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Planning commission approves Prince Street restaurant CUP with hours, buffer and fence conditions
Summary
The Conway City Planning Commission approved a conditional-use permit for 2555 Prince Street to allow a sit-down restaurant (applicant cited Rotolo’s) and retail-general uses, after amending staff conditions to set hours at 5 a.m.–midnight, extend permit timelines to 24 months, and require an 8-foot wood privacy fence with location to be set in site development review (fence motion passed 5–4).
The Conway City Planning Commission on Tuesday approved a conditional-use permit for 2555 Prince Street, allowing a sit-down restaurant and retail-general uses, after amending staff recommendations on hours, expiration timelines and buffering.
Planning staff opened the discussion by reviewing a long-standing string of conditional-use permits along Prince Street and the changes proposed for the remaining tract at 2555 Prince Street, including a reduced trail easement and the revocation of an old CUP issued in 2008. Planner Lauren said the new request would replace the older permit and that staff had proposed 14 standard conditions. “If you reference pages 34 through 35 of the report, you will see that there at once was a proposed plan all the way to Ferris for this TUD,” she said in presenting the history and conditions.
Developer Jared Coleman of Blue Well Development described the planned tenant as a sit-down pizza-and-beer concept named Rotolo’s and said the project is intended to be trail-oriented and neighborly. “We’re excited to be next to the trail,” Coleman said, adding the development team is working with adjacent property owners on shared access and site design.
Commissioners debated several amendments before the final approval. On hours of operation, the commission amended staff’s recommended window to allow operations from 5 a.m. to midnight to maintain consistency with nearby businesses; that amendment was approved by voice vote. Commissioners also changed two timing conditions—extending both the permit commencement period and the vacancy-forfeiture period from 18 months to 24 months—citing construction timelines and market realities.
The most contested change involved buffering and a privacy fence. Staff recommended a 30-foot undisturbed green-space buffer, planting of evergreen species for screening, and left the planner discretion to require additional screening. Public and commission discussion recalled prior neighborhood requests for added protection. After debate, the commission added a separate condition requiring an 8-foot wooden privacy fence along adjacent residential properties with the fence material and final placement to be determined during site development review by the planning director. That fence amendment passed on a roll-call vote, 5–4 (in favor: Rebecca Fincher, Drew Spergers, Laurie Quinn, Brooks Davis and Tanisha Rountree; opposed: Ethan Reed, Alexander Baney, Jensen Tilke and Jay Winborn).
Staff said the approval revokes the previous 2008 CUP for this parcel and replaces it with the newly conditioned permit; the next step for the applicant is site development review, during which staff and the developer will finalize landscaping, fence placement and access details. “As long as they are aware and are wanting to use that cross access…they proposed it, so I have good faith that they're gonna do it,” Lauren said during the discussion.
The commission’s approval concluded with a final voice vote on the CUP as amended. The project proponents and nearby property owners remain responsible for coordinating access design and implementing the buffer and fence in the SDR process.
