FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 27, 2019
Contact: Jonathan Curth
Senior Planner
(479) 575.8303
jcurth@fayetteville-ar.gov
City Plan 2040 – Residents Invited to Review the City’s Comprehensive Plan Update
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark—Fayetteville’s City Planning Division has been working on an update to the city’s comprehensive plan, “City Plan 2040,” since the City Council passed a resolution to do so in February 2018. City Planning and Engineering staff will present the plan updates at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, December 3. The updates to the plan can be viewed on the City’s web site www.fayetteville-ar.gov/2040. The public is welcome to attend the City Council meeting, held in City Hall room 219, or watch the presentation live via the City’s streaming video services at www.fayetteville-ar.gov/watch. The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m., but presentation of the updated plan is last on the agenda.
The original plan, City Plan 2025, laid out six goals that are still relevant today. In updating the plan, City Council tasked staff with addressing how Fayetteville’s increasing growth impacts its residents and neighborhoods. The update therefore focuses primarily on two of the original six goals: 1) “We will make appropriate infill and revitalization our highest priority;” and 2) “We will create opportunities for attainable housing.”
Regarding the question of appropriate infill, staff has developed a set of proposed policies and standards the City can implement to ensure appropriateness of infill development, including a map that objectively scores infill by proximity to schools, fire departments, parks and infrastructure. Staff recommends this be combined with several action steps and suggestions for growth management policies that will help shape the city’s future for the next several years, such as an amendment to existing ordinances that will require new development to be contextually-sensitive to the overall neighborhood and community character. In addition, staff will present three alternative versions of the City’s Future Land Use Map offering potential strategies for future growth management with respect to the goals and plans of the plan.
To address the question of affordable housing, staff is proposing objectives including the reduction of housing construction costs, the establishment of partnerships with non-governmental entities to provide workforce housing, and increasing housing choices by encouraging a mixture of housing types and sizes dispersed throughout the city.
In addition to changes to the plan centered around these two topics, other revisions were made that include updating demographic information and including the City’s new Master Street Plan map and street designs. These changes will be included in the presentation to City Council on December 3. Additional presentations will include the City’s Master Street Plan as it is tied to the recently completed Mobility Plan, as well as the Active Transportation Plan. Also on the agenda for December 3, staff will present a work program for implementation of the 71B Corridor Plan, which can be viewed online at www.fayetteville-ar.gov/71b.
Comments from the public will be taken during the meeting. Questions may be submitted online via a Q&A module on the CityPlan 2040 page on Speak Up Fayetteville, the City’s public engagement portal.
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