College Avenue Developments

[Mith242]

The section of College from North to Maple isn't very accessible. The street is narrow, hilly and has a bad curve. Sight lines are bad and without a center turn lane you risk life and limb trying to make a left turn off it. Right now it is also very rough- I've learned how drive to the extreme sides of the lanes in order not to be bounced all over the place. Because it is the major corridor through Fayetteville and the way most people outside of the central part of town access Dickson Street and downtown it is too busy to narrow it or use the common traffic calming methods.

If I were looking to invest in developing a project I wouldn't choose that area, even though you are right in that it is in the middle of some very desirable areas. I don't know if there is a solution that everyone would accept.

You do bring up some interesting points I hadn't considered. Perhaps that has held back some developments. But I'd still have to think there's got to be some of that area that would be good for redevelopment.

[jim9251]

Saw the plans for Crossover from Mission to Springbodia. 4 lane, landscaped divider, bike lanes. Oh how I would love to see that for College Avenue.

[Mith242]

Saw the plans for Crossover from Mission to Springbodia. 4 lane, landscaped divider, bike lanes. Oh how I would love to see that for College Avenue.

Yeah it would be interesting to see College done the same way. But they'd have to do something about all the access point up and down it. Seems like there's an entrance/exit every 10-20 ft, sometime less.

[zman9810]

There's a public meeting to discuss improvements to College between Rock and Maple streets tonight from 5-8 PM at the old Jefferson School building located at S College and 6th Street. The NWA Times reports that it's being held in conjunction with the Walker Park Neighborhood charette. The map showing some of the impovements has a median built between Dickson and Layfayette where a turn lane is now. That should help traffic flow but might hurt the businesses in that stretch. There's also a "squareback" mentioned for the intersection of College and Archibald Yell- never heard of one of those.

[Mith242]

There's a public meeting to discuss improvements to College between Rock and Maple streets tonight from 5-8 PM at the old Jefferson School building located at S College and 6th Street. The NWA Times reports that it's being held in conjunction with the Walker Park Neighborhood charette. The map showing some of the impovements has a median built between Dickson and Layfayette where a turn lane is now. That should help traffic flow but might hurt the businesses in that stretch. There's also a "squareback" mentioned for the intersection of College and Archibald Yell- never heard of one of those.

Thanks for the update. I admit I'm not very familiar with a squareback either. While a median might hurt I still think we need to find a way to cut down the number of entrances/exits instead of having one every 5-10 ft. That would also allow some limited medians which would also improve the aesthetics of it as well.

Hmmm...I've done a number of searches on the internet and come up with nothing. Maybe if itk comes around he'd be able to answer that question.

[zman9810]

Thanks for the update. I admit I'm not very familiar with a squareback either. While a median might hurt I still think we need to find a way to cut down the number of entrances/exits instead of having one every 5-10 ft. That would also allow some limited medians which would also improve the aesthetics of it as well.

Hmmm...I've done a number of searches on the internet and come up with nothing. Maybe if itk comes around he'd be able to answer that question.

I went to the meeting and the project looks great. It's not as far reaching as the Dover Kohl plan but should be very attractive and help traffic flow. It will give the streetscape a unified look like the Dickson Street project did for that street. The medians are for short stretchs where curb cuts will be eliminated. There will lots of trees, improved lighting, new asphalt and wide sidewalks.

City Engineer Ron Petrie showed me on a map what a squareback is. It doesn't really redesign an intersection as much as it uses other connecting streets to ease the pressure on an intersection. It involves redistributing traffic to parallel streets that would intrsect 71B. There isn't a way to use one at that intersection due to the topography.

[Mith242]

I went to the meeting and the project looks great. It's not as far reaching as the Dover Kohl plan but should be very attractive and help traffic flow. It will give the streetscape a unified look like the Dickson Street project did for that street. The medians are for short stretchs where curb cuts will be eliminated. There will lots of trees and wide sidewalks.

City Engineer Ron Petrie showed me on a map what a squareback is. It doesn't really redesign an intersection as much as it uses other connecting streets to ease the pressure on an intersection. It involves redistributing traffic to parallel streets that would intrsect 71B. There isn't a way to use one at that intersection due to the topography.

