It’s gettin’ real now

Rolling Hills Drive a debate over master planning goals

Governing in the abstract is a comfortable place.

One of the legitimate criticisms of politicians who have held office for any significant stretch focuses on their ability to speak without really saying very much. They develop a high capacity for speaking in generalities, knowing well that one of the fastest ways to irk potential voters is to get down to specifics.

Some of the highest praise we’ve heard about our current president regards his tendencies to “tell it like it is,” as some of his admirers put it. Never mind that President Trump often tells it like he wants to believe it is, not like it is. What those praising him really mean is they like his unconventional in-your-face persona, his unsophisticated delivery and sometimes harsh public criticisms of even his own hand-picked Cabinet.

Trump, for better or worse, isn’t most politicians. Those who rely on the support of voters mostly shy away from public confrontations because they usually translate into lost votes.

That’s partly why so much government does is the result of master plans or long-term strategies. Government leaders can often engage in long and lofty conversations about large-scale plans that will result in implementation of projects 10, 20 or 30 years down the road. Residents who might be affected hardly even know it because such plans look at community needs from a high altitude and involve recommendations that may never even see the light of day. Such master plans have a huge impact, though, on the way a city develops.

Let’s take Fayetteville as an example of current significance.

Back in 2011, city government leaders penciled an eastern extension of Rolling Hills Drive into Fayetteville’s street plan. The road, a busy, wide two-lane street running east from College Avenue through a neighborhood, now ends at its intersection at Old Missouri Road just south of Butterfield Trail Elementary School. Further east is privately owned, wooded land that has sat undeveloped in the midst of a growing city.

According to that seven-year-old plan, an extension of Rolling Hills Drive could become an east-west connection to Crossover Road (at the city’s fire station at Crossover and Old Wire Road). Further, the plan envisions it one day extending further eastward along Skillern Road, intersecting with East Mission Boulevard, which is also Arkansas 45.

That’s a serious road. In a town where east hardly meets west, many would welcome a strong connection between College Avenue and the east side of town.

Then there’s another subject that has often been discussed in generalities: prevention of urban sprawl. That is, encouraging development of lands within the city’s existing boundaries where services, such as municipal water, are already available. The theory suggests it’s inefficient and harmful to the sense of community to keep spreading the city’s footprint ever wider. Additionally, a philosophy of packing more housing into existing city spaces is part and parcel of efforts to make Fayetteville a less car-centered community.

But now, the owners of that undeveloped land at the end of Rolling Hills want to develop it. That general discussion years ago about east-west connections and preventing urban sprawl is now becoming a very real proposal for asphalt and more housing. And all the neighbors along the existing Rolling Hills Drive don’t care much for the idea.

“Keep our streets small and our trees tall” is what the signs say. There’s so many of them the Rolling Hills neighborhood looks like it’s home to a migrating, flamingolike flock of yard signs that decided to stay the winter. A little more than a week ago, about 200 people packed into a neighborhood church to learn more about the developer’s plans and the city’s notions about the street.

As with many such developments, the Rolling Hills folks are late to the game, at least in terms of city discussions. Last July the City Council unanimously rezoned about 10 acres of the property to permit a mix of commercial and residential construction. No one from the public spoke when that measure was considered.

They’re speaking now. But they’re up against development philosophies that get a lot of time and energy down at city hall, but that Regular Joes don’t get much of a chance to ponder, what with making livings and getting kids to school and such.

The tough part of all this is there are no absolute right and wrong answers. Leaders looking at the city’s transportation needs from that higher altitude determined Rollings Hills Drive would make a logical and needed extension to the east side; one can hardly suggest otherwise. But when the actual installation of a road comes into play, when neighbors get motivated and don’t want their existing circumstances disturbed, it’s easy to be sympathetic to their concerns.

Master plans arise from a rational examination of a map. But it gets real – extremely real — when neighbors become aware of that map’s real-life impact.

Does Fayetteville need better eastwest connections? Most people would say yes. The City Council now has to evaluate whether reasonable planning to improve the city as a whole is important enough to go against the wishes of a group of neighbors directly affected.

Generalities won’t get the job done any longer. If in-fill is truly one of the city’s priorities — which the city’s leadership has said — it’s hard to imagine a rejection of the proposed development on this large piece of undeveloped land within the city. If connectivity — for motorists, bikes, pedestrians — is important, how can the city not support development of this land and a connection of the road to the east?

City leaders’ stated goals made the decision a long time ago. But now that they have to face their neighbors, will it still make the most sense?