NWA editorial: Who's got the plan?

Annexation fight reveals lack of regional planning

Is this really what they call regional planning?

Residents of the region could hardly be blamed for believing the existence of organizations called the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission or even the Northwest Arkansas Council means there's a grand, regional plan in place.

What’s the point?

The annexation fight between Rogers and Bentonville reflects a lack of regional planning.

Then they get to witness something like the annexation battle between Rogers and Bentonville.

That was just a regional mess, and any semblance of cooperation or coordination could hardly be found.

Back in August, the City Council in Rogers followed the lead of Mayor Greg Hines and voted to hold an annexation election that, if successful, would have moved about 3,175 unincorporated acres west of Rogers into the city. On its face, it didn't look like an unreasonable idea, with all the growth happening and expected to happen in that direction, toward the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.

It was an area of unincorporated Benton County that had become wedged between the boundaries of Rogers, Bentonville and Cave Springs. And some property owners out there just wanted to be left alone. But that's the thing about a growing region: Properties next door to city boundaries sooner or later outgrow the low-planning approach of most counties and need to be managed in ways cities are usually better equipped to handle. And cities -- at least smart ones -- don't wait for an area to get built up under the lesser standards of unincorporated areas before they annex them. They wisely want greater control over how such areas will and should develop.

These lands were going to become part of a city sooner or later. But some property owners got crossways over the fact Rogers set an election that would, more than likely, force them into that city. So, if they weren't going to be left alone, some apparently reasoned, at least they wanted to exercise some control over their destiny. Almost 40 landowners petitioned the city of Bentonville, asking city leaders there to voluntarily annex them. And the lands they own created a bloc of properties that divided the land Rogers wanted to annex in two.

To the chagrin of Rogers officials, Bentonville's response was "come on in, folks."

On Sept. 12, the Bentonville City Council accepted the annexation petitions from 39 landowners.

So Rogers sued. But early this month, a judge tossed out the lawsuit as invalid, formally making the petitioning landowners a part of Bentonville and thwarting Rogers' annexation effort. A day later, the city of Rogers gave up its litigation. Mayor Hines said Bentonville's actions had made it impossible for Rogers to service the swath of land Rogers had originally sought. It still held the election on smaller parcels closer to Rogers' western boundaries.

It doesn't matter to us whether the properties disputed are part of Bentonville, Rogers or nearby Cave Springs. But the outcome of the showdown between these neighboring -- if not neighborly -- communities is a mess that, sooner or later, is going to get in the way of proper municipal planning for an area that will need it.

"It creates way more problems than solutions and makes it impractical to serve the western portion," Hines said of Bentonville's action. "I miscalculated that the city to the west of us would play this way."

Well, there's probably plenty of blame to go around. If Rogers wanted to annex the area, its responsibility wasn't just to commit a hostile takeover. It might have stood a chance if it laid more groundwork with residents as to the benefits of annexation into Rogers. It's likely a compelling case could be made in terms of future land values and city services. But Rogers didn't do that, and it paid the price betting that Bentonville would stay out of it.

And for some reason, Bentonville was all too eager to annex land it appears unlikely to serve with any serious city services, and the odd finger of land it annexed does little to make the municipal and county boundaries make sense. It will lead to confusion about some services such as fire and police protection.

That's why we wish there really was some regional coordination going on. None of these city and county folks, however, want to cede any control over such issues.

It's a shame the mayors and other city leaders couldn't work these things out. It has led to hard feelings that will no doubt linger and will probably have impacts on other issues of potential cooperation.

The issue appears resolved for now, but it sure doesn't feel settled.

Commentary on 11/19/2017

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