Opinion

OPINION | GREG HARTON: It’s getting more crowded in Northwest Arkansas; is there really a painless way to deal with it?

One's perception of Northwest Arkansas is largely defined by his or her direct, day-to-day environment.

For some, it's becoming the mountain biking capital of the Midwest, but if you've never gotten on a bike, you'd hardly make that the opening line of a description if an alien landed in your backyard and asked what Northwest Arkansas is like.

Another example: City officials in Fayetteville say the city has flooding problems to the extent that a new tax, based on each property's square footage of impervious surfaces, might be needed. They plan to study it, which probably means figuring out how big a tax they want.

Where I live in Fayetteville, I haven't experienced an ounce of flooding, so when a city government that already seems to have plenty of taxpayer dollars suggests I should pay a new tax to deal with flooding, it gets my attention.

Does the fact I don't experience flooding mean it doesn't exist in Fayetteville? Not at all. It just means I have the good fortune of living someplace the water doesn't gather in the midst of a storm.

Day-to-day experience also determines one's perception of whether traffic congestion is getting better or worse. If you live on in a bucolic piece of property outside the city's borders and don't get to town all that often, it may seem everything is just fine. But plenty of drivers who navigate the more congested roads know there are places to avoid or alternative routes to take at certain times.

If I can help it, I don't drive around the heavy commercial area near the Northwest Arkansas Mall. There's a lot of retail going on in that area, so I can't always help it. Traffic around Joyce Boulevard and College Avenue and the streets nearby requires a considerable amount of defensive driving. The stretch of College Avenue in front of Whole Foods and the Village Inn is where a driver last fall plowed into my car, stopped in a line of traffic at a signal. I count myself fortunate that I came out of it with "just" a broken finger.

The other day, I was stuck in traffic near the mall. It was going nowhere, for reasons I don't know, but I decided to try my luck on some back streets, all the while muttering about how this part of town, dubbed Uptown by promoters, is getting too congested. Retailers no doubt want traffic, but they don't want people to avoid their stores because of traffic.

As I navigated my alternate route, I discovered two new apartment buildings under construction not far from where the city is about to approve, most likely, a new apartment complex with 331 more units behind Panera Bread Co. Then there are the new units going in on land that once housed the Hooters restaurant. No, it won't be called Hooterville.

As I tried to find my way out safely, my immediate thought was "How many more people and cars can this part of town handle?"

City taxpayers have spent millions on street connections and realigned intersections in the area, with more changes to come. But is the city working against itself by piling more and more dwelling units into this area?

Denying new housing construction can't be the answer. Just check out Doug Thompson's story on the cover of today's Northwest Arkansas section about renters struggling to find places to live.

I don't want to pay a new tax for drainage. I'm not thrilled with more long-lasting road closures for "improvement" (see Zion Road, Fayetteville). But the people keep coming.

Sprawl is bad. Traffic congestion is a pain.

I'm starting to grasp why Walmart wants to do its deliveries by drone.

Can I catch a lift?

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