Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: If you've lived or worked in the city of Benville for a while, you've no doubt noticed it is growing rapidly, and that growth is not expected to slow down anytime soon. With that, city officials say they are soliciting input from residents on how they want to see the city grow and what type of city they want Benville to be. We're going to talk about that on this week's edition of the Know the news podcast.
Hi, everyone. I'm Dave Perozic, managing editor of the Northwest Arkansas Democratic and your podcast host. This week we're talking about the process that's been termed, very simply, Plan Benville. One of our reporters, lady of Fletcher, is doing a story on plan Benville that will publish within the next few days.
It's my pleasure to introduce two guests. Joining me today to discuss the subject, we have Tyler Overstreet, city of Benville's planning director, and Susan Henderson. She is principal with placemakers, LLC and an architect. And Susan, I'm going to let you go ahead and kind of more, better explain than I can what your role is in this whole process.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Thanks so much. And yes, we are a consultant to the consultant, to put it simply.
Matt Lambert is the principal partner from DPZ Co design that's leading the project on behalf of the city. He is contracted with the city, and placemakers is assisting DPZ in the work effort.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Gotcha. Okay.
Well, thank you both again for being here.
Tyler, I'm going to aim the first question at you. First of know, when did plan Bentville get started? Whose idea was know?
[00:02:09] Speaker C: I think it's one of those things when it comes to the growth in Bentville, as you touched on at the, it's, we're growing rapidly as a community, and it's pretty unprecedented. I think our team in the planning department and just across the board planning, water, sewer, electric, every department saw both the scale and pace of growth, but then also some of the unique challenges that come alongside it, really. We see this planning effort of Plan Bill as a continuation of our 2018 community plan, which solicited a lot of feedback from a lot of different groups and people and from the citizens. Back then, one of the main goals we saw was this idea of thoughtful growth. That was a vision the community had. And as we've seen, the type of growth and projects, pace and scale of things have continued to ramp up. It was important to us as a city, both as a leadership team at the department level, at a planning commission level, and at a city council level, too, to really sort of take a step back, make sure that that vision is still affirmed, that that's still thoughtful growth and things like having other goals and visions of the 2018 plan, such as a robust economy, the Bentville experience, that that's still the community's vision for who we want to be. But then also seeing, okay, clearly our projections in the 2018 plan may have been a little conservative. How can we continue to keep Bentonville Bentonville? So how can we promote what we love about the community, or, excuse me, preserve what we love about the community while also promoting the type of place we want to be? So it was a unique challenge. So to say it was one department's idea wouldn't be fair. I think it was just something that we realized with the growth and with the challenges it brings. It was time to really sort of make sure that our vision as a community was still our vision, and then also make sure that our growth plan reflects the needs of today's populace in 2024 and that we are projecting out who Bentonville is going to be in the year 2050, which is our challenge as part of this planning effort.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: So who's involved?
[00:04:43] Speaker C: Yeah, who's not involved?
Our goal is really to get as many people involved as possible. Whether you live in Bentonville, work in Bentonville, recreate in Bentonville. We want to hear your voice as part of this have I think it's really important as we look at this plan and think through Plan Bentonville and continue through our community engagement process is it's not Tyler Overstreet, planning director's plan or DPZ co design's plan or you know, even like electric department's plan. Let's say it's all of our plan as a shared community and it's been really important to us to get involvement on the front end through our community survey where we got nearly 2000 responses. All of the various city departments that land use planning affects the ones you would typically think of, such as water, sewer and transportation, but also the ones you may not often think about, library facilities. If we continue to grow, the library needs to be involved in that planning effort. Parks department, electric department, so that other departments are engaged, involved can give their perspective on what they're seeing.
Obviously, the mayor's office has been heavily involved, as she is our mayor's office. They are charting that vision for the city in many ways like the planning department does. So I think getting as many people internal to the city engaged, involved in realizing that the land use plan for the city affects all of us in different ways.
But then also making sure we're getting with the public, getting the word out about the planning effort, soliciting engagement, and that's a key word there is engagement. It's not us necessarily looking for feedback. We want this to be a collaborative effort with the community as we're talking about who Bentonville wants to be when it grows up, how and where we want to grow, and then also, obviously, community stakeholders and partners who we work with frequently have been heavily engaged with this effort. Everyone from northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, local businesses, developers, these are all perspectives we need to hear because they need to be reflected in the community's plan.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: I'll just add to that that I just came from Staden school about an hour ago where I was meeting with Sam Slayton's urban studies class, and they are doing an amazing they have this FaBuloUs agenda of outreach that they're doing at social events around the school and at lunchtime. And they're actually taking our same boards that we'll be using in pop ups around the city next week, and they're soliciting the students and their parents during the same time frame. So essentially they're dramatically enhancing the work that we are doing professionally. So we're thrilled to be partnering with the youth of the city because it's their city, basically. It's their future.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: We're going to take a quick break and be right back after this brief message.