Thanks for the info. I should have tried to make the time to go. Just because I've gotten a bit frustrated with how the City Plan 2025 mettings went after the fact doesn't mean I shouldn't make an effort to go to some of these others. I'm a little surprised I didn't get an e-mail for this one. The city has been sending me e-mails for every meeting and such for quite a while.

[Mith242]

Looks like the city is going to split up the College Ave Project into two parts. The first part will work on College Ave between Rock and Maple. If I understand correctly it will deal more with aesthetics. Improving the sidewalks, planting trees, basically making that area looking nicer. Then the second part will deal with the problematic intersection of College, Rock, and Archibald Yell.

[cocothief]

Looks like the city is going to split up the College Ave Project into two parts. The first part will work on College Ave between Rock and Maple. If I understand correctly it will deal more with aesthetics. Improving the sidewalks, planting trees, basically making that area looking nicer. Then the second part will deal with the problematic intersection of College, Rock, and Archibald Yell.

I like the idea floated about the median that would prevent left turns onto rock and College at that dangerous intersection.

I also like the idea of the giant roundabout there too, but I wonder if its too close to the stoplight at Mountain for something like that.

Looks like Nock has put the little gym he has on the SWC of Sycamore and College up for sale. I heard he tried to purchase that crappy bar in front of it but was unsuccessful.

There are a lot of properties for sale now between Evelyn Hills and Township.

[Mith242]

I like the idea floated about the median that would prevent left turns onto rock and College at that dangerous intersection.

I also like the idea of the giant roundabout there too, but I wonder if its too close to the stoplight at Mountain for something like that.

Looks like Nock has put the little gym he has on the SWC of Sycamore and College up for sale. I heard he tried to purchase that crappy bar in front of it but was unsuccessful.

There are a lot of properties for sale now between Evelyn Hills and Township.

I know there's been some suggestions of a median preventing left hand turns. I also like the idea of a roundabout, but I think that was possibly addressed. I think someone might have mentioned the topography kept that idea from being realistic. I admit I don't think I've ever seen a roundabout on a slope before. It might be too cost prohibitive to level the ground in that area to make that idea work.

[cocothief]

Saw where the College Avenue Townhomes were approved, sort of across from Aldi, up the hill a bit. New residential in that area is good.

[strmchsr77]

Saw where the College Avenue Townhomes were approved, sort of across from Aldi, up the hill a bit. New residential in that area is good.

It is at the bottom of the hill. That street there is called Golden Eagle. Right across the street from Shake's.

[thewizard16]

Good. That area of town needs something. It's dissapointing that Fayetteville is so mediocre between College and Dickson and College and Joyce. Two areas get decent developments, and the middle isn't all that great. A new project in that section is more exciting to me than another proposal for something downtown, at any rate. (Not that we don't need those, it's just we get a lot more of them)

[strmchsr77]

Good. That area of town needs something. It's dissapointing that Fayetteville is so mediocre between College and Dickson and College and Joyce. Two areas get decent developments, and the middle isn't all that great. A new project in that section is more exciting to me than another proposal for something downtown, at any rate. (Not that we don't need those, it's just we get a lot more of them)

College Avenue from Lafayette northward to around Milsap is mostly made up of free standing restaurants, offices, and strip malls. It would look much better with some denser development along it. This project is around 20 townhouses, if I remember correctly, so it is not too big of a deal. Hopefully the project will be a success and we will see more infill along College.

[Mith242]

I don't know if I'd prefer that over another downtown development but still it would be nice to see more going on around that section of College Ave. I agree with Colby, more density would be nice. Between Dickson and Joyce, there's hardly anything above two stories on College and in many instances above one story. This development not be anything big but I guess we can hope that it might be yet another small step to having more happening around College Ave.

[zman9810]

It is at the bottom of the hill. That street there is called Golden Eagle. Right across the street from Shake's.

I figured it was going where that cleared off shelf is with the white house- is that not the place?

[strmchsr77]

I figured it was going where that cleared off shelf is with the white house- is that not the place?

It is at the very bottom of the hill right behind that little building on College. I am trying to sell the white house and possibly all the land at the top of the hill. This development will be way below the house so it will not really effect it.

[Mith242]

It is at the very bottom of the hill right behind that little building on College. I am trying to sell the white house and possibly all the land at the top of the hill. This development will be way below the house so it will not really effect it.

