FAYETTEVILLE — It’s time, again, for a discussion about widening Garland Avenue on the three-quarter-mile stretch between Wedington Drive and North Janice Avenue.
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department plans a “public involvement meeting” from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 1021 W. Sycamore St. in Fayetteville.
The meeting is a continuation of a discussion that began about five years ago as Fayetteville issued voter-backed bonds for key street improvements. For the last two years, the project has gone back and forth between city officials and the Highway Department, which in 2008 proposed a fi velane highway with a continuous center turn lane.
By Greg Harton
Since then, residents, business owners and city leaders have pressed for a modified plan they said would be a better fit for Fayetteville.
“It has had a lot of comment and public involvement and redesigns, with at times competing interests,” said Don Marr, chief of staff for Mayor Lioneld Jordan.
“It’s not perfect,” Marr said. “There are some things that aren’t ideal about it, but we think it’s a good design that takes into account all the interests.”
The debate has centered on details indicative of the differing needs of a city street versus a state highway. Garland Avenue is both. The state marks it as Arkansas 112.
Fayetteville officials have wanted to avoid creating a massive, five-lane highway, often citing portions of Crossover Road, College Avenue or Wedington Drive as examples they don’t want copied. The state’s focus has been on reducing barriers to an increased capacity for moving vehicles.
“It’s exactly what that area of town needs right now,” said Matthew Petty, Ward 2 alderman , recalling a ward meeting last year in which residents expressed their wishes for far more than just a fi ve-lane highway.
“They wanted something that represented how special Garland Avenue is as an entrance to the university and as an entrance to our city,” Petty said.
Don Johnston, who has owned at least part of the Oak Plaza shopping center since 1973, said he plans to attend next week’s meeting.
“I think the fi ve-lane road is overkill,” Johnston said Friday, noting he and others with businesses or homes along the road liked a three-lane approach better. “They didn’t want it to mess up the tone of the neighborhood, and they’re fi xing to.”
“I think it’s more about beautification than about travel,” Johnston said. “I’d rather them leave it like it is as opposed to what they’re about to do.”
David Nilles, a spokesman for the Highway Department in Little Rock, said officials there hope the project will generally meet with approval.
“This is pretty much a finished product,” he said. But noted public comments can still have an impact. “It can still be tweaked some.”
Thursday’s meeting is a drop-in style session in which visitors can ask questions of Highway Department staff ers and register their comments individually.
The city of Fayetteville agreed to pay half the construction costs of the project, up to $1.5 million, even though it involves a state highway. The estimated cost of construction is $3 million, Nilles said.