City negotiating land for arts corridor

FAYETTEVILLE — The city will need to acquire land from property owners along West Avenue, change the designs, or both, to build the cultural arts corridor as proposed.

The city is talking with property owners and tenants about work planned along West Avenue from South to Spring streets. Responses have ranged from enthusiasm to something less, staff members say.

Voters in April approved the $31 million bond project. It will involve a green gathering space where the parking lot at West Avenue and Dickson Street sits and a new parking deck in a downtown location to be determined. Farther south, the Fay Jones woods west of the library will become a nature attraction.

Work along West Avenue is part of the project. The City Council hired landscape architects Nelson Byrd Woltz last summer to draw conceptual designs for the entire corridor, which were presented to the public before the vote.

The project is in the final design phase, said Peter

Nierengarten, the city’s sustainability director who’s overseeing the project. How much land the city acquires for right-of-way and utility easement will affect the design details, he said. Project planners last month presented property owners and tenants conceptual drawings of the proposed easements and acquisitions along West Avenue.

Generally speaking, the city will need an additional 5 feet of right-of-way on the east side of West Avenue and an additional five feet of utility easements on the west side. The amounts needed aren’t a straight shot and differ depending on the steepness of the hill, retaining walls and how close properties are to the street.

That stretch of West Avenue has about 30 property owners, including the library and Fayetteville Housing Authority, which owns Hillcrest Towers.

THIS LAND IS OUR LAND

Gary Fast and Michael Hill have lived at the house on the southeast corner of Center Street and West Avenue since 1975. It came as a surprise when one of the city’s land agents knocked on their door, asking for permission to cut a few feet into their property, Hill said.

“I just thought, ‘this is too much of an impact,’” he said. “I”ll start now and see what I can do, and work with them. We don’t plan on moving.”

Hill said he wants a stone wall to stay, even if the city were to widen the sidewalk into his yard. He hoped the city would use the stones to rebuild the wall against his property, rather than make a concrete one.

People are able to walk up and down West Avenue now, Hill said. The sidewalk on the west side is wider, plus the trail runs parallel a little farther to the west. The city has more pressing needs, he said. Fast and Hill voted against the arts corridor.

If the city can’t reach an agreement with a property owner, the City Council can authorize a condemnation, City Attorney Kit Williams said. The property owner is entitled to a jury trial, which would decide how much money he should get in damages.

The damages are twofold: the value of the property the city took and if the action depreciated the rest of the property, Williams said. The city tries to avoid getting to that point, or resort to condemning properties in the first place, he said.

“Cities are inherently in a bad spot in a condemnation case,” Williams said. “You’re taking somebody’s property. People don’t like that, and I can understand it.”

Utility easements are less invasive and more restrictive, City Engineer Chris Brown said. The city can’t build on top of a utility easement, and the ground gets replaced if it’s dug up, he said.

Sharp Woolston, who lives in a three-unit complex across from the library and its ongoing expansion, said he hadn’t heard of the city’s plans for West Avenue. The fenced yard leading up to Woolston’s home is about 10 feet from the curb. He’d lose a few trees.

Woolston said not hearing from the city about the project irked him.

“If someone knocked on the door, it’d be easy for no one to be home. I work 8-5,” Woolston said. “But at least you’ve got to leave a note.”

ALL IN THE APPROACH

The city is taking a measured approach to be sensitive to property owners’ needs and wants, Nierengarten said. City staff members have knocked on doors and sent letters, he said.

Project planners thought they might need land for the West Avenue work, but they weren’t sure how much, or at which spots along the street, Nierengarten said. Voters saw concept drawings, which laid out what planners proposed for the street, but not the detailed dimensions or how everything would fit, he said.

Planners are getting a better idea as the project moves along.

The latest conceptual drawings show continuous sidewalks on both sides of West Avenue. The sidewalk on the east side would be wider. Parts that have onstreet parking would keep it. There also would be room for trees, drainage and two lanes of car traffic. An elevated crosswalk would go near South Street.

The existing 40 feet or so of right of way along the street won’t be enough to have two lanes for cars, parking and adequate sidewalks with green space, Brown said, so the city needs the land.

“The map just doesn’t work out,” he said. “So, in these tighter spots, in order to meet these goals, that’s what we need.”

The city would pay the owner for property for a right of way dedication. The city has two land agents who negotiate the price and the amount of land. In all cases, the city pays at least the full market value of the land, Brown said.

For a utility easement, the property owner would grant the right to utility companies to use a portion of their land. The companies may put in underground lines or poles or use the space as a work area. The owner keeps the land.

The block of West Avenue from Mountain to Center streets could be particularly challenging, Brown said. The sidewalk is narrow and abuts a stone wall. Small steps lead to the houses on the block.

West Avenue from Spring Street north to Dickson Street will be a separate project to coincide with construction of the civic space.

“You’re taking somebody’s property. People don’t like that, and I can understand it.” — City Attorney Kit Williams