HOW WE SEE IT Downtown Plan Critical Step In Revitalization

Hey buddy, can you spare a million? How about $20 million?

Backers of Springdale’s newly adopted Downtown Revitalization Master Plan are prepared to ask such questions. The City Council last week wrapped up an in-depth study outlining possible ways to unleash downtown Springdale’s potential by approving the revitalization plan created by contractors for the Springdale Downtown Alliance. The $100,000 plan was paid for by thecity, the Springdale Advertising and Promotion Commission and the city’s Public Facilities Board.

Although paid for by those three entities, the plan is critically importantto all residents and businesses of Springdale. More generally, it’s important to people in Northwest Arkansas interested in making sure the region’s “bones” - its communities, positive qualities and connecting infrastructure - remain strong foundations from which the future can be built.

This isn’t the first time there has been talk of revitalizing downtown Springdale. Such notions have been a constant for years. But we commend all involved in this most recent process for having moved a plan farther along than any other eff ort in recent memory. That, in large part, is driven by Springdale’s desire to make the most of its connection with the 38-mile Razorback Greenway trail that will stretch from Fayetteville to Bentonville and run right through downtown Springdale.

As with any such study, a primary concern centers on dust, as in whether this will be a substantive plan from which action arises or simply a $100,000 dust collector on someone’s shelf. Plenty of studies end up as the latter, but we sense real momentum with this one. It will require it, for as much as it took to get to the point of city adoption, the real work is only now beginning.

If the follow-through succeeds, Springdale will end up with a remarkably changed downtown centered on a town square just south of Emma Avenue and Spring Street. Spring Creek, a waterway now largely covered by concrete, will become a major part of a new, more inviting landscape. That process, called daylighting in the report, will create the backbone to the redevelopment of downtown. The plan stresses it’s not just about making things pretty. It’s about creating a space people want to visit.

“Several cities throughout the country have used creek daylighting projects to reverse discouraging downtown trends such as low building occupancy rates, shrinking property tax revenues, abandoned properties and low rates of use by residents and visitors,” the report says. “Daylighting Spring Creek will restore a natural, historical and cultural resource that reinvigorates the social and economic vitality of downtown Springdale. Residents, businesses and visitors will again be attracted to the central city, where opportunities to recreate and socialize along the creek stimulates local growth in residences, businesses and tourism.”

That’s the potential, but it’s only words on paper today.

Springdale leaders must now communicate this adopted plan with energy to inspire the community, to get broad-based support and interest and to draw investment in the vision for a better downtown.

With the announcement that Ryan’s Clothing is going out of business, one longstanding reason for people to visit downtown Springdale will soon be history. Our hope is Springdale’s new plan will inspire a revival of enthusiasm for the heart of the city that will replace shuttered buildings and lightly traveled streets with thriving businesses and exciting events.

That will be good for Springdale and for Northwest Arkansas.

Opinion, Pages 7 on 07/14/2013

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