FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas’ plan to build a temporary construction road that would extend across part of the Old Main lawn has drawn the opposition of the state senator whose district includes the Fayetteville campus.
Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, and state Rep. Johnnie Roebuck, D-Arkadelphia, cochairmen of the Higher Education Subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council, have scheduled a public hearing for June 23 in Little Rock to gather input on the matter.
“My end goal is to have them abandon this plan,” Madison said. “It’s going to be hideous.”
UA Chancellor G. David Gearhart responded that campus administrators will attendthe hearing and “certainly try to answer whatever questions she might have.”
He said the route is “not completely a done deal yet.”
“We’re still looking at this whole thing to try to determine what is the best way to do it,” he said, adding, “I honestly don’t think what we have proposed is going to be a problem.
“We’re going to end up doing whatever is in the best interests of the university and the lawn.”
The road is needed for heavy trucks and other traffic related to the renovation and expansion of Ozark and Vol Walker halls, a project set to begin this summer and be completed in the summer 2013.
Madison said UA, the state’s largest and oldest public university, has not complied with House ConcurrentResolution 1024 of 2003.
The resolution, passed in March of that year, was a legislative response to UA’s plan to demolish the campus’ 4-H House to make room for a parking deck, said Madison. It was presented by Rep. Jan Judy, D-Fayetteville, who was part of a group trying to save the building.
UA tore down the structure in May 2003.
The resolution requires that “all publicly owned historic structures and sites should not undergo any alteration that would compromise the historic integrity” without first, a public announcement of the goal and intent of the alteration, and second, a review “conducted in accordance with state and national preservation guidelines under the direction of the Arkansas Historic Preservation program ora private consultant.”
The review would ensure that “taxpayer money is spent to enhance the historic property and not compromise the integrity of the historic structure or site,” according to the resolution.
UA wants to create a fourway stop where the temporary road starts at Arkansas Avenue and Lafayette Street to ease construction traffic. UA Facilities Management plans to dismantle a rock wall piece by piece in order to create the entrance.
Each stone would be numbered and stored. The process would be recorded so the wall could be put back exactly as it is now, said Mike Johnson, associate vice chancellor for facilities management.
Johnson said the proposal calls for starting to build the road in the next three to six weeks.
The proposed road would extend through the area between Old Main and Ozark Hall until it becomes oneway just south of Vol Walker, completed in 1935 as the university library and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. Ozark Hall was completed in 1940 as UA’s business administration building and was placed on the historic register in 1992.
The route would veer northwest of Vol Walker and end in a parking lot that connects to Maple Street.
The federal government added the University of Arkansas Campus Historic District to the national register in 2009.
The district, bordered byGarland and Arkansas avenues and Maple and Dickson streets, encompasses five “landscape areas” and 15 buildings. The road is planned within the district.
“The Campus Historic District is the historic core of the school,” UA wrote in its national register nomination.
Last month, Gearhart said he had approved the installation of the road and route. On Tuesday, he said he’s asked Johnson to take another look at an alternative route that would start on Dickson Street.
That path has been suggested by Fayetteville residents who have expressed their displeasure with the road as proposed.
Gearhart said the Dickson Street route would mean the removal of more trees than the university’s preferred course. The university designates the area east of Old Main as one of two campus arboretums.
The proposed route wouldaffect only a few trees, Johnson said. The facilities management department is also planning to consult a tree expert to allay residents’ concerns about the potential affect the road will have on tree roots.
“The last thing we would want to do is to destroy a bunch of old trees,” Gearhart said. “I have asked them to take one more look. I’m hoping that we’ll have something definitive down the road here.”
Madison suggested a third potential route: The former Campus Drive, a city street that was closed decades ago to create the pedestrian Campus Walk, between Maple and Dickson streets.
But construction is under way at the corner of Maple and Campus Walk, where the university is placing a 30-foot high decorative gate as well as extending a water pipe.
UA is also making utility improvements to Campus Walk, Johnson said.
Madison said the gate construction was “not well thought out.”
The $1.1 million Centennial Gate is a gift made in February by Pi Beta Phi sorority following a fundraising drive.
Those opposed to the road have used two Fayetteville city government meetings to vent their concerns.
Paula Marinoni, who lives less than a block from campus on Lafayette Street, addressed city officials at a Fayetteville City Council Street Committee meeting May 31 and again Monday night at a town hall meeting hosted by Mayor Lioneld Jordan.
Marinoni, who is also troubled by UA’s plan to direct truck traffic up her street to campus, has called the Old Main lawn “the most readily recognizable property in the state” and a “tourist attraction.”
“This is our work of art, and it is like they’re throwing mud all over it,” Marinoni said Monday night, her comments drawing light applause from a majority of the estimated 50 people who attended the meeting at St. James Missionary Baptist Church.
“It will be an embarrassment for those who come to see” the lawn, Marinoni said.
Thomas Kennedy, a retired UA professor of history, told the crowd that he was walking on the campus recently and saw a sign that asked visitors to keep off the grass in order to maintain the lawn’s beauty.
“That to me seemed to be the epitome of irony,” Kennedy said after the meeting. “This would be a disaster. It just seems to me they ought to rethink it.” To contact this reporter:
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 06/08/2011