# 2025-04 Conway Planning Commission Recommends Project Stratus Annexation and Rezone On April 21, 2025, at 5:30 PM at 1111 Main Street, Conway, the [[Conway Planning Commission]] held its regular monthly meeting under Chair Lori Quinn. Three Project Stratus public-hearing items were on the agenda — ANN-0325-0046 (annex 39.50 acres near Lollie Rd), ANN-0325-0047 (annex 294.74 acres near Lollie Rd; the legal description on the recorded ordinance refines this to 296.21 acres), and REZ-0425-0052 (rezone the Adams Property at the NE corner of Lollie Rd and Donnell Ridge Rd from A-1 to I-3) — all three were recommended unanimously to City Council. One member of the public, [[Alan Rice]] (speaking on behalf of his son [[Jeremy Rice]] who owns adjacent property), spoke in opposition. ## Sources - [[Conway Planning Commission Reports April and May 2025]] — the April 21 PC meeting agenda packet and the (image-only) Planning Commission Reports. - The April 22, 2025 City Council minutes ([[Conway City Council Agendas and Minutes on Project Stratus]]) recite Anne Tucker's report to Council that "the Planning Commission passed the request unanimously at their meeting, adding that there was one gentleman present who spoke in opposition." ## What happened The Planning Commission roster on April 21, 2025: Lori Quinn (Chair); Ethan Reed (Vice-Chair); Mark Ferguson (Secretary); Alexander Baney; Jensen Thielke; Jay Winbourne; Brooks Davis; Teneicia Roundtree; Cassidy D Cook; Kevin Gambrill. Staff routing per the [[Conway Internal Staff Teams Chats on Project Stratus|April 9 Planning Department Teams chat]]: the Project Stratus annexation/rezone cases were assigned to **[[Ryan Robeson]]**, not the Planning lead Lauren Hoffman. Staff internally labeled REZ-0425-0052 "CDC rezone +160 acres on Lollie Rd" — treating [[Conway Development Corporation]] as the rezone party even though the cover letter applicant is the landowner John William Adams. The agenda's items A, B, and C all carried the "+" procedural marker indicating Council action was anticipated as early as April 22, 2025 (the next day). The PC report notes: "Items reviewed will be considered by City Council as early as 04/22/2025." This was the expedited path Jamie Gates outlined in his April 1 [[Project Stratus Next Steps and Sequence]] memo to Council ("Our intention is to go before the planning commission on 4/21 with a request for annexation and to expedite that commission vote to the council at your regular city council meeting on 4/22"). Per the April 22 Council minutes, opposition speaker Alan Rice "spoke in opposition to the matter of annexation and rezoning, in representation of his son, Jeremy Rice who is a property owner in the area. His main concern was noise and a disturbance to the quality of life in the area if a data center was to be built on the property in question." The Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend all three items. The Commission's own minutes — recording the testimony, the discussion, and the votes — are not in the FOIA-2026-126 production; this event's specifics are reconstructed from the next-day Council minutes and the Teams-chat staff record. ## Significance The April 21, 2025 PC meeting is the public-hearing predicate for the Project Stratus annexation and rezone. Under Ark. Code § 14-56-422 et seq., the Planning Commission holds the public hearing on rezone cases and forwards a recommendation; the City Council then adopts (or rejects) the rezone by ordinance. The unanimous recommendation cleared the path for the April 22, 2025 Council adoption. Three observations: 1. **The pre-application date.** Per [[Conway Internal Staff Teams Chats on Project Stratus|Lauren Hoffman's April 2 Teams chat]], "I saw (pre-application submission) was a request for I-3." The Stratus rezone application was therefore submitted pre-application by approximately April 1 (the day of the MOU); the public-hearing date was set 21 days later. This is the statutory minimum notice window. 2. **The opposition profile.** Jeremy Rice (via Alan Rice) was the only public-hearing speaker. The much larger constituent-opposition mobilization came one year later in spring 2026 — well after the rezone was already enacted. The April 21 PC meeting effectively closed the regulatory window before public opposition could organize. 3. **The 1-acre Conway Corporation carve-out and CDC's adjoining parcels.** The recorded ordinance description (see [[Rezone Ordinance O-25-39 and REZ-0425-0052]]) shows that Conway Corporation already owned a small parcel within the rezone footprint, and Conway Development Corporation owned two parcels flanking it (DB 2003 P 20243). The Planning Commission was, in effect, voting on a rezone bracketed by city-owned and city-affiliated parcels.