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Planning commission tables rezoning request for 2748 Malvern Avenue amid traffic concerns
Summary
On July 9 the Hot Springs Planning Commission voted 4–2 to defer a request to rezone 2748 Malvern Avenue from residential to neighborhood commercial, saying they need additional city traffic and accident data after residents described dangerous conditions at a nearby curve and school access point.
The Hot Springs Planning Commission on July 9 voted to table a developer's request to rezone 2.7 acres at 2748 Malvern Avenue from Residential Neighborhood 1 to Neighborhood Commercial.
Commissioner (speaker 6) moved to defer the application until the commission's Aug. 13 meeting so city traffic staff could provide updated accident and safety data. The motion passed on a roll call vote: Stone — No; Scott — Yes; Walker — Yes; Lamond — Yes; Gerke — Yes; Stafford — No (4'2).
Staff presented the application and recommended the commission decline to recommend approval as submitted, saying the applicant had not demonstrated consistency with the comprehensive plan, compatibility with surrounding development, or a demonstrated public need. The staff report cited Hot Springs code sections applicable to map amendments and approval standards and noted that the parcel lies near Lakeside Public Schools and close to the Martin Luther King Expressway interchange.
The applicant, who introduced himself in the hearing as Josh (speaker 8), said he retained an independent traffic engineer and argued the parcel's frontage on Malvern Avenue and adjacency to existing commercial zoning supported a neighborhood-serving commercial use, including a proposed gymnastics training facility.
Nearby residents urged denial, focusing on safety and driveway access. "They're going 60 miles an hour," Bruce Willis (speaker 10) told commissioners, describing repeated crashes near the curve and delays of several minutes exiting driveways. Philip Clay (speaker 9) and other speakers described similar concerns, saying there is no center turn lane and that school traffic exacerbates the hazard.
Commissioners pressed staff on specifics: minimum lot sizes, estimated trip generation if the property remained residential (staff noted a 10,000-square-foot minimum lot size and estimated roughly 8–10 lots), and whether the city had evaluated corrective road safety measures. Staff said the city engineer had reviewed the developer's traffic study and found no methodological issues, but commissioners said they wanted the city to provide additional incident history and safety analysis in the public meeting record.
The item was scheduled for further consideration at the Aug. 13 planning commission meeting at 6:00 p.m. in the hearing room. The commission asked the planning department to work with city traffic staff to assemble the requested information; the applicant was also invited to provide any additional materials.
Note on names in the record: the staff report packet identified the applicants as Josh and Marissa Rowley; the applicant who spoke introduced himself as Josh Raleigh in the hearing record. The commission record contains those differing spellings.
