Fayetteville, Arkansas

[cocothief]

While I think it is very unfortunate that the entire project cannot be completed as planned, I firmly believe that this is the right decision. I would much rather have the bulk of the project (and the section that carries the most traffic) completed the right way than compromise on design and safety and complete the whole thing. If anyone wants to see what the project would have to look like if the design were changed to meet the states requirements for doing the entire project, just drive down Hwy 265 South of the Hwy 45 intersection. This section (from Hwy 45 to Hwy 16) was widened several years ago to a standard 4 (some places 5) lane design with a small sidewalk that is immediately adjacent to the road (and high speed traffic). Not an attractive design, a nightmare for traffic and way too dangerous for pedestrians and/or cyclists. I think this project, done the right way, will really serve to beautify that quadrant of Fayetteville and will go a long way to help promote alternative transportation.

I also agree that this is the right decision.

I believe a lot of people who live in E. Fayetteville come in off the Fullbright Expressway onto North College and then Joyce on their way home.

That section is more traveled than the northern section, although the northern section to Springdale can back up during rush hour.

Having 4 lanes at Joyce will help alleviate that to some degree by moving traffic on down the line that might otherwise back up.

I am glad that the city decided to stick to their guns on the design of this roadway.

In the future, I foresee the southern section being redesigned to match the northern parts, and hopefully a redesign of College Avenue into something similar.

In 10 years when there are mature trees in the median and this roadway is still beautiful, we will all know that it was money well spent.

We don't need to duplicate College Avenue on the eastern side of town.

[Mith242]

I also agree. I also think even though it won't extend as far north as originally planned. Widening it to Joyce is what I'd consider the biggest step anyway. White having it widened to Zion or the city limits would be nice, I don't think it's as necessary. They also decided to set aside some money for two other projects. Widening Weddington and Garland. I've heard about widening Garland for years. They mentioned setting aside $3 Mil for that, which to me doesn't seem very much to get much done. Granted it is a state highway and the city is only paying a share of the costs. I'm still curious just how far they're going to widen it.

[zman9810]

I also agree. I also think even though it won't extend as far north as originally planned. Widening it to Joyce is what I'd consider the biggest step anyway. White having it widened to Zion or the city limits would be nice, I don't think it's as necessary. They also decided to set aside some money for two other projects. Widening Weddington and Garland. I've heard about widening Garland for years. They mentioned setting aside $3 Mil for that, which to me doesn't seem very much to get much done. Granted it is a state highway and the city is only paying a share of the costs. I'm still curious just how far they're going to widen it.

One good thing about widening Crossover to Joyce is that it almost completes a 4 lane loop on the east side of Fayetteville. Except for that short stretch on the southside between Crossover and where the loop widens back to 4 lanes on 15th it could be considered a bypass. I'm glad to see that the original design was kept- eliminating the median and bike lanes would have been a mistake.

I think the idea is to widen Garland out to where Asche connects in order to create better access to the mall area. That is a an important connection to make for the economic well being of the city. The planned Asche 4 lane extension will open a large area on each side of it for more retail and office space development and hopefully help Fayetteville expand it's tax base. I don't think developing this area would be considered sprawl as it is already surrounded by the freeway and other commercial areas- it should be considered as infill.

Edited March 1, 2008 by zman9810

[Mith242]

One good thing about widening Crossover to Joyce is that it almost completes a 4 lane loop on the east side of Fayetteville. Except for that short stretch on the southside between Crossover and where the loop widens back to 4 lanes on 15th it could be considered a bypass. I'm glad to see that the original design was kept- eliminating the median and bike lanes would have been a mistake.

I think the idea is to widen Garland out to where Asche connects in order to create better access to the mall area. That is a an important connection to make for the economic well being of the city. The planned Asche 4 lane extension will open a large area on each side of it for more retail and office space development and hopefully help Fayetteville expand it's tax base. I don't think developing this area would be considered sprawl as it is already surrounded by the freeway and other commercial areas- it should be considered as infill.

Yeah I know eventually they want to widen Garland from North St all the way up. But with the city setting aside $3 Mil, that really doesn't seem like much. I'm just wondering if they will eventually do it in sections.

[cocothief]

Now that they're up, these new power poles are every bit as bad or worse than I imagined them to be.

Terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE aesthetic scar on an area that was becoming more beautiful by the year.

