FAYETTEVILLE -- Community engagement helps balance the desires of developers and neighborhoods, something west Fayetteville's City Council candidates plan to emphasize.
Alderman Alan Long and minister Nathan Allen took questions from residents during a Chamber of Commerce candidate forum Wednesday. Long has held the Ward 4, Position 2 spot since 2013.
Interstate 49 divides most of Ward 4, which spans west Fayetteville. Neighborhoods west of the University of Arkansas, the former Razorback Golf Course, the city's West Side Waste Water Treatment Facility and the Boys & Girls Club are in Ward 4.
Allen said he wants to bring Libertarian viewpoints in how the City Council manages growth. Landowners should responsibly do with their property as they wish and the city's policies should promote that idea, he said.
Long prided himself on the hours he has spent listening to constituents and making himself available in a variety of ways. Landowners have property rights but so do neighbors who reasonably expect developments to not infringe on their quality of life, he said.
Allen used the yearlong process to get the old Razorback Golf Course redeveloped as an example of the city's failure to allow a landowner to do what he wants with his property in a timely manner. Long, who voted against rezoning the land for development, said he did so because several residents near the course already experience flooding.
The candidates differed on the city's business environment. Allen said he's heard city staff claim it's not difficult to work with the city but hears a different story from business owners and developers. Some aldermen quickly dismiss projects essentially because they don't like them, he said.
"I say if someone takes the risk and purchases property and wants to build on that investment we should let them do it," Allen said.
January through June building permit fees exceeded the city's annual goal of $1 million, the highest point since the recession, Long said. He questioned the idea that businesses are heading north in the region.
"Especially when I look at the tax revenues for the city of Fayetteville, I don't see that to be 100 percent true. But I see where the sentiment comes from," Long said. "I think we ought to be proactive and work on that."
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has taken on improvements at many of the interchanges along Interstate 49, Long said. Bringing in millions in private money from outside sources to invest in trails and sidewalks coincides with those improvements, he said.
Long praised the public-private partnerships that have brought street, sidewalk and utilities improvement to the city without cost to the taxpayer.
Allen said many of the city's infrastructure guidelines could be shortened, using as an example its 20-page policy on bioswales, which dictates how landscape elements can reduce pollution from runoff water.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated how many pages the city's bioswales policy takes. The error has been corrected.
NW News on 10/20/2016