[00:08:25] Speaker D: If you're enjoying this podcast, consider a newspaper subscription to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette or the River Valley Democrat Gazette. We have a special offer for our podcast listeners, so visit nwanline.com slash nwapodcast to get started. You can also click the subscribe button on our websites, nwanline.com and rivervalleydemocratgazette.com. Or call us at 479-684-5509 and be sure to say that you're a podcast listener. Now back to the show.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: And you mentioned the survey that's been done last fall, is that right?
[00:09:04] Speaker C: Yeah, it was through the fall. It just concluded January 31. So just a few weeks ago and.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: Something like 1800 people responded in that, is that right?
[00:09:16] Speaker C: Correct. Yes.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: What kind of things are you hearing? What can you share some of the major themes that have emerged.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: I'll just add that my colleague Scott Doyan, who manages the website, will be having a post.
Likely it's going to be tomorrow with the detailed output of the survey, but we're hearing things. There are questions like what are your problems right now? And a large issue for everyone, almost unanimously, is traffic and so we know there are congestion issues that need to be addressed. And of course, city is very well aware of that and working hard on it.
One other thing that was raised is how far do you want to be from certain services and amenities, like do you want to be able to walk to things?
Do you want to live in rural area? And so for the most part, we're hearing people that prefer to be closer in rather than further out, although there is a balance of that too. We're also asking about housing types. Do you want a large house on a large lot, a small house on a small lot, a townhouse, et cetera. And interestingly enough, the survey respondents, almost over 70% of them, said that they wanted to be in some sort of a house rather than a townhomes or condo. And so that does seem to be a regional preference that is different than the national preference. The National association of Realtors has been tracking the fact that people are moving more towards urban centers and townhouses are multifamily. But that doesn't seem to be reflected here in Benningville as a preference.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: And so we've got a number of, I think you alluded to it earlier, the number of pop up events coming up next week. Can you kind of run down the schedule of that?
[00:11:38] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. So what's starting this upcoming week is what we're calling design week. It's really a collaborative process of us coming in with some information based on what we heard from the surveys, initial engagements, and conversations we've had, where at the beginning of the week, we'll come in with some ideas, or just some, we call them spaghetti on the wall proposals of don't expect any of this to be permanent or stick, but these are just starting places for us to start the conversation of land use and planning and how we see the city growing. So over the course of the next week, starting Saturday, February the 24th, through the end of the week on February 29, we're going to be both doing pop up engagements where we come out to the community, where we're coming to citizens at places where people frequent. So, for instance, on Saturday we will be at market at the record from ten to twelve, Scott family Amazium from one to two in Creekside park from four to five. Sunday we'll be at airship at Pump House from eight to nine, Eigth Street Market from one to two, Orchards park from four to five.
We do have, to Susan's earlier point, we think getting students and our younger population engaged is critical, since that's a voice we don't normally hear from in these types of opportunities. So we are also doing pop ups at the high school and at NWAC to hear from some of those voices, too. And then on the 27th, we're doing a pop up at Bentville Community center from five to six.
So those are more pop ups. I would call more informal engagements. We're just having a conversation, collecting some impromptu feedback out in the community.
When you think of a planning effort, what will probably look more familiar will be the open houses. So the open houses are February 26 and February 29. Both are from five to seven out at Bentonville Public Library. So those will be more your typical, we'll have some data, some more formal conversation to start, but then it's a come and go, sort of give us your feedback, give us your thoughts, tell us who you want and what you want Bentville to be, not just in, I know I threw out 2050 earlier, but who do you want Bentville to be in 2025, 2030, and so on and so forth. Because it's important that we grow in a responsible and in an equitable way as we move forward as a community.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: And what is the ultimate goal here in this process? I understand you're working toward a future land use map, and some people may not be familiar with that term, may confuse it with a zoning map. Can you kind of explain what that is and the difference?
[00:14:50] Speaker C: For sure, Susan, feel free to hop in wherever. But when I think about what a future land use plan is, or if I could describe it very simply, it is a policy document that says how and where the city wants to grow from a macro standpoint, generally across the whole city. What types of places and neighborhoods and scales and forms of development do we want to see across the entire community?
It's more very much a vision and a guiding document. But what does it guide? Well, it guides all the other various master plans and capital improvement plans that the city does on the one hand. But on the other, it is also meant to be a guiding document for the zoning and development code. So when we look at plan Bentonville, the entire project, it's really a two phase project where phase one is what we're in the midst of right now, which is the future land use planning and the visionary stage where we're looking for the public to say, how do they want the city to look?
What sort of growth projections does the community want to see?
But then also phase two, which will be part of a seamless process, will be an overhaul of our zoning and development codes. And the key part there is, and not a lot of cities do it this way. So I'm really excited and glad that we are, is that the zoning code then becomes the tools by which your planning staff, your engineering staff, water, sewer staff, it becomes the primary tool by which we're implementing the city's new vision on a day to day basis through zoning and development codes. So that's where it really gets exciting, is a goal I mentioned earlier was obviously thoughtful growth, another one. And part of the real value of this process is predictability, so that the city or the citizens of Bentonville have told us how they want Bentonville to look. Well, our codes and our ordinances and everything should reflect that, so that outcomes are predictable, not just for city staff, but for the general citizen.
