Can developer really be a ‘good neighbor?’

A leader in Specialized Real Estate Group emailed me, saying “I hope that we can prove to be good neighbors to you,” referring to this developer’s purchase of 144 acres of Markham Hill, a part of the University Heights and surrounding neighborhoods. It is one of Fayetteville’s Seven Hills. Markham Hill is the last remaining large, intact urban forests inside Fayetteville, and has more than 120 years of Fayetteville history attached to it. This Markham Hill property also has two state-recorded Native American sites discovered so far and is possibly the last remaining large acreage of undeveloped Native American land in Fayetteville. And it’s beautiful.

The real estate group’s suggestion of them proving to be good neighbors made me ponder. When I think of “neighbor,” I think of someone who actually lives in the neighborhood. Whose children play together, go to the same schools, play ball in someone’s larger backyard if the owner says it’s OK. If a neighbor child is selling something to raise money for a club, your neighbor buys some. When your neighbor’s dog runs off, they notify the neighbors to keep a lookout. If your neighbor asks to borrow your hedge clippers, you let them. If a neighbor needs help shoveling her car out of the snow, you help. In my case, they help me. When the nearest elementary school needs money to buy food for those families needing help, the neighborhood association agrees unanimously to make a donation. If the elderly neighbor needs help doing something, they call a younger neighbor on the street. When there is a death in the family, your closest neighbor friend comes over and waits with you for the coroner. Several neighbors bring over a dish. One offers to write the obituary or the eulogy for you. When there is an in-town Razorback game, there is a friendly competition between neighbors on the street in getting cars to park in their yards. When someone has too many of a native plant, they put the extras at the end of their drive and email the neighborhood, “free for anyone.”

You get the picture. These are just a few things our neighborhood does or any good neighborhood anywhere. This is University Heights.

If a developer buys a large, historically and culturally significant property in the neighborhood, almost all natural and urban forest, and lives there to preserve it and raise their family, then that would be a good neighbor. That family could continue the (Maggie, Joy, and Evangeline) Pratt family legacy of history, culture, loving nature and preserving the land. Plus, that family could accept the sacred duty of preserving the Native American land on Markham Hill.

If a developer doesn’t live there to preserve the land and raise his family but has the goal of making money off of it by deforesting parts, building homes, selling lots, commercializing the neighborhood with a hotel, etc., significantly increasing traffic, noise, litter and pollution, then I can’t even imagine how that developer is being a “good neighbor.” That is a promotional term and sounds great, but could never be true in reality.