BENTONVILLE -- A meeting room buzzed with ideas about the city's future during a visioning workshop Tuesday night.
About 60 people, including seven members from Boy Scout Troop 661, participated in a meeting for the creation for the Bentonville Community Plan.
The Bentonville Community Plan process will be updated on the project’s interactive website, which also includes ways for residents to be involved and provide feedback. The website is www.hlplanning.com/….
Source: Staff Report
Houseal Lavigne, the firm developing the plan, led the workshop.
Public engagement so far has focused around the city's biggest issues, said John Houseal. The goal of Tuesday's workshop at the Community Center was for community members to "lend a level of specificity" to what they want to see in Bentonville over the next two decades.
"This will begin to focus the plan's recommendations," he said.
Participants were broken up into groups of six and seven and spent more than an hour discussing topics such as neighborhoods, commercial areas, transportation, character, parks, open space and environment.
Each table had a map where groups marked ideas using different colors for each topic. The conversation grew louder as the hour went on. Some group members eventually stood and spoke with excitement about the possibilities.
Each group then presented for three minutes the highlights of their discussion.
One common theme was the development of the city's southwest corner. The importance of having other amenities besides neighborhoods was addressed. Some recommended creating an industry district near Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. Another group suggested a park similar to Memorial Park be built.
Creating distinct districts also was mentioned several times. The question was posed as to how to recreate what's happened on the downtown square in other areas of the city. One group mentioned creating a district near Slaughter Pen Mountain Biking Park in the city's north end that would include businesses, restaurants and retail options that catered to outdoor activities as an example.
Creating different districts with a variety of amenities would help alleviate the transportation problem, Lainie Snider said after the workshop. The group she was in talked about how people could then go to different parts of the city instead of all traveling to the square, she said.
Snider and her husband, Frank, have lived in Bentonville for two and a half years and attended the workshop out of curiosity and also the desire to be involved in the city's future, Frank Snider said.
Snider said she also came as a representative for her church, St. Stephen Catholic Church, to bring up the need for affordable housing. She is a member of its Benevolence Conference, which provides food and assists with utility bills for people in need.
"The commonality of everyone we visit is that they spend all their money on where they live so they don't have money for food," she said.
Affordable housing was the main focus of Snider's group's presentation. The affordable housing options need to be integrated through out the community, the group said.
Other items mentioned in the presentations included the need for more mobility and connectivity for multiple forms of transportation, a historic preservation plan, continuation of public art, better architectural standards and more entertainment and shopping venues.
Houseal Lavigne will hold similar workshops early in 2016 to discuss five specific areas in the city, Houseal said. Two areas will be downtown and the residential neighborhoods around downtown. The other three haven't yet been determined, but will likely include areas of growth and large corridors.
The plan will be designed to guide the city's development the next 15 to 20 years. It is expected to be completed in the next 12 to 18 months.
NW News on 11/19/2015