The Hot Springs Board of Directors instructed the city staff Tuesday night to work toward securing a location for a 170-foot-high water tower behind Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse.
The proposed property owned by Garrett Enterprises Inc. was one of six options Deputy City Manager Bill Burrough presented the board, which last week ruled in favor of an appeal challenging the conditional-use permit the planning commission granted the city in June to build the tower in a residential area off Pakis Street.
The 4-3 vote removed 103 Marquette Place from consideration. It fit a specific criteria set none of the six options Burrough presented do, making all of their price estimates costlier than the $4,535,000 the city estimated it would cost to build on the residential site.
Burrough told the board Garrett Enterprises has agreed to sell 1 acre for a 2 to 3 million-gallon water tower for $125,000, the second-cheapest property estimate of the six presented.
It's 530 feet above sea level, or about 10 to 15 feet lower than the Marquette Place location. Site work costs would be limited, Burrough said. It's on a flat grade and no demolition or clearing work is required. It also has an access road.
The distance from the 20-inch transmission line that serves as the spine in the south end of the city's distribution system is what separates it from the Marquette Place location. A more than 4,000-foot, large diameter line is needed to connect it to the transmission line.
Installing the line and securing the easements for its right of way through the Broadmoor Subdivision have a $786,750 cost estimate, about 15 percent of the $5,326,000 projected total.
The same installation and easement costs are estimated for the board's next choice, the wooded area behind Southpark Shopping Plaza on Highway 7 south between Lowe's to the north and the Timbercrest RV and Mobile Home Park to the south.
It lacks an access road, but Burrough told the board the owner has agreed to deed land to the city in exchange for the construction of a public-access street into his shopping center. The $385,000 cost estimated for the road, along with the line installation and easement costs, bring the cost estimate to $5,511,000.
Securing the right of way for a public street into the shopping center is complicated by the number of nearby private streets, City Attorney Brian Albright told the board. The right of way would include the Lowe's parking lot or Cornerstone Boulevard, streets not built to city standards that the city would have to condemn to ensure continued public access.
"That access is over Cornerstone development," he said. "That is private property. Those are private roads. The street could be closed at any time even if we acquire this property and build on it. I don't think the city wants to condemn and try to take by eminent domain all the streets on Cornerstone, because those streets don't meet city standards."
The parking lot behind Westminster Presbyterian Church at 3819 Central Ave. was the third option the board instructed Burrough to explore. It's closer to the 20-inch line than the first two options but would cost more to build on, Burrough told the board.
Its smaller dimensions will result in higher costs related to crane access, laydown area and storage area. The adjacent parking lot would also have to be repaved after the tower is constructed. The $750,000 estimated property cost brings the projected total to $5,510,000.
At $5,888,000, the First Church of the Nazarene was the costliest of the six options owing to the $1.2 million estimated property cost. It's next to the 20-inch transmission line, but its location west of Central Avenue could potentially pose a navigational hazard to aircraft approaching Hot Springs Memorial Field.
The city has said sites west of Central Avenue submitted for Federal Aviation Administration approval were all deemed too close to the airport. Burrough told the board the FAA approved the Southpark and Westminister Presbyterian Church properties, the board's second and third choices.
The Garrett Enterprises location, the board's first choice, has yet to be approved by the FAA but is close enough to previously approved properties to give the city confidence that it, too, poses no navigational hazard.
Geotechnical concerns Burrough raised about the New Life Church parking lot on Pakis Street removed it from consideration. The location at 110 Thornhill St. was also passed over, as it's in the neighborhood where residents objected to the tower going in at 103 Marquette Place.
Other locations the city scouted that were not presented include McCauley Court and Section Line Road near the post office. Both were denied by the FAA. A restricted covenant ruled out the Cornerstone parking lot, and the city said Pearson Drive off Brodrick street does not have the necessary ground elevation.
Local on 07/27/2017