I can't believe this was allowed to happen. It makes me sick.

[andrewjensen]

Yeah I know eventually they want to widen Garland from North St all the way up. But with the city setting aside $3 Mil, that really doesn't seem like much. I'm just wondering if they will eventually do it in sections.

The city has $5.2M of the $6.7M total cost (rest paid by state/federal funds) set aside to widen Garland from North to Melmar in 2009. I believe the $3.66M is set aside for widening 112 farther north.

[thewizard16]

Now that they're up, these new power poles are every bit as bad or worse than I imagined them to be.

Terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE aesthetic scar on an area that was becoming more beautiful by the year.

I can't believe this was allowed to happen. It makes me sick.

I agree. Wooden poles aren't attractive, but these are horrible. They've strewn them all along Leverett, the street by Underwood, and in other places around downtown. I also noticed a string of them near the interstate cutting through a field off of Garland. I absolutely hate the way these look, with the odd wheels sticking way off the side and cheap looking metal sides.

[Mith242]

The city has $5.2M of the $6.7M total cost (rest paid by state/federal funds) set aside to widen Garland from North to Melmar in 2009. I believe the $3.66M is set aside for widening 112 farther north.

Thanks for the info Andrew. I had wondered if Melmar would be a first step. I know the Razorback Transit runs to there quite a bit and traffic seems to get a little better once you get north of Melmar.

I agree. Wooden poles aren't attractive, but these are horrible. They've strewn them all along Leverett, the street by Underwood, and in other places around downtown. I also noticed a string of them near the interstate cutting through a field off of Garland. I absolutely hate the way these look, with the odd wheels sticking way off the side and cheap looking metal sides.

Yeah they're apparently going to run from the substation near Powerhouse to their substation to the north somewhere near I-540. Obviously there wasn't enough money to put that whole stretch underground. It's just really a shame they couldn't have found some way to stick at least a little bit of it underground.

[thewizard16]

Thanks for the info Andrew. I had wondered if Melmar would be a first step. I know the Razorback Transit runs to there quite a bit and traffic seems to get a little better once you get north of Melmar.

Yeah they're apparently going to run from the substation near Powerhouse to their substation to the north somewhere near I-540. Obviously there wasn't enough money to put that whole stretch underground. It's just really a shame they couldn't have found some way to stick at least a little bit of it underground.

Yes, I feel like it might have been possible for the city to pressure them into putting the ones at least immediately downtown underground. Of course, it would have been expensive and cost the city money, and we're not coming up with a lot extra right now.

[Mith242]

Yes, I feel like it might have been possible for the city to pressure them into putting the ones at least immediately downtown underground. Of course, it would have been expensive and cost the city money, and we're not coming up with a lot extra right now.

Yeah the city pressured them. They tried to make Swepco pay for it. But it ultimately was decided by a state agency down in Little Rock and they sided with Swepco instead of Fayetteville. And like you said, the city doesn't have the money to even think about trying to pay for it themselves. It would have been hard even a couple of years ago when the city wasn't having revenue problems.

[strmchsr77]

A new development called Bridgedale Plaza is coming to Fayetteville's southeast side. The $16 million project will consist of commercial, residential, and office space. There should be space for a bank and at least one fast food restaurant along Huntsville. I know too much more about the project so far. There is a video of the plat on the link below.

Bridgedale Plaza

[cocothief]

A new development called Bridgedale Plaza is coming to Fayetteville's southeast side. The $16 million project will consist of commercial, residential, and office space. There should be space for a bank and at least one fast food restaurant along Huntsville. I know too much more about the project so far. There is a video of the plat on the link below.

Bridgedale Plaza

Thanks for posting this. This is good news for that part of town, although I read another article stating opposition to it. Go figure.

[Mith242]

A new development called Bridgedale Plaza is coming to Fayetteville's southeast side. The $16 million project will consist of commercial, residential, and office space. There should be space for a bank and at least one fast food restaurant along Huntsville. I know too much more about the project so far. There is a video of the plat on the link below.

