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Fayetteville, Arkansas


Mith242

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Here is some interesting news. It looks like the Fayetteville Metro has done it again. We were #9 on Forbes Best Places to do business. Also our Metro is now considered in the Large Metro category! Little Rock was #22 as well. Here is the article:

Forbes Large Metro List

That's great representation for Arkansas. Not bad for a 2.7 million people southern state. Not bad for any state, really.

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I probably could have started a new topic on this, but I will put it here for now. Here are the areas in west Fayetteville that are being considered for annexation. There is a pretty good describtion of the area as well as some nice maps.

West Fayetteville Annexation Info

Some Maps

More Maps

Edited by strmchsr77
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No offense taken here. But you have to consider the fact that many of those hippies and tree huggers have been helping to shape Fayetteville for decades now. Sure, Fayetteville has it's share of problems. But it would certainly seem to appear that there have been a lot of things done right over the years as evidenced by the quality of life here.

The tree ordinance. The sign ordinance. The hillside ordinance. The required dedication of greenspace by developers for city parks. The downtown master plan. Darn those tree huggers--they obviously conceived ideas like that just to hurt devlopers and it had nothing to do with protecting the quality of life here and all of the things that help make Fayetteville what it is! I'm not trying to knock your opinion here just pointing out that there are 2 ways to look at every issue. And, as with most things I believe that the truth lies somewhere in the middle of siding with the tree huggers and siding with the developers.

I like the tree and sign ordinance and they are both something Springdale should look into....Springdale reallly needs the sign ordinance, all those signs lined up on sunset and on 71b look like crap.

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Now it seems like others on this board are starting to catch a glimpse at some of the "weirdness" (for lack of a better term) behind the workings of the City of Fayetteville.

Although to be fair, I'm sure there are plenty of other cities out there that have their fair share of weirdness. Wisdom is not a prerequisite for occupying some positions within a local government (or any for that matter), though not to single anyone out. But I've experienced "issues" with them, and know many others who have as well.

I wonder if the City of Fayetteville government has always been this quirky. Maybe the city just tends to attract quirky people.

Yeah Fayetteville does, it's not quite like Eureka Springs but we do attract some interesting people here in Fayetteville as well.

Interesting.

I guess they are talking about the whole metro area. I'm glad to see the area getting on another national list.

Yeah I noticed they always mentioned Fayetteville but I got the impression they were referring to the metro as a whole. I guess typing Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers was just too much for them.

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Does anyone have any info on the homes being constructed on Rupple Road?

I heard the Barber Group is building them, and that they are in a "new Urbanist" style.

Yes, it is called Rupple Row. It is going to have some aspects of a new urban community, but I don't know how much commercial it is going to have unless they put some along Wedington. The Barber Group might be involved, but John Nock is the major developer. He is also one of the principals in the Mountain Inn project as well as Southpass in SW Fayetteville.

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Does anyone have any info on the homes being constructed on Rupple Road?

I heard the Barber Group is building them, and that they are in a "new Urbanist" style.

There's an article linked in the thread below ("Builders: Lot Prices Dropping, Cleansing Ahead") that mentions these houses on Rupple Road. Apparently the term 'new Urbanist' for these homes comes from Richard Alexander and the homes (on 'Rupple Row') are being developed by Alexander-Merryship-Alt along with Nock investments. According to the article the incorporate scaled down floor plans and small lot sizes along with all of the amenities.

I do know that the Barber Group is in on some large developments in this part of town and perhaps they are planning some houses in this style as well.

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There's an article linked in the thread below ("Builders: Lot Prices Dropping, Cleansing Ahead") that mentions these houses on Rupple Road. Apparently the term 'new Urbanist' for these homes comes from Richard Alexander and the homes (on 'Rupple Row') are being developed by Alexander-Merryship-Alt along with Nock investments. According to the article the incorporate scaled down floor plans and small lot sizes along with all of the amenities.

I do know that the Barber Group is in on some large developments in this part of town and perhaps they are planning some houses in this style as well.

