Building pressure

Large property screams for development

Everything about the former Marinoni family farm southeast of Wedington Drive’s interchange with Interstate 49 in Fayetteville screams for development.

It is nearly 113 acres of open land, among the few large pieces of undeveloped property remaining east of the interstate.

It’s actually quite amazing that the land hasn’t already been developed, given Fayetteville’s and Northwest Arkansas’ decades long history of rapid growth.

Anyone driving by that piece of land has had to have suspected for years that the land would undoubtedly be built upon.

The value of privately owned open land in the midst of urban growth almost always reaches a point that dictates its future won’t be filled with cows and grass.

For the Marinonis, that time has come. They’ve asked the city for a rezoning that will make the land highly marketable and highly lucrative for them.

The rezoning proposal is now before the City Council, where it faces opposition from people who live nearby; from leaders of a nearby place of worship and religious instruction who want to preserve its relatively tranquil location; and from some who want the land left untouched.

The City Council isn’t deciding on a detailed proposal; the property’s zoning will provide broad parameters for any future development plans that would be submitted to the Planning Commission.

Given Fayetteville’s established policies for development, it’s likely the land will become a mixture of homes, apartments, workplaces and retail outlets.

The key question appears to be how much of an impact its development will be allowed to have on neighborhoods to east. But the City Council’s own future-oriented guidelines suggest the idea of not developing this property is dead on arrival. And should be.

With its commitment to avoiding sprawl, the city cannot afford to waste the opportunity to guide development of this large piece of in-town land toward services and buildings that will meet a growing population’s needs, unless Fayetteville is content to become more of a bedroom community whose resident must travel north for their needs.

The trick, as always, will be how to do it while mitigating harmful affects for other properties nearby — the perpetual conundrum in city planning.

That’s why listening to neighbors’ concerns is important, but those concerns cannot simply trump the Marinonis’ own hopes for the property they own.