Members of the Commercial Design Standards Committee, during a Monday meeting, removed a controversial portion of the regulations that would have forced businesses to make wholesale changes to meet the design standards any time a building changed use.
The Springdale City Council left the proposal on its first reading at a recent meeting, telling committee members to revisit their findings. Aldermen felt the ordinance would create too much of a financial hardship on small businesses.
Under the initial plan, any time a business changed use, its owners would have had to make the building fit the new design guidelines. The guidelines cover everything from landscaping to a face lift.
The revised version of the guidelines will not apply to a simple change in use, but the standards will kick in when a building's construction approaches 50 percent of the appraised value or 50 percent of the gross square footage.
"We'll take that provision (use change) out and present it as a separate redevelopment issue," said Patsy Christie, planning and community development director.
Springdale will be the only city in the area with design standards for existing commercial buildings, Christie said.
"I know Fayetteville has standards for new construction," Christie said. "I don't think they have anything for existing structures. It's the aesthetics of the outside of the building that we're looking at."
Christie said the regulations still need a minimum for business owners to meet.
Committee member David Powers agreed.
"We also need something for large and small uses," Powers said. "And we still need to modify or give exceptions for buildings facing public sidewalks, like the downtown area."
Powers added that, if the committee could get the first part of the standards passed by the council, this would give the design committee more time to work on the redevelopment issues.
"I think it would make a difference for some people to see some of the changes," said Rick Barrows, a committee member and chairman of the Springdale Planning Commission. "Some of the multifamily projects you see that are not that old, you really wish we'd had design standards in place when they were built."
The design standards committee worked on guidelines for multifamily housing that were passed by the council.
Christie said the committee will bring its revised recommendation to an Ordinance Committee preceding the Feb. 14 meeting of the council.
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