wmr

Turning College and South School into more urban developed streets doesn't mean they will reduce the lanes. They might lower speed limits, and it will mean more stoplights eventually. Dickson Street used to be a faster street. The city narrowed the drive lanes, widened sidewalks and revamped every crosswalk. Traffic doesn't move as quickly along Dickson as it did 20 years ago. The benefit to the neighborhood is worth it. I see your point of view as being "convenient access to downtown from other areas" as priority number one. I just don't think its a smart opinion when talking about long-term city planning.

So you're suggesting that only downtown is going to be a neighborhood oriented area, and the rest of the city streets serve as rapid thoroughfares to get people downtown. I completely disagree with that mindset. If anything, focusing dense development along S. School (where it is already starting to occur) and along N. College will only expand the definition of what people consider to be the core of the city. The problem with thinking of Fayetteville the way you do, is that as Fayetteville continues to expand outward, its only going to have one tiny little dense area worth visiting, surrounded by sprawl in every direction for ten miles. The motive behind seeking more dense development along School and College has nothing to do with erecting barriers, or keeping others out. Its about expanding the central core of the city, creating more neighborhoods similar to downtown and Dickson, and preventing the entire rest of the city from becoming like Wedington.

So weird.

I'd hope for at least ten stories there. Given the height restrictions that exist all over downtown, and especially on lots next to single-family lots, there aren't many opportunities for good ole tall buildings in this town. 10 stories would be downright quaint in most real cities. I really like that picture. The building could do with more detail, but all in all, I like the scale and materials. Something like that would be great for that site.

I like dense development on the hillside. I just think the shapes are ugly, repetitive and that the pastel colors on siding are crappy-looking. It just looks cheap to me. So cheap-looking, combined with prominence = I hate it. The initial renderings look more "solid" and appear to use more stucco or other masonry than the end result.

Upon closer inspection of the site plan, there are already two sites designated as restaurants with patios, each of 2800 square feet. That's more inline with something like Chipotle or PeiWei. 9000 square feet (corner pad) would be a nice sized retail location for somebody. I'm trying to think of something that size that would cool to have in Fayetteville, and would locate outside of a mall type district.

Right on.... So that 9000sf pad in the corner looks like a good spot for sit-down dining. I notice some parking to the south of that building, and of course shared parking implied with the WF area. I would think a casual to fine-dining restaurant would be ok with that level of parking. I'm cool with a northside Chipotle, but I'm hoping for something better.

You have them up in the city of Rogers. Down here in suburban Rogers (aka Fayetteville), we don't yet.

Maybe we'll get our PF Chang's or Chuy's in there.

Where did you see it? I hope they choose N. College. That would do wonders for that area. With the flyover, that area is also going to more attractive to hotels, with easy in, easy out access.

I hate the Vue. Its just not a very good looking development for something that takes away from the mountain scenery. I don't remember the renderings being that ugly, so I looked it up. Here's what the initial renderings showed:

They seem to be growing. I was just noticing today that their Facebook page for Country Outfitter has over 6 million likes. Just a few months back, I remember reading a news story talking about their success saying they had "over 3 million likes on Facebook". Looks like business is good.

Both of those are townhome developments.

Those look good. Its incredible how in just about 5 years time the standard garden apartments (ala Lindsey) have become out of date here. So many new options.

July 2013 population estimates were released yesterday by county. In the NWA metro, here's the breakdown in increase to 2013 from 2012. Benton County - 237,297 up from 232,658. Washington County - 216,410 up from 211,552. Madison County - 15,701 up from 15,615. McDonald County, MO - 22,558, down from 22,902. This is a grand total for the four-county region of 491,966 residents as of July 1, 2013 (estimate). What stands out obviously to me is that having a "four-county" metro here doesn't mean all that much, because in Madison and McDonald, growth is non-existent. Benton and Washington County carry all of the population here. Also, Washington County actually added more people than Benton County did over the past year.

Siloam's median section of 412 looks crappy, because at every curb cut, where drivers can enter the road, the have to put up a "OneWay" sign. Its a concrete strip full of road signs. This sounds like it will be similar. It will probably function well as far as getting drivers quickly from I-540 to Salem and beyond, but unless the city gets the state to agree to a tree lined median, it won't look that great. Maybe Siloam's is only that cluttered looking because it is 6 lanes worth. This segment would be great for a secondary lane fronting the businesses, but I forget what those are called. Kind of like a frontage road, except for a boulevard rather than a highway.

That's massive. Have they posted renderings of the whole project? I was aware of it because of the docs for city planning.

Wow. This is great for Bentonville. I'm a bit envious of their two new mixed use projects. Fayetteville keeps getting apartment buildings with little to no retail/restaurants in them.

That looks so much better than anything Fayetteville is getting lately. Is this one the same one that includes the WM Neighborhood Market or a different one?

Has anyone seen the renderings for Pinnacle Heights #2? Its supposed to be the tallest building in Benton County when completed.

That's cool. I want the Wal-Mart.com campus to be built in Fayetteville anyway.

The large property recently acquired by Wal-Mart would be large enough for a true corporate campus. Wal-Mart has to consider security. A suburban style campus would be easier to control as far as access. They would also have an opportunity to showcase their brand and their recent environmental focus in a modern new campus. There are large sectors of the company that are not located primarily in NWA such as their Wal-Mart.com business. My wishful thinking is that they would build a new, visible and modern campus for their operations on that land. Look at the Silicon Valley companies and what they do on their campuses to cater to tech employees. I believe Wal-Mart would need to do something campus-wise if they ever sought to move more of those operations to Northwest Arkansas. Attracting the top talent to Bentonville should be their goal. They succeed to a large degree, but I have to think at least some of the talent they seek is turned off by the spartan environment at the HO.

I think the city is keeping far too much cash on hand. Two months is the requirement for a "rainy day fund". I don't have a problem with them keeping a little more than that, but doubling it doesn't make sense to me. Of course I have never been a fan of Lioneld Jordan or really anything he's ever said or done. 4 million of that would bury every powerline on College Ave. 1 million of that would bury the high voltage lines for three blocks downtown. The city apparently struggles to provide basic services like snow removal, which costs us money in the long run in missed work, less business activity and more missed school days. Its a simpleton's way of thinking, IMO. Cash reserves are not always good. It's pinching pennies and dimes while forgetting about investing in things that will lead to more economic development in the future and a larger pie. Fayetteville has never once recruited a big tech job company. Even Conway manages to get things like that. I feel like this city is run like Elkins or something while Jordan is mayor. He's lived in Fayetteville his entire life and as far as I know, never managed to go to college. That is a feat of mediocrity in and of itself.

So the city is about to acquire a total of 376 acres of Mt. Kessler in SW Fayetteville. This is some awesome hiking and mountain biking territory, and its adjacent to the new 200 acre South Pass park. So it will become essentially a 576 acre park. This is just incredibly cool. http://www.fayettevilleflyer.com/2014/02/07/fayetteville-negotiates-deal-to-preserve-over-300-acres-on-mount-kessler/

There is some info on the city website in the Tech Plat & committee agenda items about the Specialized project off MLK. There aren't renderings or anything, but it appears to be some form of duplex/townhome project based on the proposed layout.