FAYETTEVILLE — Stormwater management and clearer descriptions of what qualifies as “infill” and “sprawl” may be some of the most distinct topics that get addressed in Fayetteville’s next fi ve-year city master plan.
“I want stormwater as part of the whole planning process,” said Sarah Lewis, an alderwoman from Ward 4, speaking during the first public meeting to update the city’s master plan, known as City Plan 2025. The document gets and update every five years, and is created anew every 10 years.
“It’s a tuneup, rather than the purchase of a new car,” is the way Karen Minkel, director of Fayetteville strategic planning and internal consulting, described the updating process. A draft of the updated plan is expected to be ready some time in the winter of 2011, she added. More public meetings and input sessions will be scheduled.
But at the first meeting City Council members and the planning staft discussed key issues like whether or not the city has done an adequate job of controlling sprawl and fostering an environment of developing within the city’s core. These are both listed as some of the top priorities of City Plan 2025.
For the most part, the City Council has put in place ordinances to facilitate both these goals with the passage of urban zoning districts and neighborhood master plans. However, Minkel noted that in roughly 5 percent of zoning change cases where the council did not endorse the position of the planning staft or planning commission to “up-zone” an area to accommodate increased density, it occurred in the core of the city. The most recent and vocal of these examples was last September when the City Council narrowly denied the rezoning of the former Washington County Sale and Livestock Barn site just south of downtown. Developers wanted to build a 200-unit housing complex marketed to students. However, residents were strongly opposed because of density and compatibility considerations.
“I think it’s the nature of the beast,” said Brenda Thiel, one of the council members voting to deny that rezoning, as she noted that public opinion will always weigh in on the decisions of elected officials. “They (these decisions,) do involve politics, and constituents. And I don’t think there’s anything that staff can do diff erently.”
Where City Plan 2030 can address these issues is looking for more buy-in from residents when it comes to how their neighborhoods develop, Thiel said. She recommended more neighborhood master plans like the ones done for the Walker Park and Fayette Junction neighborhoods.
“There’s a buy-in,” she said.
Lewis, who has been as unceasing advocate for stormwater management reform, wants to see water management as an essential component of the city’s next master plan.