City Wants Connecting Sidewalks, Not Gaps

PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove City Council decided to return to a policy used years ago for the installation of new sidewalks within the city.

The current policy allows developers to install sidewalks as houses are built within a subdivision.

For the future, the city will require developers to install all sidewalks within a subdivision before the final plat will be approved by Prairie Grove Planning Commission. The requirement does not apply to existing developments.

This way, said Mayor Sonny Hudson, future subdivisions will not have sidewalks missing throughout the development.

“It takes time to build houses and you have too many spots where you have sidewalks and then the sidewalks end,” Hudson said last week. “We don’t need people walking in the streets.”

Hudson said city officials have noticed the problem within subdivisions as housing construction has increased over the past couple years. He said it is particularly noticeable in Sundowner, Battlefield Estates and Suncrest subdivisions.

“They are building (sidewalks) as they go,” Hudson said.

The city also will make another change for sidewalks. If a person

owns two lots but only builds a house on one lot, the owner will be required to install sidewalks on both lots.

“We want everything to be connected,” Hudson added.

Larry Oelrich, director of administrative services and public works, said the city years ago required sidewalks to be built up front but developers came in and “whined and complained” that they were forced to tear up new sidewalks as they constructed houses within a subdivision.

“I opposed it then but they changed it anyway,” Oelrich said.

At least one other community in northwest Arkansas is dealing with the same problem, Oelrich said. He’s talked to Gentry and it also is changing its policy to require all sidewalks to be built before a final plat is approved.

In other action July 20, council members approved an ordinance to allow the city to provide flexible street numbering. This will apply for Heritage Parkway, U.S. 62 that runs from the eastern edge of Prairie Grove to the western boundary.

The new highway is what initiated this ordinance, Oelrich said. The old way of providing addresses was very rigid and the new ordinance will allow the city to use addresses that match what’s on the ground.

The new Dollar General Store will receive the first address for Heritage Parkway, Oelrich said. Its address will be 1001 East Heritage Parkway. Mock Street will be the dividing line for addresses on the new highway. Any residences or businesses east of Mock Street will be East Heritage Parkway and those going the other direction will have West Heritage Parkway as their address.