Campus Boundaries Eyed

Committee To Identify Area Around University For Development Standards

FAYETTEVILLE — The Town and Gown Advisory Committee could create a planning boundary around the University of Arkansas on Monday.

A subgroup of the 21-member Town and Gown committee has been working to designate an area where new development standards, including wider sidewalks, more streetlights and crosswalks, lower speed limits and limited on-street parking, could be required.

“We want to make sure the boundaries encompass streets that we see as major entry- and exitways around the (university),” Don Marr, Mayor Lioneld Jordan’s chief of staff, said Friday.

At A Glance

Town and Gown Advisory Committee

The joint Fayetteville-University of Arkansas Town and Gown Advisory Committee was created in July 2012 to discuss mutually relevant issues, including campus expansion; on- and off-campus housing; and parking and noise complaints on and around the university. The committee usually meets the third Monday of every other month from 3 to 5 p.m. in the AT&T Conference Room at the Arkansas Research and Technology Park, 700 Research Center Blvd.

Source: Staff Report

The Town and Gown committee, comprised of university representatives, city officials, and residents, has also discussed eventually making sections of Maple and Cleveland streets and Leverett and Garland avenues one-way.

The committee identified rough boundaries earlier this year as Wedington Drive and North Street on the north; Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on the south; Gray and Cross avenues on the west; and the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad tracks on the east.

Greg Mitchell, the city’s geographic information system coordinator, was out of the office Friday and unavailable to provide an updated map of proposed boundaries.

Terry Gulley, Transportation Services director, who sits on the street planning subgroup, said the map will be used as a planning tool for city and university officials.

“It just makes the university and us more aware of future needs,” Gulley said. If university officials plan a parking deck, for instance, or if city employees intend to make major street improvements, they can better coordinate the projects, he added.

Mike Johnson, associate vice chancellor for facilities, said Friday university officials have long set a land-use development boundary identifying where they intend to purchase property.

“What we’re talking about in this outer boundary is an area that we can all agree to where we have increased coordination and communication at the Town and Gown level,” Johnson said. Much of the land identified contains rental properties housing university students, staff members and faculty.

Recent examples of university and city coordination on street projects include planned Razorback Road widening, Leroy Pond Drive extension, Stadium Drive realignment and possible Maple Street reconfiguration.

The university, as a state institution, doesn't have to adhere to city regulations for streets, sidewalks, parking or lighting.

City Plan 2030, approved by the City Council in 2011, identifies Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Wedington Drive, Garland Avenue and Razorback Road as primary routes to the university. Average daily traffic counts at entrances to the university in 2012 were 34,000 vehicles on MLK; 17,000 on Wedington; 16,000 on Garland; and 15,000 on Razorback Road, according to the Arkansas Highway Department.

“The university is a major traffic generator and greatly affects circulation patterns,” according to the 2030 plan.

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