Bridgedale Plaza

Thanks for mentioning this. I had heard something but didn't have all the details so I didn't post it yet. I'm still a little surprised to hear about these type of developments coming out. While it's mixed-use, I believe a lot of it will be residential. I don't think Fayetteville is as bad as other areas of NWA but I recently read something today saying there was a four year supply of houses already on the market. It hadn't been quite that long of a period but apparently our metro is slowing down a bit. Instead of 1,000 people moving into NWA a month now it's down to around 775. Speaking of economy I thought it was ironic to see the coverage in a couple of the local newspapers. Basically the same news but one was sorta doom and gloom about how things have slowed down here. The other mentioned things had slowed down but did mention that we're still growing economically. Even now our rate is still better than the National and State levels. They said it just seemed bad because of how fast it was growing in recent years.

[mzweig]

Thanks for posting this. This is good news for that part of town, although I read another article stating opposition to it. Go figure.

There are "haters" who just seem to be against everything.

I will say that I can't understand what the developers are thinking--that this is an ugly market and it has never been easy to sell real estate in that part of town--but God bless 'm for trying and for doing someting!

M

[cocothief]

There are "haters" who just seem to be against everything.

I will say that I can't understand what the developers are thinking--that this is an ugly market and it has never been easy to sell real estate in that part of town--but God bless 'm for trying and for doing someting!

M

It sounds like the developer is pretty married to their self-storage portion of the project. Maybe they've found a away to make the proforma work with self-storage revenues even if nothing else sells.

[mzweig]

It sounds like the developer is pretty married to their self-storage portion of the project. Maybe they've found a away to make the proforma work with self-storage revenues even if nothing else sells.

That has to be it. Having self-storage doesn't exactly upgrade this development but it might make it viable in this location.

M

[Mith242]

That has to be it. Having self-storage doesn't exactly upgrade this development but it might make it viable in this location.

M

Wasn't it the self storage that the city was questioning?

[Mith242]

This has been talked about before. But it does appear that Fayetteville will extend Van Asche between Garland and Gregg. But the funding won't be there till 2012 so we have a bit of a wait. There is a West Van Asche in that area. I'm assuming they'll straighten it all out

[strmchsr77]

This has been talked about before. But it does appear that Fayetteville will extend Van Asche between Garland and Gregg. But the funding won't be there till 2012 so we have a bit of a wait. There is a West Van Asche in that area. I'm assuming they'll straighten it all out

It looks like the city will be moving forward with the Van Ashe extention sooner than expected. It biggest obstacle will be the city of Johnson and the de-annexation of 100 acres. The company that owns the land (I think that it is Zero Mountain) agreed to join the city of Fayetteville to make this extention possible. The mayor of Johnson is not too thrilled but I don't exactly know what they can do about it. This will somewhat help with the access problems of north Fayetteville.

[Stormcrow]

It looks like the city will be moving forward with the Van Ashe extention sooner than expected. It biggest obstacle will be the city of Johnson and the de-annexation of 100 acres. The company that owns the land (I think that it is Zero Mountain) agreed to join the city of Fayetteville to make this extention possible. The mayor of Johnson is not too thrilled but I don't exactly know what they can do about it. This will somewhat help with the access problems of north Fayetteville.

That's awesome re: Zero Mountain! Too bad for Johnson but the town is really an artifact now anyway and needs to be absorbed totally.

[thewizard16]

That's awesome re: Zero Mountain! Too bad for Johnson but the town is really an artifact now anyway and needs to be absorbed totally.

Johnson will most likely become an internal suburb of sorts in the forseeable future. They're their own town, and I can understand them not wanting to "join" another city just because it's larger and has grown out to them, but I don't see them being successful in stopping Fayetteville from obtaining lands in the area that they really want. Disgruntled or not, Fayetteville's still got more influence than they do by a long shot.

[zman9810]

I saw a planning notice for a project titled Park Center- it's being propsed as a planned zoning disrict on 8.58 acres at the NE corner of Zion Rd. and Public Road 1347. Not sure where that is but I'm thinking it might be next to the Lake Fayetteville south park access road. It's calling for 100,500 sq ft of mixed retail, office and restaurant space with 15 residential units- a pretty big development for that area ( if it is indeed that spot). It'll be interesting to see what it looks like later in the planning process.

[OnDickson]

That's awesome re: Zero Mountain! Too bad for Johnson but the town is really an artifact now anyway and needs to be absorbed totally.

Gee with the loss of all of that potential sales tax revenue to Fayetteville, poor ol' Johnson might have to resort to a speed trap or something to make their revenue........