I always wondered about that place, especially since there didn't seem to be any other houses in that area.

[zman9810]

It is at the very bottom of the hill right behind that little building on College. I am trying to sell the white house and possibly all the land at the top of the hill. This development will be way below the house so it will not really effect it.

I've also wondered about that white house and how it can to be. I imagine it wouldn't be allowed to be built now. That would make a great location for some high end housing project

I wonder if the new townhouses will have a view of the lovely junkyard just north on College. I can't believe that thing is still there. You would think that someone would have made the owners a deal for the land by now- it's got to be worth a lot more than it's value as a junkyard. It's also strange that it doesn't violate some city ordinance, but it might be so old that it is grandfathered in.

[Mith242]

I've also wondered about that white house and how it can to be. I imagine it wouldn't be allowed to be built now. That would make a great location for some high end housing project

I wonder if the new townhouses will have a view of the lovely junkyard just north on College. I can't believe that thing is still there. You would think that someone would have made the owners a deal for the land by now- it's got to be worth a lot more than it's value as a junkyard. It's also strange that it doesn't violate some city ordinance, but it might be so old that it is grandfathered in.

That's not ringing any bells. Is this something that I've someone managed to tune myself out and pretend it doesn't exist? Maybe it's just off College? Anyway I've also been surprised there's a few 'leftover' properties that have managed to hang around. Things like that and trailer parks. Perhaps at some point there were a bit more on the outskirts of the city. But since everything has grown up around them you'd think some of that property would be worth enough to sell. We did finally get rid of that trailer park over on Gregg.

[cowbreath]

That's not ringing any bells. Is this something that I've someone managed to tune myself out and pretend it doesn't exist? Maybe it's just off College? Anyway I've also been surprised there's a few 'leftover' properties that have managed to hang around. Things like that and trailer parks. Perhaps at some point there were a bit more on the outskirts of the city. But since everything has grown up around them you'd think some of that property would be worth enough to sell. We did finally get rid of that trailer park over on Gregg.

There was a trailer park behind Ben Jacks Guitar shop basically right off of college that seemed to be vacated earlier in the year. I wish I had taken a picture of the land because it looks like a tornado hit the area. I was going to fool strmchsr with it. Anyways, I wonder what is going in there in place of it.

[zman9810]

That's not ringing any bells. Is this something that I've someone managed to tune myself out and pretend it doesn't exist? Maybe it's just off College? Anyway I've also been surprised there's a few 'leftover' properties that have managed to hang around. Things like that and trailer parks. Perhaps at some point there were a bit more on the outskirts of the city. But since everything has grown up around them you'd think some of that property would be worth enough to sell. We did finally get rid of that trailer park over on Gregg.

It's been there so long that during leaf on it's somewhat hidden. When the leaves fall it's more noticable. Here's a couple of pics- it's in the 2920-2950 block of College just south of the Motel 6. There's a detail shop and a couple of other old buildings there. It's not the most attractive thing to post photos of, but it is there and it would be nice to see it get cleaned up.

[strmchsr77]

There was a trailer park behind Ben Jacks Guitar shop basically right off of college that seemed to be vacated earlier in the year. I wish I had taken a picture of the land because it looks like a tornado hit the area. I was going to fool strmchsr with it. Anyways, I wonder what is going in there in place of it.

That area used to be known as Villa. From what I have heard, they have moved most or all of the trailors out and they are going to divide up the small lots and put in some form of affordable housing. Most likely small single family homes. That is a great location for housing. It is minutes from just about everything.

[Mith242]

Wow I guess I never noticed that. Is this a bit off of College? Unless I somehow am making myself subconsciously ignore that, I can't believe I never noticed something like that over there. Although I do admit I have gotten to where I do ignore some areas of College.

[zman9810]

Wow I guess I never noticed that. Is this a bit off of College? Unless I somehow am making myself subconsciously ignore that, I can't believe I never noticed something like that over there. Although I do admit I have gotten to where I do ignore some areas of College.

I took the photos from the edge of College. The buildings screen the back portion somewhat but the second photo is from the corner next to the shopping center where Sonic is. You might be paying so much attention to your driving (and I thank you for that ) that it gets overlooked. The nearby Rolling Hills intersection is busy and somewhat dangerous.