For an hour before its regular meeting Monday evening, Eureka Springs City Council met with the Planning Commission to recommend updates and revisions to City Code. Planning Chair Melissa Greene said their work on these changes was prompted by council’s action on Jan. 9, 2017, passing Resolution 700, which called for a moratorium on the issuance of all CUPs in the R-1 and R-2 zones through the end of June.
Greene said Planning wanted to clarify what were perceived as points of confusion as she read through proposed changes with regular stops for commentary. She explained Planning had removed the “same or similar” phrase with a proposed 200-ft. distance between Conditional Use Permits. Alderman Terry McClung suggested they use property lines to determine the 200-ft. distance.
Another proposed change was to require the owner of a B&B or boarding house to “occupy the premises and register the establishment as their primary domicile.” Greene explained she knew of seven or eight properties operating without a resident manager by having a renter act as manager, but without manager responsibilities.
McClung wondered why a boarding house was mentioned with B&Bs and whether a boarding house should have a manager onsite also. It was mentioned the Writers’ Colony was officially a boarding house, but no one knew if it had a resident manager.
“What does the city want?” commissioner Susan Harman asked. She said they should be looking at protecting the city down the road, and the group agreed a boarding house should have a resident manager. They also saw the necessity of temporary inn-sitters should the owner or manager be away for a while.
Proposed changes related to the 180-day rule drew comments, and McClung said, “No one should be allowed to go over 180 days.” Even during foreclosure, someone should be taking care of the business. He also pointed out it was not identified what date qualified as the inception of the 180 days.
City Code currently stipulates a Conditional Use Permit holder or legally non-conforming status must be in continual operation with no lapse of operation greater than 180 days.
McClung also disagreed with the requirement of advertising as a sign of trying to run a business. “You can’t regulate how much they advertise,” he told Greene. “The permit is a commodity,” he said. “If I let it lapse, too bad for me, but I can sit on it if I meet the minimum requirements.”
So the advertisement requirement for B&Bs was deleted.
Mayor Butch Berry added, contrary to wild rumors, the statement in Code requiring B&Bs to serve breakfast does not preclude the establishment from serving other meals, snacks or crudités.