Commentary: Is There A Better Future For Fayetteville's College Avenue?

Fayetteville has, in a way, evolved into a tale of two cities over the last few decades.

One city is the Fayetteville of the decades preceding the 21st century. Like most communities, that Fayetteville paid homage in every development decision, almost exclusively, to the American love affair with the automobile. That's how College Avenue became a long stretch of big parking lots in front of mostly commercial buildings.

The other city is the Fayetteville of tomorrow present in the minds of city leaders and in the policies they've adopted over the last 14 years or so. It's the one that embraces master plans for downtown and other areas concerned more with how a place is experienced, how it interacts with its surroundings, how residential, office and retail spaces can and should co-exist, for the cyclists, pedestrians, next-door neighbor and, not so exclusively anymore, the motorists.

Except for its downtown stretch, most of College Avenue has been largely ignored in the drive to apply the "traditional town form" across the city. City Plan 2030, the bible for Fayetteville development, firmly establishes the desirability of that form as a way to discourage sprawl and make the urban setting a more inviting place to work, play, live and get around. It's the way towns developed back when everyone walked, when a trip to the grocery store meant walking a few blocks rather than driving to a big-box retailer miles away.

College Avenue is mostly a place no traveler feels comfortable unless they're in the somewhat protective confines of their car, and even that's dicey. It's a business strip to be navigated, not an inviting place to spend time.

Recently, a company submitted plans for a retail development on the west side of College Avenue just south of Millsap Road. In what was probably an architect's error, drawings of the planned building included a sign for "Whole Foods Market." The natural foods chain has steadfastly declined to reveal any plans for a Fayetteville store, but the rendering provided all the confirmation some folks needed to make it a reality. And it probably is.

Undoubtedly, many will welcome the natural foods retailer. The city will welcome the sales tax from a chain designed to draw people from the region, not just down the street. I suspect Fayetteville's construction of the "flyover" bridge providing easy northbound access to Interstate 540 helped convince the developer the north College Avenue location will work for a regional retailer. Even longtime natural foods co-op Ozark Natural Foods issued a statement embracing the arrival of a competitor on the principal that more people choosing natural foods is a healthy development.

But for civic leaders, what people eat isn't as much a concern (or shouldn't be, at least) as what it takes for the community to be healthy in the way it functions. Alderman Matthew Petty, in his recent bid to reduce the four-lane Rupple Road extension to two lanes, wanted to devote the saved money to a College Avenue redevelopment plan that would, over the course of 10, 20 or 30 years, turn the city's main north-south route into a more vibrant mix of residential and commercial uses less reliant on cars and more inviting for daily living.

The new retail development, with its big parking lot out front, unquestionably doesn't fit visions of a new kind of development for College Avenue, but Petty welcomed it for the potential it has to lead to redevelopment.

"A grocery store, no matter what the spatial arrangement, is probably the most important amenity you can have for redevelopment of a neighborhood," he said. "An occupied parking lot is better than vacant parking lot. It's absolutely better than having nothing."

Petty said he's an "incrementalist" when it comes to College Avenue, recognizing it will take millions of dollars and many years to transform it into a better experience for all users. But the strip has far more potential than today's uses capture, he notes. Whole Foods Market, or whoever goes into that space, must build a store with that big parking lot to meet its business strategy in today's environment, he said, but Fayetteville can establish a long-term plan for College Avenue to encourage other strategies for development that embrace more residential space on or near college mixed with nearby commercial ventures those residents can easily access through walking, cycling or mass transit.

This new grocery store fits the expectations of Fayetteville's current policies for most of College Avenue. The big question for city leaders and their constituents is whether there's a better way for College Avenue to contribute to the community over the next few decades.

Anyone who experiences the College Avenue of today should be easy to convince.

Commentary on 04/14/2014

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