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strmchsr77

By strmchsr77
in Northwest Arkansas

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zman9810 Burg

zman9810

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This development was discussed and slammed for a long time at Tuesday night's council meeting. It was tabled by agreement of the developers and Ward 4 council member Jordan. If it had been voted on at this meeting it seemed a sure thing that it wouldn't have passed. It also seems that there are some council members that will not vote for it under any circumstances. The reasoning against it is completely out of line with the 2025 plan. One council member stated that it was not time for this development. I guess more single family houses should be built there and later on when it is time for it they can be torn down and this project occur :wacko: How a dense development like this can be described as sprawl while projects at 4 units per acre isn't is beyond me.

I don't understand the strong aversion to buildings that are above 2 stories. It's not like they are proposing 20 story skyscrapers- the tallest building will be 54 feet. It's like they don't mind the sprawl as long as they can't see anything above the horizon from their backyards. City staff named over many projects that have already been approved that are over 2 stories for that area west of I540, so even though this is a bit further out it still should be considered compatible.

The developers and city staff answered each of the complaints about this project very well and the developers seem willing to work with the neighbors to resolve them as best they can. It seemed Tuesday night that at least 3 council members are against it no matter what, but several seemed as though they haven't made of their minds yet. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks of meetings they can be persuaded to support it as this seems like an excellent project. It even will have some affordable housing as the developer stated that some of the mixed use buildings will have units starting at $99,000 based on square footage. What more could you ask for?

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strmchsr77 Burg

strmchsr77

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This development was discussed and slammed for a long time at Tuesday night's council meeting. It was tabled by agreement of the developers and Ward 4 council member Jordan. If it had been voted on at this meeting it seemed a sure thing that it wouldn't have passed. It also seems that there are some council members that will not vote for it under any circumstances. The reasoning against it is completely out of line with the 2025 plan. One council member stated that it was not time for this development. I guess more single family houses should be built there and later on when it is time for it they can be torn down and this project occur :wacko: How a dense development like this can be described as sprawl while projects at 4 units per acre isn't is beyond me.

I don't understand the strong aversion to buildings that are above 2 stories. It's not like they are proposing 20 story skyscrapers- the tallest building will be 54 feet. It's like they don't mind the sprawl as long as they can't see anything above the horizon from their backyards. City staff named over many projects that have already been approved that are over 2 stories for that area west of I540, so even though this is a bit further out it still should be considered compatible.

The developers and city staff answered each of the complaints about this project very well and the developers seem willing to work with the neighbors to resolve them as best they can. It seemed Tuesday night that at least 3 council members are against it no matter what, but several seemed as though they haven't made of their minds yet. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks of meetings they can be persuaded to support it as this seems like an excellent project. It even will have some affordable housing as the developer stated that some of the mixed use buildings will have units starting at $99,000 based on square footage. What more could you ask for?

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Mith242 Gigalopolis

Mith242

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I certainly have to agree with you guys. It seems the very best developments that actually very closely follow the City Plan 2025 and New Urbanism are the hardest ones to get passed through the City Council. Apparently some members of the City Council would rather have some sort of imitation New Urbanism development instead of the real thing. It's so frustrating to see Lindsey breeze through with his developments while other worthwhile developments like Woodstock and Ruskin Heights have so much trouble.

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cowbreath Hamlet

cowbreath

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I'm pretty shocked also about it all. I mean the city staff recommended approval once again, and yet the council continues to deny or stall on projects that seem good (too complex to read all the material to prepare for the meeting?). I watched the city council meeting briefly tonight on tv and can see that the major bulk of the council was made of politicking locals who are quite unprepared and unqualified for their job decisions. Keep it real, people! They are too concerned about image management and stuff. God forbid they leave a bad impression of themselves for the sake of progress.

Anyways, besides that it might be true we are not ready to hold a new urbanist development of scale because of lack of population to support it. I wish we had a city more supportive of these kind of project or more forthcoming with the precedents for denial besides NIMBY and street deficiencies (which they've created). The fact that Lindsey got his development through the council miraculously easy while drastically nonconforming to the city plan and a New Urbanists city plan-smoothing development like Woodstock gets rejected or protested strongly is beyond Mith, me, and about everyone on here. Maybe there's a good reason but we should hear it, even if it is about economic impact which they are darned skippy about leaving out for legal reasons. Anyways, in no way do I think Mayor Coody falls in this category of hypocritical because he is all for this project I bet. For some reason there's a good amount of people on the council who just don't like him without any good grounds and they know it.

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mzweig Hamlet

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I'm pretty shocked also about it all. I mean the city staff recommended approval once again, and yet the council continues to deny or stall on projects that seem good (too complex to read all the material to prepare for the meeting?). I watched the city council meeting briefly tonight on tv and can see that the major bulk of the council was made of politicking locals who are quite unprepared and unqualified for their job decisions. Keep it real, people! They are too concerned about image management and stuff. God forbid they leave a bad impression of themselves for the sake of progress.

