The move late last month by the Fayetteville City Council to place a 90-day moratorium on applications for rezoning and other uses in the city’s manufacturing districts is intended to give planning staff the ability to take the time needed to scrutinize the uses that exist and to make sure those uses will serve the city in the future.
Senior Planner Linwood Robinson on Tuesday said the request for the moratorium followed a recent special exception request to establish a waste transfer in one of the manufacturing-zoned areas.
Though the moratorium has no bearing on that application, Robinson said it provided a reminder that a review of the uses currently permitted would be helpful to planning commissioners and the council when future applications are made.
That review needs to be thorough, said Robinson, and deserves more than a cursory look at the various permitted uses, adding that a significant amount of time had elapsed since an extensive review of the manufacturing district permitted uses had been performed.
The City Council at a called meeting Sept. 28 voted to place a 90-day moratorium on applications for rezoning and other uses in the city’s manufacturing districts.
Commenting on the moratorium, City Manager Joe Morton in a Sept. 27 memo noted that city staff reviewed several of the allowable uses in the M-1 and M-2 zoning classification subsequent to the recent special exception application for a waste transfer station.
Morton in the memo said staff had recommended that the council consider a 90-day moratorium to allow time for a thorough review and to propose any needed changes to the ordinances.
