Planning for Fayetteville

by Sarah Glass

Fayetteville is unique among the communities of Northwest Arkansas. The University of Arkansas, the city's largest employer, provides a solid economy and a regularly changing population of academics and students. The city is surrounded by nature, from the Ozark Mountains to the Buffalo and White rivers. Fayetteville is rich with parkland, having 53 city parks and three city lakes. The city has ordinances to protect trees and greenspace, limit the size of signs within the city limits and guide development and the appearance of buildings on a larger scale than most cities of its size.
"We've got so many things here a lot of cities don't have," Mayor Fred Hanna said. "I think Fayetteville for a number of years has been sort of at the leading edge of planning. I think Fayetteville does a pretty good job of it."
The major document setting out regulations for growth and development in Fayetteville is the 2020 plan, which was passed in 1995. The plan deals with everything from how wide streets should be to how many firehouses should be built, what buildings and developments should look like and how land should be used in the city. It was called the 2020 plan because it set long-range guidelines that would affect the city's growth for 25 years.
"When you've got a growing organization, or a growing business or a growing community, obviously you've got to plan," Hanna said. "In a city's case, it's mostly services and capital improvements."

In the Beginning

Fayetteville's last long-range plan had been developed in the 1960s, and the city was supposed to form another plan in the 1980s, Hanna said. The first plan developed in the 1990s was the 2010 plan. That plan, much like the 2020 plan, set goals for growth in the city and guidelines for development. Because the city's growth was exploding, the 2010 plan had to be revised, said Tim Conklin, who was an assistant planner when the plan was passed and is now city planner.
"We've adopted two comprehensive plans, two general plans," he said. "The population estimate being higher, or actually our growth being faster than the 2010 plan recommended, we revised that plan, and in that plan we set goals and implementation strategies to manage our growth and development."
The city hired a consultant from Nashville, Tenn., to write the 2020 plan, and public meetings were held to discuss and revise what the consultant suggested.
"He pretty well drew up a 2020 plan," Hanna said. "As is not unusual in Fayetteville, people couldn't agree. It should have been done before 1990. I took office in 1992 and it still wasn't done."
Hanna said the consultant had a lot of vision, suggesting the city set aside 500 acres of land at the intersection of Wedington Road and the Highway 71 Bypass for a mall. No one in 1995 could have predicted the growth that is now going on in that part of the city, Hanna said.
"I don't think he even knew the growth that we'd have," he said.

Making Friends

The meetings allowed the public to share in their common frustration that the city was not always listening to them, said Andrea Fournet, who moved to Fayetteville in 1993 and was a participant in the meetings for drafting both the 2010 plan and the 2020 plan.
"The 2010 plan had been introduced to the city Planning Commission and the City Council and their comments were 'Bike paths? We'll have to do a toll if we have bike paths ... Greenspace? Trees? Save the trees? What do you mean, they're in our way,'" she said. "I mean, this is the city Planning Commission responding and I was just like 'Woah, where did I move to?'
"And I stood up -- I was a representative of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship -- and I stood up more out of anguish and sadness that this was not going to be put into place, not that this was the almighty final decision, but that we needed some guidelines."
Fournet found that many people were frustrated by the lack of communication with the city and wanted to form a citizens' group. At the same time, another group was forming, and, in June 1994, the two groups merged and became Friends for Fayetteville. Fournet is now president of the group, which has more than 300 members.
"People were frustrated," she said. "They felt like they had no voice. The city would ask for input, but it's very discouraging. It's not a give and take up there, I know from experience. So that's sort of how it started."
One of the first major issues for Friends was supporting the design overlay district, which regulates development around the bypass and requires development to be more aesthetically pleasing.
"People think we're always against the city," she said. "But we're not. We study issues. Sometimes we don't take a stand, sometimes we take a strong stand with the city and sometimes we take a stand against the city. The city thinks that whatever they're for, we're against. We're not."
Fournet said she was glad the city had open meetings and looked for citizen ideas when writing the plan.
"I was glad that there was some citizen input," she said. "It's good that it does exist, that there is a plan, there never was. At least it's there, there's a backbone, there's a start."

