Fayetteville Ward 1 candidates have prioritized solutions

FAYETTEVILLE -- The candidates running to represent residents on the south side of town embrace a collaborative approach to making life better in the city but have different approaches.

Kris Paxton, Olivia Trimble and Sonia Gutierrez are running to replace Adella Gray, who is not seeking re-election to her Ward 1 seat. Gray has served since 2007.

The candidates agreed homelessness, transportation and the housing market all are issues facing the city and offered various ways to tackle each.

People living in camps on University of Arkansas-owned land near 7 Hills Homeless Center were evicted last month, with police citing safety concerns. ServeNWA, a nonprofit member of the regional Continuum of Care, is set to buy about 5 acres of the property to build microshelters as a temporary housing solution. The continuum has been working on a long-term solution to solve homelessness in the region.

Paxton encouraged city support for ServeNWA's New Beginnings Community. He also advocated for the use of Community Development Block Grant money administered by the city and a partnership with the Housing Authority to expand housing programs.

Trimble said the eviction sparked a number of regional organizations and volunteer groups to take action in a way they hadn't before. However, creative solutions are needed. The city should do whatever it can to encourage landlords to accept federal Section 8 housing vouchers, Trimble said. Revitalizing trailer parks to make them more desirable could also help, she said.

Gutierrez said she has attended Continuum of Care meetings and praised its work. Case management provides the pathway to a long-term solution, she said.

She also suggested getting a national consultant on board who has helped solve similar issues in other cities to advise local organizations.

"I think it's fair to study other people's successes to help us in Fayetteville," Gutierrez said. "Although, I am wary of a consultant coming in and trying to be the one solution-maker."

The city adopted a mobility plan last year that tackles big-picture transportation issues among all modes. In the meantime, the city has some immediate travel needs in several areas of town, candidates said.

Neighborhoods on the southern part of town need sidewalks, Trimble said. The intersection at 15th Street and Razorback Road is a nightmare, Trimble said, and she would turn to the city's engineers for a solution. Getting from Garland Avenue to Gregg Avenue near the university's Agricultural Park is problematic, and congestion near the Target shopping center needs relief, she said.

Gutierrez said there's no bad place to start to improve getting around the city. She commended the city's partnership with Ozark Regional Transit and Razorback Transit to make service free to residents, and supported its expansion.

A simple way to get more people on a bus, Gutierrez said, is having covered bus shelters. She suggested allocating more money toward building new bus shelters or improving existing ones.

Paxton said the spot north of Archibald Yell Boulevard that converges with South College Avenue and Rock Street needs immediate attention. Blind spots for drivers are dangerous, and the area should be in the spotlight of the city's transportation plans, he said.

Snarled traffic also detracts from businesses near Old Farmington Road between Shiloh Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Paxton said. Widening that street and improving where it connects west to the boulevard heading toward Farmington will help, he said.

"That would be a great bypass to relieve a lot of that stress from the intersection at MLK and the I-49 off-ramp," he said.

Housing has been a contentious issue in the city for a number of years. Leaders have tried to navigate ways to make living attainable, as in within someone's financial means, and affordable, referring to keeping market prices from going sky-high.

Gutierrez said tackling the issue on the front-end is the best solution. Ensuring residents have good paying jobs makes it so they don't have to worry about the cost of living, she said.

A step further from that concept is having training opportunities in place and working with the Chamber of Commerce to help businesses have the resources they need to succeed, Gutierrez said.

Paxton said most of the rental properties available in the city are filled, so developers need to build more. Encouraging development of rental spaces is key to accommodating growth and keeping prices down, he said.

However, established neighborhoods shouldn't bear the burden of out-of-scale apartment development, Paxton said. City code should have clearer protections in place to spare those neighborhoods, but also be developer-friendly to bolster construction of multi-family where it makes sense, he said.

Trimble proposed a program that would incentivize developers of multi-family housing to dedicate a certain number of units to lower-income residents. She cited the Homes at Willow Bend being built near Walker Park as an example. The concept uses revenue from market-rate housing to make financing available to lower-income residents, but Trimble said she's open to different possibilities.

"There needs to be a variety of different socioeconomic brackets in our neighborhoods," Trimble said.

Ward 1 covers most of the southern half of the city, including 15th Street, South School Avenue, Huntsville Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Notable landmarks include Walker Park, Lake Sequoyah, Kessler Mountain Regional Park, Fayetteville High School and Ramay Junior High.

City Council members earn $12,504 annually for their time and serve four-year terms. The election, which is nonpartisan for municipal candidates, will be Nov. 6.

NW News on 10/07/2018