debris around the project are among the conditions required by commissioners for approval of the temporary lot.
Further, if Renaissance Tower is not completed or building permits have not been obtained by Dec. 20, 2010, the temporary parking lot will have to meet permanent parking lot requirements. It is to be brought into compliance with all Unified Development Code requirements for a permanent parking lot within four months, including street trees, interior parking lot trees and tree islands, bike racks and sidewalks.
The December date is the date by which developers John Nock and Richard Alexander are to have permits issued for the hotel.
A conditional-use permit is good for a year.
In their vote, commissioners required a performance bond of 150 percent of the estimated cost for construction of landscaping and sidewalks. The performance bond must be paid before grading or parking permits are issued for the temporary lot.
For the temporary lot, commissioners required bike racks, repair of the curb on Mountain Street and College Avenue along the project frontage, that damaged pavement on Mountain Street be repaired to provide two striped lanes, removal of all construction debris, grading, planting seed or sod and evergreen shrubs as a buffer, and removing the existing foundation pit.
They did not require trees for the temporary lot because those would be removed when the hotel is built. They did not require sidewalks for the temporary lot as they would likely be damaged during construction of the hotel and would have to be replaced.
Commissioners did require the bike racks because they could be easily removed and reused.
Dede Peters, who owns ddp gallery across the street from the pit, said she sincerely hopes there will be some free parking on the lot because of the many inconveniences the unfinished hotel / condominium project has caused neighbors.
"It’s almost for sure it’s not going to be a free lot, ” Steve Aust, who works with Nock and Alexander, said.
He said he did not know what percentage of the lot would be public pay parking and what percentage would be reserved parking. Aust said he thinks the majority of the spaces will be pay parking.
Peters also voiced a concern about maintenance.
“I’d like to know the investors’ plan for maintenance, especially since the $ 10, 000 paint job is already peeling and the current lot is not properly maintained, ” she said.
Peters said she also wants repairs to Mountain Street all the way to East Avenue, signs replaced and entrances and exits clearly marked. She was told the commission has no control over maintenance.
City Attorney Kit Williams said if there was street damage the city should fix it to make it safe then try to send a bill if they can determine how the damage was caused. He said it is also the city’s responsibility to make sure signs are in good repair.
Questions of access, potential use of the alley and the exact number of spaces led Commissioner Matthew Cabe to call the conditionaluse permit request a moving target. However, Jeremy Pate, director of current planning, explained that the item before the commission was one of use. He said details are not always worked out when conditional-use permits are approved.
Pate said the parking lot will have to be considered by city planning and engineering staff before it can be built.
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