HOW WE SEE IT: Sending Plan Back To Staff A Good Step

Is it the dawn of a new day in Bentonville politics?

We’re talking about the recent decision by the Bentonville City Council to send the North Walton Boulevard redevelopment plan back to the staff of the planning department to be reworked.

Let’s start with where this plan came from.

City staff has devoted about a year to the process of speaking to the public and gathering detailed information about North Walton Boulevard. The staff drew up a development plan for a 113-acre section from West Central Avenue to Ridgefield Drive.

“An aging community corridor” is the way one city staffer described the current state of North Walton Boulevard. It’s not unusual for communities to set out on a brainstorming or visioning exercise to consider the possibilities for an underutilized section of town.

Such plans are not,however, carved into stone. They are meant to be guidelines developed through public comments to help a section of town slowly evolve. Left alone, that evolution can become a hodge-podge of, for example, bad transportation decision-making.

In short, they are important road maps to the future, but adjustments can be made along the way even if the agreed-upon destination doesn’t change.

Bentonville’s plan includes a strategy for upgrading sidewalks, adding trail connectors, planting trees and adding new public art. It also calls for a merchant district to benefit business owners and new business developments.

The North Walton plan, however, took a bit of a detour last week when the Bentonville City Council voted to send the plan back to city planners after several weeks of opposition from residents along Northwest Fifth Street.

The plan envisions an extension of Fifth Street from Bella Vista Road through to North Walton.

Today, it dead-ends two blocks east of Walton.

Most urban planners will tell you connectivity becomes more and more crucial as traffic grows within a specific area. With the vision of improving the experience of drivers and pedestrians in the North Walton area, it makes sense to create street connections to give motorists and walkers options.

Failure to do so can often lead to unnecessary congestion. A big part of a city’s transportation responsibility is moving traffic safely. So it’s understandable planners would include the extension in a comprehensive revision.

“We’re trying to reintroduce people to North Walton, the business and facilities that we have in that part of town,” Troy Galloway, director of community development, said at a recent meeting.

So what’s this about a new day dawning? We can remember a time in the not-too-distant past when it was highly unlikely the City Council would send city staff back to the drawing board, especially as part of a process more than a year in the making.

But that’s what they did, and city planners will return with conceptual drawings of a possible extension and alternative options for traffic fl ow if the street isn’t extended. There’s new blood on the council, and their job is to raise questions until their concerns are satisfied. It’s healthy for the process of crafting city policies.

That’s not to say the Fifth Street residents are right, nor does it suggest they are wrong. It’s just good to see elected officials listening to the public they serve and seeking additional information before making a decision.

City councils should operate off quality information and shouldn’t be afraid to send city staff back to work when there’s a piece of the puzzle missing.