Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
College Avenue work progresses
FAYETTEVILLE — College Avenue, known for its curb cuts, parking lots and establishments ranging from strip clubs to scooter stores, eventually could have much more of a “downtown” feel.
City officials started last year on the stretch from Maple to North streets. Plans included widening sidewalks, adding lights and decorative trees and changing curb and gutter placement.
Last spring, city staff proposed rezoning that same stretch. Resident outcry over the possibility of student-occupied apartments looming over neighborhoods brought the idea back to the drawing board.
A fancy pedestrian crossing known as a high-intensity activated crosswalk, or HAWK, beacon, will make it easier to walk across four lanes of 28,000 cars per day between Rebecca Street and Trenton Boulevard. The city just put out requests for submissions from artists to create a mural along the 1,654-square-foot old retaining wall between Prospect
and Cleburn streets.
The construction, crosswalk and mural all should wrap in early November. Also, a Planning Commission subcommittee has been working on the rezoning proposal, which has shifted to a larger conversation about the city’s development code.
MEN AT WORK
Work on the west side of College Avenue between Maple and North streets started in April. Construction has been a bit more challenging than the east side, which finished in January, but the project has remained on schedule, Transportation Services Director Terry Gulley said.
The west side is hillier than the east side. Plus, Scull Creek runs beneath College Avenue between Trenton Boulevard and Rebecca Street, and the culvert that carries the water through had to be extended, Gulley said.
City crews should finish the bulk of the construction by mid-October. Some “dress-up” work, such as getting wires into conduits and replacing some utility poles, should finish in November.
Part of the new sidewalk runs between two retaining walls. The original plan was to build a new retaining wall behind the new sidewalk, but the poor soil and proximity to structures were concerning, City Engineer Chris Brown said.
Digging up all of the ground behind the wall could have created an unstable foundation, Brown said. Instead, crews only dug a little bit behind the old retaining wall, installed the sidewalk so it goes up and over the mound of soil, and put a smaller retaining wall on the other side.
Money for the project comes from the Transportation Bond Fund, which voters approved in 2006. So far this year the city has spent $432,530 and has about $160,000 in the queue for purchase orders on material. Brown estimated the final cost this year at $1 million or less.
The city spent about $705,000 last year on the east side. The total budget for both sides is $2 million.
“We are going to be well within that budget number,” Brown said.
PUT A MURAL ON IT
Crews discovered a group of conduits for telecommunication cables encased in concrete beneath the sidewalk. The available soil depth wouldn’t have been enough for tree roots and moving the line would cost too much, so city officials got creative.
Artists have until Tuesday to submit examples of their work. The Arts Council will pick three artists to come up with formal proposals, and the winner will have 10 days to finish the mural in late October or early November. The mural stipend will be $17,367.
Dede Peters, community engagement manager, said a portion of the outer southbound lane will have to be closed for the artist to work. The mural will be facing traffic. There’s also the construction to contend with.
“We want to get it done as quickly as possible, but also make sure they’re not creating dust with the heavy machinery, which they are right now,” Peters said. “Also, we’ll put a protective coat on it. The colder it gets, the longer it takes for that to harden. That’s one of the reasons for the accelerated timeline.”
CODE HACKS
Planning commissioners have been tackling issues that would change the city code as it would apply to College Avenue and the rest of town.
Several residents in neighborhoods near the section under construction spoke against a proposal allowing buildings as tall as seven or eight stories to loom over their homes. After several revisions, the proposal made its way through the Planning Commission, the City Council and the council’s Ordinance Review Committee before being thrown to a Planning Commission subcommittee.
Commissioner Alli Quinlan leads the subcommittee and said the group has been trying to come up with code changes to promote economic growth on College Avenue and extend the kind of development seen downtown.
“I think the entire city is really focused on wanting to make College Avenue function better,” she said. “Right now, it doesn’t work great for drivers. It doesn’t work great for the stores where it’s hard to get in and out of. It’s not very pedestrian friendly.”
After two meetings, the group has decided to convert maximum height for buildings measured in feet to stories. It devised a “bonus stories” system and decided buildings, for the most part, should meet downtown design standards. The full commission will consider formal language changes to the code at an upcoming meeting.
Staff will try to get the ordinance language ready in time for the Sept. 25 Planning Commission meeting. If not, it’ll make the Oct. 9 meeting. The public will have the opportunity to weigh in on the discussion.
The “bonus stories” system would allow any building up to three stories by right, but anything higher would require loftier standards. The subcommittee agreed in order to get more than three stories, the first floor would have a minimum 12-foot height.
Also, buildings would have to be built within 25 feet of a major street. Those buildings would have to comply with the Downtown Design Overlay District standards, which would be renamed. Residences housing up to four families would be exempt from “bonus story” requirements.
Ward 2 Alderman Matthew Petty sat in on Thursday’s subcommittee meeting. Petty said the “bonus stories” system will mitigate the negative impacts large buildings can have on neighbors by having projects meet some basic walkability and architectural standards. It also won’t affect most development proposals, he added.
“I am thrilled the Planning Commission, which includes architects, developers and neighborhood advocates, has given unanimous support to the concept,” Petty said.
Artists have until Tuesday to submit examples of their work. The Arts Council will pick three artists to come up with formal proposals, and the winner will have 10 days to finish the mural in late October or early November. The mural stipend will be $17,367.