ROGERS — Angela Rose is worried about her patients. Bill Layton will only have two customer parking spaces and Dawn Valdez is worried potential customers won’t be able to see her business.
The three don’t oppose widening Walnut Street between Dixieland Road and Eighth Street.
Rose, a veterinarian with the Cat Clinic of Northwest Arkansas at 1031 W. Walnut St., said she has two concerns about the project, but her major concern is her patients.
“Cats don’t like loud noises. It’s going to be noisy during construction. I’m not sure what we will do, but we will have to do something to muffle the noise,” Rose said.
She also is concerned about swamp oak trees on her property that may have to be removed for the project. Swamp oak trees are on the threatened or endangered species list, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture website.
“I know the road needs to be widened, I just hope they do it quickly,” she said.
The majority of those attending an April 11 public input meeting said they favor the project, but some had specific concerns, according to written comments by individuals and city officials who attended.
The widening project has John Canterbury, who owns buildings at 815 W. Walnut St. and 100 N. Eighth St., more than a little concerned.
“The project will completely eliminate all of the parking on the south side of 815 West Walnut Street … and reduce the parking on the east side to about half the parking spaces,” said Canterbury, a Fort Smith resident. The vacant building at 815 W. Walnut St. once housed Best Sports.
Sears leases Canterbury’s building at 100 N. Eighth St. Canterbury said the project will take so much parking from the building it will have a “disastrous effect on their business and they will probably vacate the property.” He said it will make the building almost unrentable. Eight parking spaces on the south side of the building will be taken as will nine spaces on the east side of the building.
“Losing this tenant will have about a $1 million impact on me over 10 years,” Canterbury said. “I understand progress is necessary. I also understand there is a price for progress. I’m not against the widening of Walnut Street, but it’s going to hurt me personally.”
Bill Layton, owner of the Sears store, said the project will leave two parking spaces for customers.
“That’s not going to work. It’s a real problem. I’ve talked to Sears corporate and they will pull out of this location if something isn’t done about parking,” Layton said.
“We just learned about the widening project this month. I know this didn’t just happen, I’m sure planning had this project on the books for a long time. We would like to stay here, we just opened a few months ago, but we have to have parking,” Layton said.
Dawn Valdez of Pink Bag Consignment Shop, 1500 W. Walnut St., is concerned the trees city officials want to plant along Walnut Street will reduce visibility of her business.
“We’ve just doubled the space in our store and I’m afraid I’m going to lose some trees near my business and have new trees planted that will make it difficult for drivers to see my business,” Valdez said.
She said she supports improvement to Walnut Street, but wishes the city would plant low-growing bushes next to the street rather than trees.
The widening project is a joint effort of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department and the city. Walnut Street also is known as U.S. 71B. The two entities will evenly split the estimated $10 million cost of the project.
The Walnut Street section has an average daily traffic count of 23,000 vehicles based on a 2012 study, making it one of the busiest in the city, according to Randy Ort, Highway Department spokesman.
“City officials and the Highway Department agree a center left turn lane needs to be added to that section of Walnut Street for safety reasons. We need to move vehicles making left turns out of the travel lanes,” Ort said.
Ort said he understands the concern of the business owners as well.
“That’s why we have public meetings. The meeting this month was to gather information from the public, to find out what they think and what they believe the problems will be. The drawing they saw is preliminary, it could change based on some of the information gathered,” Ort said.
“We will consider the information gathered from the public meeting during the final design phase,” Ort said. Additional meetings are likely when the design is complete next year.
“We have to have a final, approved design before we can start acquiring right of way property,” Ort said.
Crafton Tull, an architecture and engineering firm, was hired by the city as a consultant. Ryan Castor is the engineer working on the project. He conducted the public hearing earlier this month. The $613,500 contract calls for Crafton Tull to design the widening project.
“The drawing we had on display at the public hearing was conceptual, but the final design won’t differ much from the conceptual drawing,” Castor said. “We plan to have the final design complete and approved late this year or early next year. We want to begin buying right of way next year so construction can begin in 2015.”
“This is a project the city has wanted to do for awhile and it’s on our master street plan. Being able to partner with the state moved the project up several years and that’s good for the taxpayers and the motorists,” said Lance Jobe, city civil engineer.
“The widening project, besides safety and more efficient traffic movement, will also serve as the gateway to downtown. It will help connect historic downtown with the growing west side of the city,” Jobe said.
At A Glance (w/logo)
Project Cost
Walnut Street’s widening between Dixieland Road and Eighth Street is expected to cost $10 million.
• Patterned and colored concrete intersections will be created at Dixieland Road, 13th and Eighth streets.
• Period street lamps matching those downtown will be used along Walnut Street.
• Trees will be planted on both sides of Walnut Street to add ambiance.
• Double left turn lanes will be added at intersections with Eighth Street and Dixieland Road.
• The project will add a center left-turn lane to the four-lane road.
• No time table for completion for the project has been established.
Source: Staff Report