I am curious about the "New Urbanist" label.. I wonder if these homes will have any modern elements about them, or is it another cookie cutter tract home neighborhood.

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I am curious about the "New Urbanist" label.. I wonder if these homes will have any modern elements about them, or is it another cookie cutter tract home neighborhood.

A snippet from Wikipedia:

New urbanism is an urban design movement whose popularity increased beginning in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The goal of new urbanists is to reform all aspects of real estate development and urban planning. These include everything from urban retrofits, to suburban infill.

There are some common elements of new urbanist design. New urbanist neighborhoods are walkable, and are designed to contain a diverse range of housing and jobs. New urbanists support regional planning for open space, appropriate architecture and planning, and the balanced development of jobs and housing. They believe these strategies are the best way to reduce the time people spend in traffic, to increase the supply of affordable housing, and to rein in urban sprawl. Many other issues, such as historic preservation, safe streets, green building, and the renovation of brownfield land are also covered in the Charter of the New Urbanism, the movement's seminal document. Because new urbanist designs include many of the features (like mixed use and emphasis on walkability) which characterized urban areas in the pre-automobile age, the movement is sometimes known as Traditional neighborhood design.

Most likely any development that attempts just one of the many aspects of "new urbanism" will be labelled as "new urbanism", just to make people go "oooh" and "aaah".

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So this has a more "inner city" feel to it?

I'm not sure if that would be the best term for it either. Granted I haven't seen it, but if I had to guess I was thinking more along the line of a more older traditional type neighborhood. But I could be wrong on that.

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You can also think of it as "suburban infill" instead of the more desirable "urban infill". I can see this development being a somewhat walkable, almost mixed-use, pretty much "cookie-cutter" community, just due to the fact that it would be too costly to build quality homes in a community of this size.

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I'm not sure if that would be the best term for it either. Granted I haven't seen it, but if I had to guess I was thinking more along the line of a more older traditional type neighborhood. But I could be wrong on that.

If you have ever seen Har Ber Meadows in Springdale, then you have seen New Urbanism. This is "greenfield" new urbanism becuase it was developed on the edge of town and not an infill project. New Urbanism has 13 principles and if I remember correctly they are all represented at HarBer Meadows. The most important is walkability. People are able to walk to pick up some groceries, to schools, entertainment, as well as work. Harber Meadows is still being developed. You must have residential then you get the nearby commercial. This is also how Park West, Southpass, and Wellspring (in Fayetteville) will be developed

Here are the 13 principles: (scroll down the page some)

13 Principles of New Urbanism

Edited by strmchsr77
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Wow, I didn't know all of that. I'm seriously considering writing him a letter, not that it'll do any good, but it'd allow me to vent a little about some of the idiocy going on. Fayetteville is too small to allow itself to be blocked in quite yet. Yes, we need more infill, but infill normally doesn't happen without sprawl, either, and aside from that, once we're infilled up to what they've allowed, then where are things going to go?

I'm not trying to 'expose' anyone's identity here but I noticed there was a letter in Sunday's editorial in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette talking about Kyle Cook and I thought of you guys. :lol: Not sure if it was coincidence.

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I fail to see this as new urbanism. Not pretty.

I guess you need to look at the development as a whole. That is just one part of it. You can consider this as a "discernible center. This is often a square or a green and sometimes a busy or memorable street corner." This picture, if I remember correctly, is the "center" of the development. You are going to find some of the most expensive homes in this area.

I'm not trying to 'expose' anyone's identity here but I noticed there was a letter in Sunday's editorial in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette talking about Kyle Cook and I thought of you guys. :lol: Not sure if it was coincidence.

I doubt it was one of us, but I know who the guy is....... :D

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One thing I haven't mentioned but I saw this in the letter section of the editorial as well a while back. There almost seems to be an assumption that if you went to the Downtown Master Plan or the 2020 meetings that you're against the Divinity development. Hopefully I'm not wrong in assuming I'm not the only one who was at the meetings for this development. I personally think of these plans as guidelines not absolute law. Besides the Divinity would fill many of the requirements like urban infill specified by many.

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