AVAIO Project Leo Site Plan and County Review

# AVAIO Project Leo Site Plan and County Review Five documents tracing the AVAIO data center's passage through Pulaski County's **site plan review** — the only land-use review the project required. They run from AVAIO's first submittal (2024-09-30) to the county's conditional approval (2024-12-19), and they establish that an un-zoned site triggered no rezoning, no variance, and no public hearing. ## What's inside - `Pulaski County Site Plan Application.pdf` — the county "Information Sheet for Site Plan Reviews," completed for "AVAIO — PROJECT LITTLE ROCK," dated 2024-09-30, plus the two-page Site Plan Review Criteria. - `20240930 - SITE PLAN.pdf` — the AVAIO site plan drawing set (11 sheets, Kimley-Horn project 064567707, dated September 2024). - `Avaio Data Center Site Plan attachment 101124.pdf` — the county's Site Plan Checklist dated 2024-10-11 (the first review; most items marked "N," with staff comments). - `Avaio Data Center Site Plan 051326.pdf` — the county's Site Plan Checklist dated 2024-11-14 (the second review; items marked "Y"). - `Notice of Site Plan Review Avaio Data Center-145th Street.pdf` — the county's "Site Plan Review" notice dated 2024-12-19, recording **conditional approval**. ## Key takeaways - **The site is un-zoned.** Every site plan data table reads *"EXISTING ZONING N/A — PROPOSED ZONING N/A"* (`20240930 - SITE PLAN.pdf`, p. 1). The county checklist marks item 19 "ZONING DISTRICTS, IF APPLICABLE" as "NA" and item 35 "DEVELOPMENT WITHIN ETJ OF A MUNICIPALITY" as "N/A" (`Avaio Data Center Site Plan 051326.pdf`, p. 2). AVAIO's engineer stated the shared understanding plainly: *"there is no zoning, and therefore, no land use restrictions on the property"* (see [[Pulaski County Planning Correspondence on Project Leo]]). - **Owner, developer, scale.** The application lists the developer as **AVAIO DIGITAL PARTNERS, 107 ELM STREET, SUITE 501, STAMFORD, CT 06902**, engineer Brianna Covington P.E. of Kimley-Horn, total area **296.354 AC**, one lot, proposed use **DATACENTER**, new private street **"DIGITAL DRIVE"**; the owner contact is `[email protected]`, (917) 499-0612 (`Pulaski County Site Plan Application.pdf`, p. 1). - **A confidentiality stamp the county overrode.** The application and every sheet of the site plan carry the stamp *"CONFIDENTIAL — THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS TRADE SECRETS AND COMMERCIAL/FINANCIAL INFORMATION — EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER PUBLIC INFORMATION ACT."* Pulaski County produced both under the Arkansas FOIA regardless. - **September 2024 building program.** The overall site data table lists **TOTAL: 3,426,000 SF** of building — ADMIN 620,000 SF, DATA CENTER 2,806,000 SF — all one story, with parking of 1,034 spaces required / 1,236 provided (`20240930 - SITE PLAN.pdf`, p. 1). Individual sheets show an 80,000 SF Admin Building, a 426,000 SF Building 1, and 304,000 SF Buildings 3 and 4, among others. Two on-site substations are drawn at **8.92 acres** and **11 acres** (`20240930 - SITE PLAN.pdf`, pp. 1, 6). The program was later reduced — see [[county-pulaski/project-leo-2026-05-22/_overview|the production overview]] and [[Pulaski County Planning Correspondence on Project Leo]]. - **The first review found the submittal incomplete.** The 2024-10-11 checklist marks most items "N" and lists staff comments: provide a letter of application; tie boundaries to section corners; provide engineer's and surveyor's seals; provide a legal description, vicinity map, contours; a Quail Creek Fire Department approval letter; a storm drainage plan and "large site SWPPP including Notice of Coverage"; and a $100 review fee (`Avaio Data Center Site Plan attachment 101124.pdf`, p. 3). It also notes AVAIO "indicated at the kickoff meeting that the individual structures may be platted and sold individually." - **Conditional approval, December 2024.** The Notice of Site Plan Review records **"Conditional approval"** with a Planning Department approval date of 2024-12-13 and **"PLANNING BOARD APPROVAL MEETING DATE: N/A"** — no board meeting was held. The conditions: a storm drainage plan and large-site SWPPP with Notice of Coverage; driveway permits from Pulaski County Road and Bridge; all USACE permitting for road and utility crossings of jurisdictional waters; floodplain and wetland permitting; and *"the reversion to acreage of the 8 platted lots of the Vesta Addition"* (`Notice of Site Plan Review Avaio Data Center-145th Street.pdf`). Each condition is documented in the other source pages of this production. ## People and orgs mentioned - [[Jim Cranor]] — signed the Notice of Site Plan Review as "Plan Review Coordinator." - [[Van McClendon]] — Director, Pulaski County Planning and Development. - [[Brianna Covington]] — Kimley-Horn project engineer of record on the application and plans. - [[Tom Nesel]] — AVAIO owner contact on the application. - [[AVAIO Digital Partners]] — developer of record. [[Kimley-Horn]] — engineer; James Janisse (RPLS No. 1921) is the named surveyor. - [[Pulaski County Government]] — Planning & Development, the reviewing department. ## Concepts invoked - [[Site plan review]] — the administrative review process applied here in lieu of zoning. - [[Reversion to acreage]] — required as a condition of approval for the Vesta Addition plat. ## Events documented - [[2024-09 AVAIO Files Its Project Leo Site Plan with Pulaski County]] - [[2024-12 Pulaski County Conditionally Approves the Project Leo Site Plan]] ## Cross-references - The site plan drawing shows an existing **"100' Arkansas Power & Light Company easement"** and an Illinois Natural Gas Pipeline Company easement crossing the tract — pre-existing [[Entergy Arkansas]]-predecessor and gas infrastructure (`20240930 - SITE PLAN.pdf`, pp. 1–2). - The conditional-approval conditions are carried out in [[Project Leo Engineering and Environmental Permits]] and [[Vesta Addition Reversion to Acreage]]. ## Open questions / follow-ups - The site plan drawing is a vector CAD set; the extracted text captures labels and the data tables but not the drawn layout. Cite the raw `20240930 - SITE PLAN.pdf` page images for the spatial arrangement of buildings, ponds, and substations. - The application names the developer (AVAIO Digital Partners) and an owner contact but not the holder of legal title to the 296-acre tract; the site plan separately labels parcels owned by [[Arnett Construction Company]].