A Man With a Plan

Conklin said the plan is important for him as city planner because he knows what the city wants in its developments.
"I think I was very fortunate to be here at a time when the plan was being developed," he said. "I was able to participate in writing the plan and developing the plan. Overall it gives me a greater understanding of what the goals of the plan are and what the strategies of the plan are and what the city of Fayetteville wants."
Under state law, cities have to have a comprehensive plan in order to form zoning regulations, Conklin said.
"Long range planning, it's the basis for everything we do," he said. "Some people think the planning commission, the city planner make up regulations. It's not just based on that particular circumstance or project, it's based on policy. They set their goals, figure out how to reach those goals, everyone benefits. You have to have a focus on how to reach those goals."
Conklin said the best thing about the plan is consistency among the parts of the plan and the effectiveness of implementation strategies.
Hanna said the plan has helped clarify planning in the city and given Fayetteville a better vision of where things are going.
"Probably as a result of this, our unified development ordinances have helped simplify things," he said. "It defined areas where we need to concentrate."
Conklin said the 2020 plan, along with other ordinances developed since it was passed, have helped unify development in town. He said the design overlay district, which regulates development around the bypass, the sign ordinance, rules for landscaping parking lots, requirements that utility wires be buried and other commercial design standards have beautified the city.
"When you drive down the street you may not notice it," he said. "Compare the developments seven years ago to developments today, It's quite a difference."
Conklin said it is important to have guidelines for building design because people experience a place through the buildings.
"When you experience a city, you experience it from a public realm, and what you're experiencing is the built environment," he said. "It's what you see and how you interact with it. I think what we have moved from, seven years ago, from having a zoning ordinance that basically just required where the building was going to be placed on the lot to now we determine is the building appropriate in scale, in height, in materials?"

Historic Parallels

Planning is important to Conklin because of his roots in California. He grew up in Bakersfield, Calif., on a farm, but was bused into town to go to school. He majored in agricultural management at California Polytechnic University because he thought he would continue in the family profession of farming almonds and pistachios. As he neared graduation and was looking for a job, he thought city planning might be an interesting direction to go in, so he earned a master's degree in city planning.
He said there are many parallels between San Luis Obispo, where he went to college, and Fayetteville, where he has lived for seven years.
"We're a similar city, a university town, similar population," he said. "Both are very desirable places to live."
A recent article by The Associated Press highlighted the problems San Luis Obispo is facing. Urbanization is rampant in southern California, and residents are worried that the community will turn into another Los Angeles. Traffic problems are mounting and chain businesses and housing developments disrupt the scenery of the costal town.
"San Luis Obispo comes up about once a year since I've been here," he said. "They have a lot of the same issues."
The cities are similar in their composition, in that they both have universities, and they are both working to prevent urban sprawl and maintain the historic and natural beauty of their surroundings. The work going on in San Luis Obispo is often brought up as a good model, Conklin said.
Preservation
Both San Luis Obispo and Fayetteville are working to keep their historic, somewhat rural charm while allowing growth. The downtown area and Dickson Street are the areas of biggest concern in Fayetteville because they are the most unique parts of town and contain many historic buildings.
"I think we need to look at our downtown area, what kind of development is appropriate in our downtown area," Conklin said. "The downtown area is probably the most complicated part of the city."
The downtown area is complex because it includes historic buildings that have been converted over the years from residences to businesses. It is an area where pedestrian and vehicle traffic is high, so it has to be convenient for walkers and drivers.
Conklin said one problem with the 2020 plan is that it does not set out a plan for preservation of historic buildings; it just suggests one.
The 2020 plan calls for education about the historic districts in town and says the city should work to maintain the small-town character of Fayetteville while protecting the historical and natural resources of the community.
"Fayetteville needs a local preservation ordinance and land-use policies to guide, control and protect the future of its historical past," according to the plan, which noted that several major renovations on the Square were private projects. The most striking of these is the Old Post Office, one of the oldest buildings in Fayetteville. It served as the post office for generations, but when the post office moved to Dickson Street, the building was virtually abandoned. The building was eventually renovated and turned into a restaurant, and is again the crowning landmark of the Square.
The city has created a historic district commission that has worked for years to get property owners to create a local ordinance district to protect historic buildings, but it hasn't been created yet.
One thing that has been done is the formation of the Downtown/Dickson Street Enhancement Project, a group of citizens, business people and others in the community who look for ways to link the downtown area with Dickson Street, said Bootsie Ackerman, director of the project.
Part of the group's vision includes saving and preserving historic buildings in the area.
"Downtowns are normally the historic beginnings of your city," she said. "We are vitally interested in preserving the historical buildings that we have here [and] preserving historic character, creating an area of historic interest."
Conklin agreed.
"The Square is the historic center of Fayetteville," he said. "I think because of that historical context, you do have that feeling, I guess, of nostalgia of the beginning of Fayetteville. I think also that the scale and mass of the buildings around the Square that provide that closed space that [makes] you know that you have arrived in the center of town is really important.
" I think that's what hopefully Dickson Street will evolve into; when you get there you'll know you've arrived, they call it a sense of place."

