The Springdale City Council considered an ordinance to create a new C7 Recreational Vehicle Park zoning district, with planning staff saying the goal is to update long-standing standards and protect public health and safety.

Planning Director Sharon Cromberg told the council the C7 district would permit RV parks and related citywide uses, make “Cultural Recreational Uses” a conditional use on appeal, and update multiple sections of the zoning ordinance to remove outdated references. “Most importantly, we want to protect public health and safety,” Cromberg said.

Cromberg said the proposed ordinance includes a specific floodplain rule: temporary occupancy in a floodplain would be limited to up to 180 days. She told the council the city would not set a fixed time limit for transient lodging beyond the floodplain; instead, she said, those durations would be left to individual business owners in the same way the city treats hotels or short-term rentals. Cromberg also described existing manufactured-home parks that contain RV spaces as legal nonconformities to be allowed to continue as they exist today but expected nonconformities to phase out over time.

Council members asked how the city would spot permanent conversions — for example, RVs with removed wheels or added decks — and Cromberg said permanent foundations or other permanent structures would be required to be treated differently; code enforcement would be asked to intervene when an RV was converted to permanent occupancy or had additions such as decks and stairs.

A council member moved to adopt the ordinance and the motion was seconded. The transcript records the council taking a separate vote on the ordinance’s emergency clause, which passed 6-1.

The ordinance text presented to the council lists the specific amendments as changes to Article 3, Section 1; Article 4, Section 3; and Article 6, Section 3.13 of the Springdale zoning ordinance and includes an emergency declaration in the title.

The council’s discussion and Cromberg’s answers clarified how the new C7 standard will treat floodplain occupancy, transient occupancy outside floodplains, and existing legal nonconformities; the council did not direct additional study in the meeting record.