North Hills subdivision back in discussion for Monett, plan debated

City leaders backed into supporting street upgrades, recommendation will now go to council for approval
 
After 28 years, the proposed North Hills subdivision in Monett is back on the table, this time with a different developer. The plan went before the Monett Planning and Zoning Commission on Aug. 27, with more than 40 residents turning out to express concerns.
Jake and Alyssa Vaughn with Vaughn Construction were on hand to explain their plans for the 75 acres originally platted by Arkansas developer Jim Lemmon in 1997, located southeast from the corner of Hwy. H and Farm Road 2230 on the north edge of the city, extending east to 17th Street and south to the Dierker Addition.
The Monett City Council approved Lemmon’s plan, zoning the property in the new classification of medium density, allowing for 6,000-square-foot lots, down from the minimum of 7,500 square-foot lots common in newer single-family construction.
“We bought a pre-engineered plan,” Alyssa Vaughn said. “There’s no other area zoned medium density. That’s not my problem,” she said to people criticizing the plat.
The Vaughns submitted a draft for the entire subdivision, including 230 lots. Their plan differed from Lemmon’s original proposal in several ways. Lemmon planned to have light commercial zoning against Hwy. H. The Vaughns scrapped that plan for stormwater retention, advancing all-residential use.
In addition, city codes changed after 1997, calling for wider streets by 10 feet. Incorporating this change pushed the planned housing to the east, squeezing an area that Lemmon planned to use for larger custom homes. The Vaughns’ plan turned the eastern edge of the subdivision abutting 17th Street into 24 single-story duplexes, with six driveways feeding onto 17th Street. Jake Vaughn said the reshaped plat left no room in that strip for building houses profitably on individual lots.
The Planning and Zoning Commission met for the first time with new members Mayor Randy Burke and Kevin Cloud. Jeff Carr led the meeting in the absence of chairman Mike Wallace. The Vaughns requested rezoning the easternmost strip from single-family housing to multi-family housing, allowing for the construction of duplexes.
The general design of the subdivision, as Lemmon laid it out, called for one east-west street across the property feeding into Hwy. H to the west, but not opening onto 17th Street. Three streets would feed onto Farm Road 2230 to the north, ending in cul-de-sacs to the south.
Housing debate
The following robust discussion, driven by the audience, initially focused on the types of houses planned for the subdivision. The Vaughns emphasized they were not building Section 8 low-income housing. They planned to build quality homes for sale.
“I’ve sold houses for 20 years,” Alyssa Vaughn said. “Presently, there are 50 houses for sale in Monett. The number of houses available selling in the $200,000 to $250,000 range—what we’re building—is 10. There are 3,000 people who come to work here daily who don’t live here. With the added new business on top of that, these houses won’t be hard to fill up. There are 35 houses in Phase 1. They will be done in a year.”
“If we build ugly little cookie-cutter houses, they won’t sell,” Jake Vaughn added.
Mayor Burke and Mark Noriega, who serves on the long-range plan committee, stressed the need for housing in Monett. Jake Vaughn noted that the Vaughns would enforce having only one family live per house, a concern raised in the audience. They would retain ownership of the duplexes.
Street concerns
As the conversation continued around the room giving the audience a chance to voice concerns, repeated complaints surfaced about traffic in the vicinity. Residents said motorists frequently cut through 13th Street to 17th Street, some calling it a speedway. The width of 17th Street also narrows from 30 feet to 20 feet at the north end. Resident Chandler Wommack cited “Americana neighborhood living,” with kids running in front yards, was in danger from the traffic. Dierker Addition resident Deborah Schoen said school buses make diagonal stops in the road to let off students to block the road from vehicles that might run the bus stop.
Streets in the subdivision itself did not represent a problem, except for the addition of more vehicles. Jake Vaughn further noted the one east-west street in the middle of the subdivision had been widened in the plans to 60 feet, almost double that of a typical street. Board member Gale Huffmaster figured 24 duplexes would add 50 more cars onto 17th Street.
The residents repeatedly called for some relief from the traffic. City engineer Kevin Sprenkle said the city had no plans for street improvements there. However, he noted the city’s master transportation plan had called for extending 17th Street south to the high school, a plan now in jeopardy as the city no longer owns sufficient right-of-way width to complete that connection. The neighbors seemed in agreement that the extension would relieve traffic, as would widening 17th Street, adding sidewalks, or even speed bumps, though the bumps would apparently not hold up against snowplowing.
The condition of Farm Road 2230 running east to west across the northern edge of the subdivision also presented issues. The south half of the street is inside the city limits, and the north half is in the county. The asphalt road is jointly maintained by both the city and the Monett Special Road District. The road is marked “No truck traffic” in part because it has steep ditches, resulting in single-lane turns. At Chapell Drive, east of the subdivision, the turn is narrow and has historically resulted in many trucks needing wreckers to get out of the ditch.
Jake Vaughn said he will lay stormwater drains and cover the south ditch.
City involvement pledged
“All the problems you’ve mentioned have been considered for years,” Sprenkle said. “It’s all a matter of when we do it. A lot of improvements have been done. Any road that adjoins the subdivision is considered part of the infrastructure, and the condition of the roads. We’ve had discussions about what to do with 2230 with the road district. The city hasn’t received any plans yet.”
He further noted infrastructure had to be addressed before housing construction started.
Sprenkle added the city’s master transportation plan even shows connecting Hwy. H with Hwy. 37 to the west at some point, diverting westbound truck traffic out of the city, across north of North Park. Those plans remain on the books.
Mayor Burke, who lives in the subdivision north of the high school, finally declared, “We have to address public safety.”
After more than an hour of hearing public comments, the board voted unanimously to recommend changing the zoning of the eastern strip of the subdivision to multi-family housing, on a motion by Huffmaster that added “with a commitment from the city to address 17th Street.”
The recommendation will now go to the city council for approval. That will be a formality, since, for the first time, two of the three city commissioners – Burke and Darren Indovina – are both serving on the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Questions about whether the original plans for the stormwater retention basin in the subdivision remain adequate were also raised. The Vaughns rejected calls for radical changes to the plans, citing the quality and expense of engineering already completed.
Alyssa Vaughn said the proposal for the streets and house layout within the east half of the subdivision will come to Planning and Zoning for approval in another month. The whole plan as designed, while not at issue for this meeting, was offered as a courtesy, she said, showing the vision for the property.