Development of Place

Ackerman said the Downtown/Dickson Street Improvement Project is working to develop a unified streetscape and pedestrian path between the two areas "so that we could visually connect the downtown Square to Dickson Street."
The project area spans from College Avenue to Arkansas Avenue and from Rock Street to Reagan Street. This area, just off the University of Arkansas campus, is the center of nightlife and cultural activity in the city. In the plans for the Three Sisters building, a new development in the area, the developers, Houses, Inc, explain why this area is so important to the city.
"Dickson not only connects the University and Downtown, student and citizen, but acts as an entertainment and retail center for the entire region," according to the plans. "A variety of restaurants, live music and retail shops share the street with the Walton Arts Center, home of the local symphony, a venue for Broadway shows and an area landmark."
"One thing that's very important is that we not just stop on Dickson Street," Ackerman said. "We've been real pleased that the city has been committed to the streetscape improvements."
Ackerman said an important step to improving development downtown is by providing housing in the area.
"One of the most important elements for long-term sustained downtown revitalization is creating places for people to live downtown," she said. "The demand for additional residential seems to be very strong."
The Rollston Street development, which was financed by Greg House and Houses, Inc., was one of the first multi-use buildings in the downtown area. The building, which was once a warehouse, now has two restaurants downstairs and apartments upstairs.
Ackerman said the Three Sisters building, which is another Houses project, and a proposed development in the Campbell Bell building on the Square will include housing. House said the apartments in the Three Sisters building on Dickson Street will cost between $900 and $2,000 a month.
House's most recently completed project is the Laundry Building, which now houses Georgia's, a gyros restaurant. An Asian-Vegan restaurant is expected to open in February. The rest of the facility has not been filled, but House has been speaking to people about opening a comedy club, or he has other ideas.
"It's got a lot of volume, it's perfect for something different," House said.
He said the Laundry building development is different from Three Sisters, which is still under construction.
"I see that as being primarily entertainment-oriented where the Three Sisters is going to be everything," he said. The building will include retail and office spaces, as well as apartments.
Houses, Inc. also renovated the Cheeburger Cheeburger building on Dickson Street, changing it from a dark building with few windows to a largely glass faÁade for the restaurant and shops that now fill it. For the Bakery building, also on Dickson Street, Houses converted the building, which was built in 1937 as a bakery, into a spacious, airy shopping center. The company was also involved in renovating a house at 323 W. Spring Street, which now houses a beauty salon, and two houses on East Avenue that have been converted into offices.
"Our response to the projects has been great," he said. "It's fun. It's gratifying to take old places and give them new life. Fortunately, I'm not the only person who feels that way. People like coming and patronizing something that's cool. It's nice to offer the alternative, especially in historic downtown Fayetteville."
House said he likes working in old buildings because sometimes he uncovers history while he is working. One of the buildings he renovated used to be a wagon-wheel shop, and his workers found invoices from 1876 in the building.
"It's fun to be able to keep that flavor rather than just tear it down," he said. "It's hard to replace."
With the Three Sisters project, House hopes to make the new building fit in with the older buildings around it.
"Our goal on the Three Sisters is to make it look like it's been there for 50 years so that it will fit in."
Robert Sharp, the architect for the Three Sisters project, said in an interview with The Arkansas Traveler that he wanted the development to look like it fit in with the surrounding buildings.
"My inspiration was to break up the design to make it look like it had been developed over the years to fit with the rest of Dickson Street," he said. "I designed it to encourage life on the street and people on balconies."
Conklin also said the type of buildings that are constructed is important to maintain the atmosphere of a place.
"I'm really big on the built environment because that's what people experience," he said.

Town Center

Another important part of downtown development is the town center, Ackerman said. The center has been in the planning stages for many years, and construction of the center, which will provide convention and entertainment space, has finally begun on the Square. The downtown convention center should draw people to the area and, if there were more hotel space, she said, they could spend their whole visit just in the downtown and Dickson Street area.
"The town center is a really key element," she said. "Certainly the town center is going to bring a lot of activities and people to the community. It's a good incentive in economic development: new businesses and a vibrant working economy."
Hanna said the center will be a beautiful addition to the Downtown area.
"Our Square is, of course, going to be brought back," he said. "I look for us to bring in a lot more out of town visitors than we have in the past."
Fournet said the idea of the town center was important, but based on what it will really be, it should have been billed from the beginning as a convention center and not so much as a place for people in the community.
"I don't think it's a town center, I think they should have called it an exhibit hall and a convention center," she said. "It's sad that they billed it that way."

