zman9810

Ok...I'm sitting looking at a map of Fayetteville and the various ways to access downtown. Lets say that downtown is the area bounded by the Hwy 71B corridor on the east, Layfayette on the north ,the university on the west and Center on the south. We'll start by looking at paths from the north- specifically roads that have an exit off the bypass. Let's use Gregg first. It is 4 lanes and improved part of the way until you reach the intersection with North at which the point it turns into a neighborhood street with multiple road bumps, stop signs and twists and turns to access downtown. The city has even built a dedicated right turn at North to encourage traffic to turn west away from downtown. Obviously not a good way to access downtown. Next would be the Hwy 112/Garland exit. We all know the street is being widened and has already been so on campus. The problem there is that it stops being a good access path to downtown at the intersection with Maple, where you to turn onto Maple and it turns into a neighborhood street with a huge amount of pedestrian traffic that crosses wherever it pleases at any time. Again, not a good way to access downtown. Wedington/ North street would be the next exit although it doesn't lead directly downtown- you either use neighborhood streets like Gregg or go all the way to Hwy 71B and turn south. Next up- the MLK exit which leads to Hwy 71B again. That is, unless you want to take Razorback Road north to Maple and its path to downtown. Razorback Road exit is next and it's path to Maple again. We've ran out of exits except Hwy 71B so lets look at Hwy16/ Huntsville Rd. This street did lead directly to downtown years ago on a steep path with a very awkward intersection with Hwy 71B right in downtown but the flow of traffic has been diverted to the MLK/ Hwy 71B intersection. The last path is the Hwy 45/ Mission Blvd/ Layfayette path which is the 2 land street through the historic district that it is safe to say will never be widened or improved for better traffic flow. These examples are why I say that it is important to keep the only 4 lane road that leads into downtown and through the center of the city as drivable as possible. IMO- turning this thoroughfare into a neighborhood street will discourage both residents that don't live downtown and visitors to the city from coming to the downtown area. The idea that we don't want people driving through downtown and they should use the bypass doesn't work. If I live off Appleby Road and want to drive to Fayetteville High School I should not have to drive north to Fulbright Expressway and take the bypass to MLK and drive all the way down it to the high school. If I live off Township and want to go to the city library I should not have to drive north to the bypass and then drive south and work my way back north to get there. The idea of using alternative transportation sounds great until you wake up to a rainy morning like today- then that nice dry car sounds pretty good. A bicycle sounds good until you want to go to a good restaurant and your date is wearing her nice clothes and heels- then its not so good. When that family of 6 is making their grocery stock up trip, when you need to get to the hospital as quick as possible, when you're taking the kids to day care, etc. alternative transportation doesn't work so well. If you have valid points to make I welcome the input. If you just want to make snarky comments, don't.

I've been thinking about this post for a while with all the push to redo North College Avenue in town. I think its important to consider that N. College is actually Hwy 71B and the primary north/ south route through Fayetteville and also the path that most residents on the north and south ends of town use to access downtown Fayetteville. It is not a neighborhood street that only the downtown or slightly north of downtown residents use. At times it seems there is an insular or even egocentric view of some city leaders and residents that this vital connection to downtown is not needed- that barriers need to be erected to keep those who don't live downtown out. If you aren't willing to walk or ride a bicycle you are not welcome downtown. The idea of having neighborhood amenities such as retail stores located in nodes around the city is great but the center of town with it's government offices, regional entertainment attractions and its importance to the identity of Fayetteville needs to be as accessible as possible to anyone. Developments such as the at-grade trail crossing on Hwy 71B South and calls for more pedestrian crossing of N. College need to be balanced with the need to keep downtown as accessible as possible- we want to encourage visitors and residents to visit and travel through the city - not push them away because they don't live in our neighborhood.

Given that asking price I imagine the lot will sit empty for a long time to come. I can't imagine who would take a chance on it at that price. Actually- since it seems like the university hotel project has been put on hold maybe some chain will see an opportunity to put in a nice hotel downtown. This would still be a great site for one.

Looks like another furniture store is moving into the old Hank's on Joyce Blvd. I'm glad to see something happening there- seems its been vacant for a long time now.

That is indeed the Vue south of the hs/university- up on the hill. Seems it being visible above the horizon bothers some people- only Old Main is supposed to be seen from a distance in Fayetteville. I like it- it provides a good balance with the university buildings across the valley. Its a reminder that we are in a growing city in a growing metro and not out in the country.

It looks like the plan is to add a traffic signal at Masonic Dr. so that will help access. I had hoped there would be access off Milsap but that doesn't look to in the plans.

Looks like this story is closer to becoming a fact. According to local media the company that builds stores for Whole Foods has applied for a permit on N. College.

It seems strange that the land would be affordable for student housing but too expensive for retail- seems like it would be the other way around. I guess that's the way the market works in this case though. I had always hoped that it would develop into a high end office park for WM vendors with employees wanting to live in Fayetteville. Maybe a small amount of retail with a hotel of two would be ideal. I remember years back when Lindsey was expanding across I540 and just south there was concern that residential development was taking the limited amount of land next to exits and future office and retail development would go elsewhere out of Fayetteville. That seems to still be happening.

Time for a short rant: Traffic light cycles in NWA need to be timed logically. During rush hour, signals need to be timed to let as much traffic pass as possible before changing to let an intersecting street traffic through. Most signals seem to let a small numbers of vehicles through and then turn red causing a long line of vehicles to slow back down and grind to a halt. Then the light turns green again and traffic slowly speeds back up. The slowing down and speeding back up isn't an efficient method of traffic management. Most signals have traffic sensors so it should be possible to set signals so that the maximum amount of traffic can move through an intersection before the light changes. Having to sit through 3 light cycles shouldn't happen normally. Rant over.

