Paid subscriptions make this reporting possible

Subscribe if you like, pay if you can

The Maumelle Planning Commission will meet at 6:30 p.m. this Thursday and on the agenda is a proposed development that would build 101 senior residences along the east side of Maumelle Boulevard, across the street from First Baptist Church of Maumelle.

The land there is currently zoned Commercial and the owner, Gene Pfeifer, is wanting to have the properties rezoned to Special Use Residential and Planned Residential Development.

Holloway Engineering is representing Pfeifer at the Planning Commission.

In a letter supporting the application, the firm wrote that it would be “single-family senior-living residences and some higher-density multi-family.”

A request to rezone the commercial property was also made in 2001 and was rejected then.

In the report from the city’s Planning and Permits department, it notes that both then and now, Pfiefer hadn’t been able to develop the land commercially due to a lack of interest, and then developing it as residential was his best option.

That report also notes, “the proposed rezoning of the property does not fit the comprehensive plan” and “the area is one of the few areas inside the city limits that contains vacant tracts of land zoned for commercial. Commercial would be of higher value for development and for the city at large.”

This was the same conclusion reached in 2001.

The staff recommendations are for “do not pass” for both requests.

In other new business, there’s two requests to rezone property known as the Maumelle Water Plant from open space to Special Use Residential and Planned Residential Development.

The agenda can be read by clicking here.