The Rest of Fayetteville

The 2020 plan includes rules for most aspects of community development, from preserving trees and preventing development on steep slopes and in flood plains, to setting out rules for land usage in the city and encouraging limited traffic flow through neighborhoods.
The plan encourages development of parkland and greenspaces, which Conklin said is one of the things Fayetteville has done well in recent years. The plan calls for additional development in existing parks, including adding trails and athletic fields and working to beautify the spaces while saving trees.
"I think that the city of Fayetteville has taken the lead and has shown that it has taken the lead with our parkland dedication ordinance," Conklin said. "We're the only one in the state that has that. I can't say enough about our parks department. I think we have some of the best parks that I've seen in a city of our size and it's only going to get better."
Conklin said the passage of a one-cent hotel-motel-restaurant tax for maintenance and development of parks will make the Fayetteville parks system even better.
Also included in the 2020 plan is a Master Street Plan, which sets up the regulations for building different kinds of streets in the city. Conklin said allowing narrower streets in neighborhoods was an important step, both for keeping the charm of neighborhoods and ensuring safety.
"If you narrow the streets you slow down the speed of cars, which makes it safer for pedestrians," he said.
In 1992, streets were required to be 31 feet across, Conklin said, but now some streets can be 28 feet and a few are 24 feet across.
The plan suggests that the city encourage citizens to use energy-efficient modes of transportation such as Razorback Transit and the trolley system. Conklin said it is not realistic for Fayetteville to have a more comprehensive mass transit system because the population is too small.
"One of the reasons why mass transit doesn't work is we don't have the density," he said. "You need a certain density in order to provide that type of bus service."
Safe and convenient travel for pedestrians and bicyclists should also be ensured, according to the plan.
"Bike trails is one example of them [city planners] really not following the plan," Fournet said. "We've stressed the automobile way too much."
She said it would be good for the city to become known as a place with good bike trails, because tourists would come here to use the trails.
Mayor Hanna said this kind of planning is important for the city and the planning office reinforces these plans.
"I think the most important thing they do is enforce our development ordinances and codes," he said. "They advise people what they can do and what they can't do. What they're doing is basically enforcing the ordinances that we have and making exceptions when they feel like something doesn't fit."

Making Plans

The planning office approves prototype buildings for restaurants and all other developments in the city, but Conklin said it is difficult to get chains to make changes to their designs.
"It's always difficult to get them to modify their advertisement for their business which is their design of the building," he said. "They really want to stick with that architecture. We do try to alter those designs, but the city, I don't think at this point in time would ever be able to alter the design in a way that you wouldn't be able to recognize that it's a Sonic or a McDonald's."
Still, city planners work to make buildings look like they belong in an area of the city. One of the new Sonic restaurants that is being built will have brick and arches that make it look more like the surrounding buildings.
"When I look at a new development, I look at how to make that development the best it can be in Fayetteville and every site is unique," Conklin said. "We always look at, I think traffic is one of the top three, how you're going to access the site."
Fayetteville has an access management program, which looks at lowering the number of curb cuts on roads, trying to interconnect different developments and allow people to walk between developments with ease. Reducing the number of curb cuts, places to turn off of a road into a shopping center or business parking lot, reduces the number of accidents because there are fewer places people are trying to turn.
"We have a strong focus on access management," he said.
Not Another Springdale
However, the most important thing that sets Fayetteville apart from other cities in Northwest Arkansas is the sign ordinance.
"There's probably one ordinance that's made a huge difference in Fayetteville it's our sign ordinance," he said. "You can drive up 71 and you'll be able to tell when the Fayetteville ordinances change to Springdale ordinances."
Conklin said Springdale's encroachment on Fayetteville is not a big issue because Fayetteville's strong ordinances will keep it looking different and make it a better place to live and work. He said the stricter regulations in Fayetteville rarely drive away potential businesses.
"I think any time you create better a community with better design you will always attract business and I don't think you drive away business," he said. "Growing up where I did in California, and seeing what can be done, it has not driven growth away from any community that I know of when you have more stringent design guidelines and more stringent ordinances. I think it only attracts more people. It makes the community more desirable.
"We're managing our growth and development and I think the more we manage it the more desirable we become."
Conklin hopes that some of the other cities in Northwest Arkansas will look to Fayetteville for inspiration in planning and not turn in to Springdale.
"Fayetteville has come such a long way," he said. "I think it's just a matter of time. Education is probably the biggest thing, when people see what we're doing down here."

