BENTONVILLE -- The plan to guide growth for two decades is only a couple of months away from being finalized, officials said during a workshop Thursday.
About 35 planning commissioners, City Council members, staff and community leaders attended the annual workshop held at the Public Library. The workshop focused on the most recent developments of Bentonville's Community Plan, designed guide growth for the next 20 years.
Upcoming meetings
The city will hold at least two open houses for the public to view and provide feedback on a draft of the Community Plan before it goes to the City Council for approval. The dates and times haven’t been determined, but the open houses likely be in May or June.
Source: Staff report
The plan should go to City Council in July or early August, according to Troy Galloway, community and economic development director.
John Houseal of Houseal Lavigne Associates walked those in attendance through the 151-page draft. The Chicago-based consulting firm specializes in community planning, urban design and economic development and is creating Bentonville's plan.
The plan will not be regulatory or restrictive, but rather a foundation for decision-making, Houseal said.
"Bentonville needs to set the table that supercharges private investment," he said, explaining having a community plan helps leaders make decisions creating the atmosphere for private investment.
"If everybody on the team does their job and works out of the same playbook, the team does well," he said, using a football analogy. "This comprehensive plan should be that playbook for everybody."
Houseal was complimentary of Bentonville, its rapid growth and private investment throughout his more than two-hour presentation. He said Bentonville has been the hardest city to create a plan for because development is happening all the time. His team has had to rewrite parts of the plan because of it, he said.
The draft has 10 chapters, not including the chapter about implementation, which has yet to be added. Chapters cover topics such as land use and growth, commerce and industry, transportation and mobility, and open spaces and environment.
Chapter 10 included subplans for five areas: Eighth Street corridor, 14th Street corridor, the downtown core, the downtown neighborhoods around the core and the southwest corner along Southwest Airport Regional Boulevard.
Land use, access and mobility, and character and design were three main focuses in each subplan.
Houseal Lavigne developed new zoning districts for the downtown neighborhoods, which the city adopted in October. They were created and adopted before the Community Plan's completion because development was happening so quickly downtown the old zoning code wasn't efficient.
The plan is being created with fiscal responsibility for the community in mind, Galloway said.
"Everything we do in this plan has to leverage what we already have and make better use of it," he said.
There aren't grand plans to extend city infrastructure, but rather to encourage development and redevelopment where it exists, he explained. Transportation will be improved by making better use of intersections while encouraging alternative transportation, such as biking and walking, as the city's sidewalk network and trail system continue to grow, rather than constructing roads.
Shelli Kerr, planning services manager, said she's working on developing a more user-friendly and condense version of the plan for public consumption as well as a quick reference tool for city staff and elected officials.
"We're trying to come up with something that will be easy to use," she said.
Other city plans -- such as the Bentonville Blueprint, a five-year economic development plan; the Southeast Downtown Area Plan; and the Parks and Recreation Plan, which is the process of being created -- will dovetail with the Community Plan, officials said.
Houseal Lavigne has worked on the plan since the summer 2015. It's held several public comment sessions over the last 18 months to get feedback on what residents would like to see the city become.
NW News on 04/14/2017