Botanical Garden gets more room

Fayetteville Council votes unanimously to amend lease with nonprofit group Next meeting

FAYETTEVILLE — Staff and volunteers at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks will soon have an indoor place to store equipment and do business, paving the way for the popular attraction to expand.

The council voted 8-0 to amend the lease with the Botanical Garden so the nonprofit group can build an operations center near its welcoming center. The badly needed space would provide a place for garden staff to keep trucks and tools and to use as an office, Executive Director Charlotte Taylor said.

The Botanical Garden has a larger plan to expand south and build a new welcome center, gift shop and outdoor kitchen and create additional classroom and meeting space with gardens all around, Taylor has said.

“We want to continue to grow to bring guests and tourists and anybody else into the garden,” she said. “To do that, we have to have the bones of the place in order, and that’s the behind- thescenes work.”

The 2,800- square- foot operations center also will decrease foot traffic at the welcome center which simultaneously serves as a meeting and office space and as the only bathroom for all the staff and volunteers. As it stands, mounds of mulch and equipment sit outside in the elements. The 1.7-acre area for the facility cuts slightly 5:30 p.m. May 2 Room 219, City Hall 113 W. Mountain St.

into a 260-acre preserve with a nature center for Fayetteville and Springdale students. The superintendents of those districts have agreed on the deal.

The Botanical Garden sees about 80,000 visitors per year, according to its website. Revenue for the nearly $700,000 budget comes from sponsorships and grants, memberships, donations, event rentals, special events and entry receipts. About 70 percent of the expenses go to operations and horticulture personnel in the garden and office staff. The rest is spent on maintenance, administrative duties, programs, events and volunteers. The board has secured donor support to build the operations center.

City Attorney Kit Williams recalled when he first walked around the 40 or so acres that eventually became the Botanical Garden.

“I can’t believe how much you have been able to accomplish there,” he told Taylor.

In other business, a proposal to sell 15 vacant acres in south Fayetteville’s Commerce District for $223,500 breezed through the council with a unanimous vote. Peter Kohler, an endocrinologist and former vice chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest, intends to build medical products manufacturer OurPharma at the site.

Chung Tan, director of economic development for the Chamber of Commerce, said the business would signify one of the biggest developments for the Commerce District in recent years. OurPharma will bring high-skill, good- paying jobs and the company’s experienced team will substantially increase the likelihood of success, she said.

Kohler has said he intends to start off small with a compounding operation similar to what many pharmacies have. Depending on how well things go, Kohler wants to delve into generic drug manufacturing to bring affordable and hard-to-find medications to the area and possibly other markets.

Alderman Justin Tennant commended the idea, touting it as a tech-based business promoting economic growth for the city.

“This is exactly the kind of thing we need to promote,” he said.

Eight residents chimed in on a plan to open West Hotz Drive from a recently built University of Arkansas parking lot onto Razorback Road. The council passed the plan 6-2 with Aldermen Alan Long and Mark Kinion dissenting.

The council first closed traffic from Graham Avenue, which cuts north-south through the parking lot, onto Hotz Drive in 2014 after hearing residents’ concerns traffic would leak into nearby neighborhoods. Residents have since split on the issue and a fence has been constructed to block the way.

Alderman Matthew Petty said he has had mixed feelings on the issue as well, but added more cars have gone through the neighborhoods since construction of the traffic light at Meadow Street. Opening the way would help the issue, he said.

“The conversation about how to protect neighborhoods from the growth pressures on Fayetteville is one that we should have, but tonight our business is merely about this parking lot,” Petty said.