Looking Back

The 2020 plan is going to be reviewed next year for the first time. The plan will be reviewed every five years to make changes and adjust figures.
"I wouldn't call it a major revision; every five years we revisit it," Conklin said. "In planning you always set your goals for the community, as you go through implementing the plan you go back and you evaluate how effective you've been implementing the plan and if you need to make adjustments to the plan, alter any strategies or results. I think that's what we're going to try to accomplish next year."
"I don't see any glaring weaknesses in it," Hanna said. "Sometimes we tend to do things as what a lot of people refer to as knee-jerk reactions, too quickly or just to handle one specific instance and then it's on the books and it covers everything."
Conklin said many people do not understand that there is a plan that regulates growth and development and that the rules are not arbitrary.
"Probably very few of the 56,000 people -- I'm not sure how many -- have actually read the 2020 plan and looked at how we're trying to implement those strategies," Conklin said. "It's not for a neighborhood but it's for the entire city. That's probably the biggest thing I've faced here."
Fournet, who is now president of the Friends, said the city does not use the whole plan as it should.
"The thing that really bothers me the most is that they didn't really use it as a plan for development," she said. "They could say they're using some of it, but we started below zero.
"We've got to go in more than 100 percent; we've got to go in 150 percent because we're so far behind."
Fournet moved to Fayetteville from Hawaii, where there is a group called the Outdoor Friends, which was founded in the 1920s. The group was responsible for banning billboards in the entire state. Fournet said this group inspired Friends for Fayetteville and the kind of impact the group wants to have on local ordinances. She said she knows it would be unrealistic to think Arkansas would ban billboards, but citizens' groups can still create changes.
Friends for Fayetteville has expanded its focus over the years to include focus groups dealing with neighborhood associations, historic preservation, tree preservation and planting, street quality, design standards and studying the impact of growth on the city. Fournet sees the group as being active in the community in these and other areas for years to come.

Looking Ahead

What Fayetteville will look like in 2020 is anyone's guess. Conklin said the changes he has seen since he moved to Fayetteville are a good sign of things to come. College Avenue redevelopment has shown that even old parts of town can be revitalized and continue to experience growth, he said.
"I've been very pleased just in the last seven years to see the difference the ordinances have made with how development looks in Fayetteville," he said. "I think in 2020 I think the community will be the most desirable place to live in Northwest Arkansas."
The University of Arkansas is a big part of the desirability of Fayetteville, he said. Hanna agreed.
"I think in 2020 Fayetteville will still be the hub, the business hub of Northwest Arkansas," he said. "I think we will still be the shopping and entertainment center for the two-county area, and a lot of that has to do with the university's influence."
He said, because of the university, the economy of Fayetteville will become more technology-based in the future. He also said the new and renovated sporting arenas for baseball, track and football will bring more tourists to Fayetteville. Changes at the university will improve the quality of education and draw more people to the city.
"I see so much growth in the departments out there," he said. "[Chancellor John A. White] is trying to make sure Arkansas is the premier college university in the state of Arkansas.
"And more people will want to come here and take advantage of all the natural forests and the natural outdoor opportunities we have here. I look to see more people using those as places to get away from the pressures of our busy city life."
He said downtown and the Dickson Street area will be the major attraction for many people.
"I think that's going to be beautiful," he said. "Our Square is, of course, going to be brought back. I look for us to bring in a lot more out of town visitors than we have in the past."
"It's such a beautiful picture," Ackerman said. "It does hinge on an economically-viable area, people coming downtown because of its amenities and its sense of place."
House said the flavor of downtown and Dickson Street will spread over time to include all of the area between the two areas.
"In 20 years, we'll have a whole kind of neat mix of boutiquey stuff and new stuff and living," he said. "We think it should be continuous. The downtown should be considered one district, like the West End in Dallas. It's classic rather than all new.
"In 20 years I think we'll have 500,000 people in Northwest Arkansas and Fayetteville will be the hub. It's unique charm and it's the downtown that's part of that."
Fournet said the city will probably be sprawling by 2020, but if the plan is used as a basis for future planning, it can be controlled.
"If we continue to use the plan and mold it and move with it, I think we will hold on to some of the things that are dear to us, like our natural beauty and our historic beauty," she said. "If we don't keep insisting and persisting we will lose it. We will be another Dallas."