GRAVETTE — GRAVETTE — The disbanding of the Gravette Planning Commission on Aug. 28 has raised sharp criticism from some former commission members, as well as from a few area residents, who question the reason for the council action and say they fear negative effects for city residents and for the city’s future.
After the announced resignation of planning commission chairman Ken Foxx, which was to be effective on Aug. 12, the council followed a recommendation of Mayor Byron Warren and disbanded the planning commission on Aug. 28. Warren explained that the city is paying the Northwest Arkansas Planning Commission for help with its planning and zoning maps and “we need to use them.” Warren said the regional commission can do what the planning commission was supposed to be doing for the city.
Warren said the Gravette commission had not met for a couple of months and, as a city of the second class, Gravette could elect its city council to serve as the planning commission.
“This is not the first time the planning commission has been disbanded,” said city planner Mike vonRee in an email on Saturday. “The reasons were pretty much the same — that being difficulty getting a quorum for meetings.”
“By statute, the duties of the planning commission are to do the master street plan, the master land use plan and the zoning map for the city,” vonRee said. “With the annexation of the Hiwasse area, this became a huge task, a task that has been completed over the last two months by Mayor Warren, me and the Regional Planning Commission. Day-to-day planning; i.e., lot splits, alley abandonment are done by me as the city planner.”
Warren said the planning commission had some great ideas and plans but failed to do what needed to be done immediately for the city following the annexation of Hiwasse.
Foxx said the reason for his resignation could best be summed up as “no action taken.” He said he asked the city council for several actions and received no response on any of his requests. One of his main concerns was his request that the city provide the commission an ESRI license to complete the area zoning map. ESRI is a company which supplies geographic information system software, web GIS and geodatabase management applications.
Echoing Foxx, former commissioner Stacy Palmer said the commission was hindered from doing its job by the failure of the city to provide the commissioners with a software license to complete portions of their work. Palmer said she requested the needed information for the ESRI software beginning in February and didn’t receive it. She said she was finally given vonRee’s user name and password but was told by Foxx it was illegal for her to use it.
According to vonRee, “The ESRI license for mapping was available to the commission. It gives access to a website via user name and password. As it turns out,” von Ree said, “the information through ESRI is a global mapping application. We bought the license to see if it would apply to the needs of the city. It did not and will not be renewed.”
Warren, too, said the commission could have used the city’s ESRI license and said the commission members were given the software passwords it requires. Warren said the city has a single license but that anyone working for the city could use that license. The only restriction, Warren said, is that only one person from the city can be logged into the software at a time. Foxx, however, said he was told by a company representative it was illegal to share the license.
Christie Green, who accepted a position on the planning commission in the spring of 2013 and served until it was disbanded in August, said the commission contacted the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission to gain assistance with the zoning project and other projects suggested for the commission. She said Jeff Hawkins, with the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, came to the planning commission meeting and suggested the city get an ESRI license and create the zoning map with the program.
Hawkins said on Monday, the ESRI mapping program is a complex program used by GIS departments and requires special training and expertise as well as additional equipment such as a plotter and special printing system for mapping. He said use of the ESRI software is not something that planning commission members would use. He said most cities the size of Gravette do not use ESRI but rely on other government or private agencies with the software, equipment and the expertise to use it. He said he himself did not know how to use the software.
Green said the commission, at its June and July meetings, looked over the zoning map, specifically for the Hiwasse area, to add it to the current map for Gravette. She said the commission completed this part of the task and held a public meeting as required. She said Mike vonRee was tasked with the paperwork part of the program but didn’t get it done. Green said the project is still not completed and that has been “a source of contention with the city and the planning commission for quite some time.”
“For eight long months we asked for accountability for the city planner who promised a project and never came through on it,” Green said. “When it was determined by the commission that the city planner had no intention of completing the project in a timely manner if at all, we looked for alternative ways that we could help with the project. We volunteered many hours of our time, contacting the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, many other planning departments from nearby cities and doing an intensive review of the Municipal League’s handbook as well as our current planning ordinances … we volunteered and performed these tasks outside of meetings without pay to help complete the job.”
Warren, on the other hand, describes vonRee as a very dedicated and devoted worker for the city who has accomplished much for Gravette and for very little pay. He said some of the complaints against vonRee could be the result of personal vendetta rather than any failure on the part of vonRee to do his job as the city planner.
Green said the commission presented the council with a master street plan and master city plan and received no response. She said the commission was working on plans for signage and branding to promote Gravette when the commission was abolished. She suggests the planning commission was abolished because the mayor and city planner didn’t appreciate a productive planning commission and the mayor was unwilling or not able to make the city planner accountable for the duties required of him as planner.
Warren said the commission presented some great ideas, but it just wasn’t what was needed at the time. The city needed a new zoning map, he said.
“We needed to start out with the basic kindergarten things a planning commission does,” Warren said, “and they weren’t getting that done.”
Warren said that, after a couple of months of no planning commission meetings, he asked the council to disband the commission. He said that he and vonRee worked together with the Regional Planning Commission to get done what needed to be done, and he has a zoning map prepared by the Regional Planning Commission to present to the council for approval this month (see accompanying map).
Hawkins, of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, said Monday that the planning commission assisted Gravette, as it does with numerous other cities and towns in the area, in preparing a city zoning map. He said once the map is adopted, it will serve as a base zoning map and ordinances containing zoning changes can be submitted to the regional planning commission and an updated map easily produced for the city.