[OnDickson]

I saw a planning notice for a project titled Park Center- it's being propsed as a planned zoning disrict on 8.58 acres at the NE corner of Zion Rd. and Public Road 1347. Not sure where that is but I'm thinking it might be next to the Lake Fayetteville south park access road. It's calling for 100,500 sq ft of mixed retail, office and restaurant space with 15 residential units- a pretty big development for that area ( if it is indeed that spot). It'll be interesting to see what it looks like later in the planning process.

Yep, that is the correct location for this development. It is a mixed use development with retail at the front near zion road and a 6 story medical office building at the Northwest corner of the development nearest Lake Fayetteville. The 6 story building will have 15 residential units/condos on the top floors. The road through this development will be given to the city as a public road and will serve as the new officail entrance to Veteran's Memorial Park (the park on the south side of Lake Fayetteville). It will align with Vantage drive to the south, and it is believed that there will be a stoplight at this intersection after this development is finished. The Parks Board approved the new entrance to the Veteran's Park and recommended a change in name from Vantage Drive to Veteran's Memorial Drive to help with visibility for the park as well as to honor our veterans (currently there is no street named 'Veteran's' in Fayetteville) There are no current active addresses on Vantage Drive, so a name change would not have an adverse economic impact on any businesses or residences. The City Council must act on the name change for it to become official and it is my understanding it will be sponsored at one of the next meetings.

That's all I can recall off the top of my head. I've got details of the development at my office and will check them later. It looks like a really nice mixed use development--especially for that area of town.

[Mith242]

It looks like the city will be moving forward with the Van Ashe extention sooner than expected. It biggest obstacle will be the city of Johnson and the de-annexation of 100 acres. The company that owns the land (I think that it is Zero Mountain) agreed to join the city of Fayetteville to make this extention possible. The mayor of Johnson is not too thrilled but I don't exactly know what they can do about it. This will somewhat help with the access problems of north Fayetteville.

Yeah I forgot to mention any of that yesterday. Yeah the mayor of Johnson comes back from medical leave to find out a large chuck on the south side is planning on changing over to Fayetteville. I think this has something to do with a law that was passed a few years ago. I don't remember the specifics but something about if an area is already getting some of it's services from another city it has the right to be annexed into the other city. The bad thing for Johnson is that this would seem to leave them open to have other areas switch over to Fayetteville or Springdale.

This also reminded me there was another town trying to get people to officially change their addresses. I think it might have been Elkins. They were concerned that because certain areas technically had a Fayetteville address even though it was inside Elkins city limits that they were losing out on some revenue. But apparently no one wanted to switch. They said their land and property was worth more with a Fayetteville address. Just makes me wonder if then Fayetteville could potentially go after that area as well.

I saw a planning notice for a project titled Park Center- it's being proposed as a planned zoning district on 8.58 acres at the NE corner of Zion Rd. and Public Road 1347. Not sure where that is but I'm thinking it might be next to the Lake Fayetteville south park access road. It's calling for 100,500 sq ft of mixed retail, office and restaurant space with 15 residential units- a pretty big development for that area ( if it is indeed that spot). It'll be interesting to see what it looks like later in the planning process.

I've noticed there seems to be a lot going on over around that area not too far south of Lake Fayetteville.

Yep, that is the correct location for this development. It is a mixed use development with retail at the front near zion road and a 6 story medical office building at the Northwest corner of the development nearest Lake Fayetteville. The 6 story building will have 15 residential units/condos on the top floors. The road through this development will be given to the city as a public road and will serve as the new officail entrance to Veteran's Memorial Park (the park on the south side of Lake Fayetteville). It will align with Vantage drive to the south, and it is believed that there will be a stoplight at this intersection after this development is finished. The Parks Board approved the new entrance to the Veteran's Park and recommended a change in name from Vantage Drive to Veteran's Memorial Drive to help with visibility for the park as well as to honor our veterans (currently there is no street named 'Veteran's' in Fayetteville) There are no current active addresses on Vantage Drive, so a name change would not have an adverse economic impact on any businesses or residences. The City Council must act on the name change for it to become official and it is my understanding it will be sponsored at one of the next meetings.

That's all I can recall off the top of my head. I've got details of the development at my office and will check them later. It looks like a really nice mixed use development--especially for that area of town.

Thanks for the info.