Anyways, besides that it might be true we are not ready to hold a new urbanist development of scale because of lack of population to support it. I wish we had a city more supportive of these kind of project or more forthcoming with the precedents for denial besides NIMBY and street deficiencies (which they've created). The fact that Lindsey got his development through the council miraculously easy while drastically nonconforming to the city plan and a New Urbanists city plan-smoothing development like Woodstock gets rejected or protested strongly is beyond Mith, me, and about everyone on here. Maybe there's a good reason but we should hear it, even if it is about economic impact which they are darned skippy about leaving out for legal reasons. Anyways, in no way do I think Mayor Coody falls in this category of hypocritical because he is all for this project I bet. For some reason there's a good amount of people on the council who just don't like him without any good grounds and they know it.

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jiggyK Whistle-Stop

jiggyK

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People are really ignorant about this stuff, even some who should know better. As most of you know, I teach at the U of A. I can tell you that I have a lot of smart, liberal, open-minded friends and co-workers who are against tall buildings and against developments like Ruskin for all of the wrong reasons. They just don't know. I had a neighbor of my house on Willow tell me she liked it better as a white vinyl-sided two family than now, as a beautiful, historically designed shingle style house. She thought because it was old, it should be white! I told her it actually was a two-room house when first built...shingled in part like I did it, and painted olive green. It doesn't matter when someone has made up their minds about something, even when wrong. I guess they are just following the lead of our commander-in-chief--he's willfully ignorant and won't ever change his mind, even when wrong.

Mark

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mzweig Hamlet

mzweig

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i'm with y'all. i think a lot of it is that many of the people on the council and in the community don't understand this stuff because they've never lived in a city/town where new-ubanist principles have been applied and are functioning. it's pure ignorance. period. and i'm sure politiking is involved as well. downtown fayetteville and the surrounding neighborhoods are fairly walkable, but there's tons that could be done to improve this. i don't know how many times i've had to get off a sidewalk just because there's a bush or weeds or whatever that's blocking the sidewalk. i know this is minor, but it's symptomatic of the prevailing attitude towrd the value of sidewalks, etc. the lack of bikelanes in this town is another case-in-point that illustrates the general ignorace and attitude of our planners. i have to wonder if these people ever get out and walk or bike around the town much themselves. i know that they are putting some in over near crossover and hopefully on the new part of gregg so better late than never, i suppose. i could rant on this stuff all night long. i will say i'm excited to see what comes out of the walker park planning sessions. it's a great area of town that could use some attention.
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cocothief Hamlet

cocothief

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I read where this was approved last night with a slightly lower residential component that previously.

I can't find a link anywhere online, but I read it in the Morning News this morning.

Kyle Cook seemed supportive of the project and was quoted so in the paper.

Maybe our little email campaign helped out. :lol:

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zman9810 Burg

zman9810

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I read where this was approved last night with a slightly lower residential component that previously.

I can't find a link anywhere online, but I read it in the Morning News this morning.

Kyle Cook seemed supportive of the project and was quoted so in the paper.

Maybe our little email campaign helped out. :lol:

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cocothief Hamlet

cocothief

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That's great news and an indication that the council does listen to feedback like email. I'm surprised Cook was supportive. He generally seems rather anti-development, especially large projects. I guess that is why they have a vote- you can never tell for sure until the roll is called.
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strmchsr77 Burg

strmchsr77

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Kyle Cook never appoves of anything, he is anti development and hopefully his council run will be over soon. So I was surprised as well to see him have anything good to say about a large scale development.

Anyway, they did have to reduce the project from 4 stories to 3 stories, they also reduced the amount of residences from 382 to 342.

Here is more info on the project from the Times: Woodstock Passes

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Mith242 Gigalopolis

Mith242

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I'm sure this doesn't speak for everyone who lives in west Fayetteville. But it really seems like there's a rather vocal group who seemed determined to make that area nothing but suburbia. I also read in the paper today about some other possible development called Arcadian Court but I wasn't sure if this was another west Fayetteville development or not.

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strmchsr77 Burg

strmchsr77

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I'm sure this doesn't speak for everyone who lives in west Fayetteville. But it really seems like there's a rather vocal group who seemed determined to make that area nothing but suburbia. I also read in the paper today about some other possible development called Arcadian Court but I wasn't sure if this was another west Fayetteville development or not.
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zman9810 Burg

zman9810

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The NWA Times article was good for a laugh- the neighbors referring to 3-4 story buildings as "megastructures" that they would have to drive by everyday was very funny. It's those type statements that undermined the credibilty of their objections, as did the comparisons to Dallas and Atlanta.

Alderman Cook's statement about building another city west of I540 at least shows that he recognizes that the area needs to be somewhat self-sufficent. The more services that are provided locally mean that much less traffic crossing I540. Hopefully this project will be a success that others will replicate.

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