City of Fayetteville needs revamp of planning tool

I just learned that the majority of Fayetteville city officials don’t define “update” the same way most of us do. Their “updated” plan for Fayetteville, called the 2040 Plan, is simply a repeat of their controversial and pushy 2030 Plan with a few minor tweaks. Plus, their biased 2040 Plan survey on infill, mixed-use and upzoning was a failure in finding out what Fayetteville residents as a whole really want for their town.

Most of us would define “updating” a city plan as correcting mistakes, reevaluating and changing priorities, reevaluating and replacing goals, and changing practices and methods to more closely coincide with the values and desires of the residents for their city.

An ever-growing number of Fayetteville residents are disheartened, frustrated and angry with city officials forcing their 2030 Plan and their “updated” 2040 Plan on them. We don’t feel that the city officials really want to listen to us, like they’ve already made up their minds and consider us peasants who don’t know any better. The city officials appear to be promoting prejudice toward another people groups: residents who live in neighborhoods they love (mine happens to be low-density with a lot of trees and diverse in race, culture, income, political views, religion, etc.) and have a dream for Fayetteville different from theirs. A city that is more environmentally healthy and neighborhood-friendly, yet still cares about realistic affordable housing and improved incomes.

We need a totally new 2040 Plan for Fayetteville that better represents all our residents. Let’s throw away the 2030 Plan and start from scratch to come up with a 2040 Plan that is balanced, fair and represents all our values.

If you agree, please share this information with others and email, write, and/or call all eight City Council members and Mayor Jordan to request a totally new 2040 Plan. Surely we can come up with a plan we can all support, where residents in neighborhoods are not having to fight our city officials to protect what we love and value about Fayetteville. LISA ORTON Fayetteville