Council Approves Botanical Garden Lease

Section Of Lake Fayetteville Nature Trail To Be Rerouted

FAYETTEVILLE -- City Council members on Tuesday unanimously approved a revised lease agreement that will allow the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks to roughly quadruple its footprint over the next 15 years.

The garden's 2028 master plan sets out several new amenities, including a visitors center, event pavilion and amphitheater, on 37 acres south and southwest of Lake Fayetteville.

At A Glance

Also on Tuesday, the Fayetteville City Council:

• Approved a roughly $112.6 million capital improvement plan for the next five years

• Rezoned 14 acres southwest of Steele and Joyce boulevards where a multifamily and commercial complex could be built.

Source: Staff Report

Expanding the botanical garden will require rerouting a roughly 750-foot stretch of the 7-mile nature trail that encircles the lake. The trail reroute has been the subject of controversy among several stakeholder groups for more than a year and a half.

Botanical garden representatives have said the section of trail and a concrete bridge they built over Hilton Creek are needed to accommodate construction vehicles, restrict access to paid visitors only and facilitate a "field to fork" garden where local schoolchildren will be able to harvest local produce and prepare fresh food with it.

Members of the Ozark Off Road Cyclists organization, who, with local Boy Scouts, have built and maintained the nature trail, have resisted any attempts to move the trail farther into a wetland area -- even if it's only by 20 or 30 feet.

"This trail ... has been continually pushed further and further toward this wetland," Chuck Maxwell, trails coordinator for the group, said Tuesday. "Always one of the big things has been trying to maintain this out of that area."

Other groups, including the Lake Fayetteville Watershed Association, Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association, Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society and Lake Fayetteville Environmental Study Center, have also expressed concerns about preserving a wildlife corridor between the lake and the botanical garden's fenced-in leasehold and about preventing construction near a roosting area for various waterfowl.

An earlier version of the botanical garden plan called for building a fence all the way to the lake's edge and rerouting a much longer section of the nature trail all the way around the leasehold, south of where a paved pedestrian path runs.

As a compromise, city Parks and Recreation staff proposed pulling back the botanical garden's leasehold a minimum of 100 feet from the shoreline. In some places, the leasehold will be almost 400 feet from the lake's edge.

Byron Humphry, parks maintenance superintendent, said the city plans to work with Boy Scouts to construct a 750-foot-long boardwalk at an estimated cost of $20,000.

Humphry said the solution will protect a wetland area, provide an ample wildlife corridor and ensure continued trail access.

"The existing nature trails will remain open to the public and will not be blocked off with barriers until the nature trail is relocated and the boardwalk is constructed," Humphry said in an Aug. 14 memo to Mayor Lioneld Jordan and the City Council.

At Tuesday's meeting he said the city will work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make sure all construction is mindful of wet conditions in the area.

The revised lease agreement will last through 2050 with an option to renew for two additional 25-year terms.

"Thank you to everyone who came to the table and actually participated in this process," Alan Long, Ward 4 alderman, said Tuesday. "It was a compromise. Not everyone has had their goals met, but I think ... a lot of work has gone into this.

"It might not be perfect for everyone, but I think it will be beneficial to the city in the long run."

Following Tuesday's meeting, Walt Eilers, president of the botanical garden board, couldn't provide a timeframe for when all of the new development will begin. Eilers said garden representatives will spend the rest of the year trying to refine costs for what has been estimated to be a $24 million to $26 million undertaking. The botanical garden also must create a business plan and conduct a pre-capital-campaign study. Then fundraising can begin in earnest.

"There's a good deal more planning we have to do," Eilers said.

NW News on 09/03/2014

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