City Plan 2040

Logo for City Plan 2040 - Fayetteville, Arkansas

View and download the complete City Plan 2040 (PDF) for the City of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Related Documents

  1. 12-3-2019 City Plan 2040 Presentation_
  2. Active Transportation Plan Map 11-21-19
  3. CP 2040 FLUM Alt 1
  4. CP 2040 FLUM Alt 2
  5. CP 2040 FLUM Alt 3
  6. CP 2040 Master Street Plan Map 6.6.19

History of the Plan

The City of Fayetteville adopted its first comprehensive plan in 1970. The plan, and all of its subsequent updates and revisions, seek to establish a framework of goals, policies, and guidelines to direct future physical, economic, and social development.

The plan has been updated many times over the years, most recently in July 2011, when the current plan, City Plan 2030, was approved and adopted. This plan has six goals, which seek to revitalize and encourage growth in appropriate areas of the City where residents can readily access housing, services, employment, and leisure. In this way, the city can accommodate a diversity of new residents while at the same time limiting the costs of extending infrastructure into newly-developed areas.

Goals

  1. We will make appropriate infill and revitalization our highest priorities: encouraging the development or redevelopment of vacant, mostly vacant, and underdeveloped property.
  2. We will discourage suburban sprawl.
  3. We will make traditional town form the standard: with neighborhoods that include not just houses, but a mix of uses that can adapt over time and allow residents to live, work, and play without relying on vehicles.
  4. We will grow a livable transportation network.
  5. We will assemble an enduring green network.
  6. We will create opportunities for attainable housing.

Update to City Plan 2030

In 2018, the City Council passed Resolution 50-18 supporting an update to the 2030 Comprehensive Land Use Plan (City Plan). The next version, City Plan 2040, includes updates to all six of the stated goals of the 2030 version, but places emphasis on the subjects of Housing and Infill as areas of particular interest and concern to City residents.

Fayetteville is growing rapidly, and with the population of Washington County forecast to reach more than 500,000 by 2050 (from approximately 240,000 today), the city will continue to grow. To accommodate this growth, the City is looking at ways we can encourage the development of additional, affordable housing for new residents while remaining true to our stated goal of limiting suburban sprawl as well as our overarching sustainability objective to become a resource-efficient community with the safest, most affordable, and healthiest built environment possible.

A public survey requesting input on these areas (which closed at the end of 2018) has garnered some 900 responses from a wide cross-section of Fayetteville residents, including home owners and renters, university students and longtime residents. The data from this survey will inform the City’s recommendations for an updated plan.

Next Steps

With data from the public survey, recommendations for changes to the City Plan were formulated and submitted to the Planning Commission and City Council for consideration. The Planning Commission forwarded the document to the City Council in mid-2019 with a unanimous recommendation of approval.

Proposed Next Steps

  • Develop protocols for infill construction projects, focusing on impacts during development.
  • Evaluate and recommend modifications to existing zoning districts to promote context-sensitivity, including allowed uses, setbacks, building mass, and lot coverage. 
  • Evaluate development design standards for context sensitivity. Evaluate development thresholds based on metrics such as building form, not type.
  • Create pre-approved building types for identified neighborhoods. 
  • Discuss “spot zoning” in the midst of established neighborhoods, and potential for larger area rezonings.
  • Create City Council task force to develop formal annexation policy to strategically and deliberately plan for controlled growth.
  • Develop additional rural/agricultural zoning districts that can be utilized to manage rural growth and maintain rural character.