Jonesboro Planning Commission Approves $46 Million Frito-Lay Plans
by June 23, 2015 5:35 pm 214 views
A $45.7 million expansion project at Frito-Lay in Jonesboro is one step closer to reality Tuesday after the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission gave the go-ahead for work on the project to be done.
The Jonesboro Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (MAPC) board approved the request by Jacksonville, Fla.-based Haskell Architects and Engineers to start work on the 95,000-square-foot expansion at the company’s facility on Arkansas 18.
Company officials announced in April their plans to add 30 new jobs as part of the expansion, part of a multi-layered approach for the expansion.
Cynthia Baker, a spokesman for PepsiCo which owns Frito-Lay, said in April that the expansion would involve investments in “high technology distribution equipment.”
The company makes Doritos, Lays, Ruffles and other chips at the Jonesboro facility. Nearly 450 people work at the plant, which opened in 1991.
The new project is expected to be done by 2017, engineer Joshua Hough of Haskell said.
Hough told the commission that the new facility will be a “fully automated warehouse.”
City zoning official Otis Spriggs said his staff as well as officials with Haskell and Jonesboro City Water and Light first met in late May to discuss the expansion.
The work during the meeting looked at several issues including utilities, Spriggs said.
Officials are looking forward to starting work on the expansion. Construction is expected to start sometime in August 2015, Hough said.
Spriggs said the next step in the process will involve Haskell and Frito-Lay securing the permits from the city to start work.
HOOKAHS LOUNGES AND HOTELS
The commission also discussed a plan to study current city zoning ordinances, dealing with a variety of issues.
Among the issues to be studied include:
Hotel Uses and update of allowed districts
Senior Living Facility Definitions and District Allowances
Updating codes to add Hookah Lounges/Cigar Bars/Vapor Cigarette establishments
Defining the use of multi-family as recommended by the Multi-Family Moratorium Committee
Spriggs asked the commission to look at the hotel issue in the near term, then look at the other issues over the next two months.
The city has seen an increase of hotels and motels built, between Red Wolf Boulevard and Caraway Road, in recent years, Spriggs said, noting most of them have been zoned commercially or C-2.
The hotel issue is expected to be discussed at the commission’s July 14 meeting.
A MAPC subcommittee will review the other issues and present their ideas to the Jonesboro City Council, Spriggs said.