I wonder how long before the City / State decide that a traffic light is needed at MLK and Beechwood? That has become a very dangerous intersection and cars line up on Beechwood to get on MLK constantly. If this new development happens it will only get worse.

The thing about the I540 cable barriers and the widening work is that they didn't know they were going to get the sales tax money to do the widening until after the cable barriers project was in progress. Same with the minor work done at the MLK and Wedington interchanges. It would be nice if government was more flexible in how it implemented planning and construction but I think until they have a secure financing method it won't happen.

125 acres is a lot of land for a supercenter or even another distribution center. Is it possible that they are planning a new Home Office campus?

I love the idea that this land will be preserved in that natural state and be available for the exact type uses I enjoy. It is adjacent to the planned park and the fact that there is a $1.5 million gift matching it is great but for the City to spend $1.5 million on it makes me want to ask the City to more closely examine it's priorities. It has just been discussed about the idea of return on the dollar in City investments when the suggestion of building affordable housing next to the new WAC parking deck came up. The affordable housing would directly benefit city residents and this land purchase would not so much. The number of visitors to the Kessler property do not indicate there will be a large return on investment in the land. I'm not saying the deal is a bad one- just that decisions need to be made on what is best for the overall well-being of the city and not just a wish of the few.

I've been reading about plans for the new parking deck behind The Walton Arts Center. Seems an idea is being floated to put row houses along the east side of it instead of a liner bldg. for City staff. The deck has turned out to be more costly than thought and a scaled back liner bldg. was considered but the row house idea might be better. It would involve selling the land that the row houses would be on to a non-profit that builds affordable housing and letting them do the work. This seems upfront like a great idea- it add affordable housing in an area that needs it, it would remove the cost of the City building on that plot of land and would ensure that the deck isn't just a barebones structure.

The Whole Foods story is exciting news! I've wondered what would happen with that lot and was concerned that it would end up a cheap used car lot. The City needs to work with the developers to ensure this project happens if at all possible. The idea of WF anchoring a shopping center here is redevelopment and infill at its best. The North College/ Milsap intersection has needed to be improved for decades and this would be the perfect opportunity to take care of that. I would say that such a project is more important to the well being of the city than Mission/Old Wire project or any number of other street projects planned. I imagine a case could be made to the state highway dept. that it is needed also and it could be moved up the list in it's priorities.

I didn't think it was a mile although I realize urban freeways are required to have that mile distance between exits. I Guess they are going to extend 8th over to Watertower Rd. That will indeed hem in NWACC. I don't if they have plans to grow much larger at that location, if they do it may have to be vertically.

I agree it is a good strategy. It seems any time a large project is proposed in Fayetteville there is loud opposition to it and then it is only a matter of time until there are new City regulations restricting said project. Some day there will be so much regulation that development will grind to a complete halt or close to it.

I avoid any convenience store whenever I can- the mark up is rarely worth the "convenience". I pay for my gas at the pump and head home for the goods I bought much cheaper at WM or Harp's (both support the local economy) or other local merchants. Both of the new big boys on the local convenience store scene are experts at the "draw them in and extort them" scheme.

Seems like a lot of the recent rezonings in Fayetteville are simply to make the properties more marketable and not for specific development plans.

How far north of the 102 interchange is the 8th St. project? It sure isn't 1 mile. Not saying anything wrong with that but when other requests come before the AHDT it needs to be remembered what was decided here.

Comparing NWA and Little Rock is comparing apples and oranges. They are two completely different types of metros- LR has a distinct metro center while NWA is a series of smallish cities in a long corridor. Singling out Fayetteville for comparison makes even less sense. I think most people in NWA and Central Arkansas see the need for the two largest urban centers in the state to work together and not try to compete. The competition is the rural faction in state government that still has too much power for the state's overall well-being.

Somewhere there is map showing a new interchange on I540 for a Joyce Blvd. extension. It would be at the top of the hill between the Fulbright and Johnson interchanges. The idea is that is would create much better access to the NWA mall area from the north and even with the Van Asche extension, flyover and Johnson Rd improvements such a project is needed. If the plan to extend Joyce to the Johnson exit had happened a new interchange wouldn't be needed but as it is accessing the mall area causes a driver to go through speed trap Johnson with it's narrow 2 lane roads that need much improvement or go all the way around to the south- neither is a good option. For the NWA Mall and Steele Crossing area to realize it's full potential it needs direct access from I540 on a 4 lane road at least and a 6 lane if possible.

Ok, I found where the proposal discussed by the Ordinance Review Committee and meant to be presented at the Tuesday council meeting had 5 ft setbacks, not 15 ft. There would have been 10 ft setbacks at the 36 ft elevation or the height of an adjacent structure within the 5 ft setback. The ordinance was changed into what the city attorney wrote at just before the meeting- what time frame I'm not sure of. Those setback restrictions would have less impact on development. If you have a lot that is 60 ft wide with setbacks of 15 ft on each side you will lose 30 ft total of usable space on that lot.

I'm trying to figure out where they came up with that 15 feet for setbacks number. It wasn't in the original or amended version of the ordinance, was it? Surely someone realized how overreaching that distance is. Considering how small some of the vacant lots where houses once stood in downtown Fayetteville it is not reasonable to expect that 30 feet across one dimension of a lot is now unusable for building. Moratorium or not, more time should have been spent looking at the consequences of what was being considered. In fact- this ordinance as is could be considered a ban on much development of any sort so it will hurt more than the moratorium would.

Looks like there will a couple of ways to deal with the restrictions. One- get a variance, which will probably be next to impossible with the current Council makeup. A second way would be if a developer wants to build next to a single family home in those zones they could buy the lot the home is on and tear it down- problem solved. I don't think that was the aim of ordinance but it's like TRB says- watch what you ask for.