More parking required of home builders

GENTRY — City council approved three ordinances Monday night - with rules suspended, on three readings with a single vote and with an emergency clause attached - which will have immediate effect on possible future construction in Gentry.

The ordinances are the result of recommendations from the city’s planning and zoning commission when it took up a request to rezone the two end lots and half the two adjoining lots on Orchard Drive along Arkansas Highway 12.

Because the balance of Orchard Drive is zoned R-4, allowing any residential dwelling (single family, multi-family and manufactured homes), and all access in and out of the Orchard addition is by way of Orchard Drive to Highway 12, the council approved therezoning of lots one and two and half of the adjoining lots which were also zoned as R-2 (allowing single family homes and duplexes) to R-4.

But the council also restricted street parking in front of the rezoned properties - 155 feet of Orchard Drive - because street parking there would restrict access for emergency vehicles and cause a hazard for other traffic accessing the addition or exiting it onto Highway 12.

In a related ordinance affecting all new construction in the city, the council amended the portion of city code requiring a minimum of one parking space per residential dwelling unit to two spaces. The ordinance was passed because most families have more than one vehicle and the lack of adequate parking leads to excessive parking in streets and in yards.

Because all three ordinances were passed on three readings with a single vote and because emergency clauses were passed on each, they went into effect immediately.

The ordinances were passed by almost unanimous vote of the council - Kyle Jordan was absent and James Furgason voted against rezoning the lots onOrchard Drive from R-2 to R-4 because of opposition from some constituents, he said.

In a related resolution, the council re-appointed Danny Feemster and Paul Church to the planning commission with their terms expiring on Dec. 31, 2012.

The council also unanimously approved an ordinance granting a proposed lot split on land owned by Gilbert Ulibarri along Arkansas Highway 12, east of Gentry.