HIGHFILL — With three members present and later a fourth, Highfill’s city council heard an appeal and passed two ordinances and some resolutions relating to the city’s finances.

An appeal from the Gerald Waddell trust of the city’s planning commission’s denial to rezone 120 acres of property located at 10566 E. Insco Rd. from I-2 (industrial) to RR (rural/residential) and for a conditional use as a concentrated feeding operation was heard and denied by the council.

James Crouch, attorney for the Waddell trust, arguedthat the 120 acres had been the Waddell farm since 1946 and was used for agriculture since that time; but now, zoned for industrial use because of its proximity to the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, it cannot be used for agriculture. He pointed out that everyone had hopes for development around the airport, but it hasn’t happened and isn’t likely to happen in the immediate future.

Crouch explained that the property owner wished to build a poultry-growing operation on the 20 acres farthest from the airport and out of sight from the airport. He also said the closest neighbor tothe property was about a quarter mile away.

Scott Van Laningham, executive director of XNA, said that industrial use would be better suited for land adjacent to the airport and expressed concern that a house could be built on portions of the land closer to the airport, which could lead to a lawsuit over noise. He said that, since the airport was built with federal dollars, it had no control over touchand-go use for military aircraft.

Kelly Johnson, airport director, expressed concern over reflection from the roofs of chicken houses which could impair a pilot’s vision when flying into XNA. The land in question, Johnson said, is in an area over which pilots fly about 30 percent of the time.

She also expressed concern over the possibility that a poultry-growing operation could cause an increase in numbers of birds and wildlife which feed on chicken carcasses. Aircraft collisions with birds posed a safety issue, Johnson said.

“We don’t know what effect [the chicken houses] would have on area wildlife,” Johnson said.

Johnson also called the airport “a gateway to the entire northwest Arkansas community,” from which visitors draw their first impressions of the area. She expressed concerns that chicken houses and their odors would not convey a good first impression.

Crouch told the council that uses permitted under I-2 zoning included such things as feed mills, processing plants and salvage yards, all of which could pose more of a hazard and a worse first impression than poultry houses on the far side of the property. In regard to the use of nonreflective roofing material, the Waddell property’s trustee said it was cost prohibitive.

The council voted to uphold the planning commission’s decision not to rezone the property, with some expressing the intention to grant a nontransferable conditional use permit to allow the chicken houses on a portion of the property. Butsince the building of the chicken houses would also require the building of a residence on the property - something the planning commission didnot have opportunity to consider as a part of conditional use because it wasn’t requested initially - a motion was made to rescind the council vote to deny the rezoning appeal. That motion resulted in a 2-2 tie, with Toby Lester and Michelle Rieff voting to rescind the earlier decision and Ryan Evans and Paula Pautsky voting against the motion. Mayor Stacy Digby chose not to cast a tie-breaking vote, saying he was too close to the issue, being employed himself by a major poultry-growing company.

A motion to overturn the planning commission decision and allow the conditional use of the property also failed by the same 2-2 tie, with Digby not breaking the tie vote.

Though the Waddell Trust may not re-appeal the council’s denial for 12 months, according to city attorney Steve Smith, other options, including a division of the property, could result in the matter coming back to the planning commission and possibly the council sooner than that.

Water rate increase

In other action, the council passed on its first reading an ordinance that will automatically raise water rates by 5 percent each year unless the council votes to stay the rate increase for a particular year.

The rate increase, if passed on three readings, will begin with the Nov. 1 bill this year, with the automatically scheduled annual increases continuing with the first subsequent increase on Jan 1, 2014.

The reasons for the increase cited in the proposed ordinance include increased cost to the city to buy water from the Benton/Washington Regional Public Water Authority and increased costs and expenses to maintain and operate the water system.

The rate increase includes a service charge based on the water customer’s meter size, a usage charge based on the amount of water used, 30 cents per month per service connection to recover the state Public Water System Service fee, and an assessed $1.50 per metered customer per month asestablished by the Benton/ Washington Regional Public Water Authority.

Monthly meter service charges range from $25 for a 5/8-inch meter to $725 for an 8-inch meter. Residential water rates were listed at $4.78 per 1,000 gallons or part thereof; commercial rates were listed as $3.15 per thousand; and industrial/wholesale rates at $2.63 per 1,000.

The proposed ordinance will be brought back in August for its second reading.

An ordinance was passed amending the city budget for 2012. The mid-year budget adjustment, which included some salary adjustments, was approved 3-1, with Ryan Evans voting against it. A copy of the amended budget was not yet available to the Eagle Observer at press time.

Also approved was a resolution expressing the willingness of the city to utilize federal-aid funding to repave the walking trail in the city park and widen it to 10 feet as required for grant-funded trails by the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department, which would administer the grant.

Because the grant is an 80-percent reimbursement grant for work completed and the estimated cost to widen and repave the current trail is approximately $40,000, Mayor Stacy Digby said he would also find out the cost of simply overlaying the existing trail in the event that to do so would be less than 20 percent of the larger grant project.The resolution was brought before the council on July 10 because the deadline for submitting grant applications will be Aug. 1 - prior to the next regular council meeting.

In discussion at the close of the meeting, councilman Toby Lester suggested the mayor look into the cost to install a public address system and also record (audio and video) the meetings.

News, Pages 1 on 07/18/2012