I should have a pretty good idea of what the lot next to me or behind me, what it could develop out to in the future.
A developer, let's say, should have a pretty good idea on.
If the city is telling me we see this as, let's say, a town center, well, then the codes and the ordinances and the policies should all reflect the ability to do that. So that's what's real exciting about it, is that through this process, we're not just charting a vision as a community. We're going to be drafting and creating, in collaboration with the public, the tools by which to make it happen.
So it's not just. Oh, go ahead, Susan. Sorry.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I just wanted to elaborate a little bit on the question about the difference between a future land use plan and a zoning map. Because it's something that 98% of the people that we meet in the communities where we work, it doesn't make a difference. They don't understand the difference.
The zoning is the thing that affects you and what you can do with your property. And it talks about heights and subbikes and uses on the property. The future land use map or plan has much bigger buckets, and so you can have multiple zoning districts that are approved or the appropriate policy in those larger buckets, like Tyler region, if it's the center or neighborhood center, there's a differentiation in the intensity of zones that can be in each one. There may be some overlap. Some zones will be appropriate in many districts, in many teacher land use districts, but our categories. But then some will have much fewer. Like once you get into the rural areas of Bentonville, if we're hearing from the community, they want to preserve that. And so as much as possible, there will be incredibly fewer districts, zoning districts that are applicable in those rural areas.
So anyway, it's a chicken and egg thing. You have to have the pilot see before you have the zoning, but they are different things. The future 90s map is not a zoning map. Even though it has a lot of.
[00:20:04] Speaker C: Similarities, they look very similar and often have the same colors on both, too, which makes it even more confusing.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: So we're going to have different colors. We promise you that.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Get creative.
So the zoning code revisions, Tyler, when do you expect those to be that? How long is that going to.
[00:20:33] Speaker C: Know? We're being aggressive with our timeline on the land use planning phase. I would say, according to our calendar, when it comes to the future land use phase and the visionary piece of the process, we're talking summer 2024, fall 2024, and then I think when it comes to the code, writing code, drafting the open houses and everything that comes along with that, we're targeting more late winter, 2025, spring more than likely. So this is very much a comprehensive, year long planning effort.
To my earlier point. We see this as a collaborative effort and a continuous conversation throughout.
And that's something that we mentioned the survey earlier. A couple of things we heard on that that I found interesting. Of course, this week we're doing a massive in person push, but one thing that was interesting was a real appetite for more, smaller but frequent digital engagement opportunities as well. So I think that's something that we'll be putting our heads together on. And while zoning and land use isn't always the most exciting thing to talk about, just figuring out how we can keep the conversation going, even as we're heading into more the draft phase and more of the more formal part of the process, which is ultimately bringing things to planning commission and city council for final vetting and approval and adoption.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: There was a city council meeting last week, I believe it was, where there was a presentation made on water, sewer infrastructure, I believe.
And one of the things that was mentioned during that presentation was that population of the city is expected to exceed 240,000 by 2045.
Which.
[00:22:45] Speaker B: 2050.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: 2050. Okay. Well, yeah, I mean, either way, staggering growth, that's, I think, something like eight, 9000 people per year between now and then.
In contemplating that kind of growth, I mean, does it make this whole process more challenging, or how does that play into it when you consider how many people you're actually expecting to be here in 20 years or 30 years?
[00:23:26] Speaker B: I'll start on that. It's a crucial thing because for people who've been here a long time, in particular, this has been their home, and they have a certain expectation of it having a small town appeal.
But also, we're in a free market economy, and people can sell their farmland if they want to and develop it. And so there's this desire when you live in a special place, like you don't want it to grow anymore, but it will. And so the question is how to do that in a thoughtful, careful, deliberate manner so that it retains as much of its small town charm as possible, while it becomes actually a medium sized city. And so part of that process is understanding the economic impacts of how you grow. And if we just carpet the city with quarter acre lots of single family detached, the cost of infrastructure to build it, and then even more so to maintain it for the city is devastating when it's at that low of a density. As you begin to consolidate some of that development into more compact growth patterns, you have much less infrastructure cost, as well as being able to retain more open space and farmland. And so there are trade offs. People don't like the notion of townhouses and apartments. It makes them very nervous when they've been living in a single family detached their entire life. But if you begin to think about, we know these people are coming, how and where should we provide housing and businesses?
The economics play a huge part in how you solve for that, because you have to be looking at the end of the day of what the city can afford to.
[00:25:43] Speaker C: Know. On the population projection piece, I think as we've looked at that, and as we've worked with a firm called Land Use USA on those demographic projections, we charted out three different paths. One was a very high growth rate, which from an infrastructure standpoint, it makes sense to use that very high growth rate as you're planning for infrastructure, because the last thing we want to do is to undershoot our projections when it comes to infrastructure, because then all of a sudden, you run into issues with things like capacity, congestion in terms of traffic, as Susan mentioned earlier. So the very high growth rate that we're calling it is really the one where we're looking at infrastructure cleaning that we should be looking at, and that's that up to 240,000 by 2050, number that Susan pointed out, there is a high growth rate that we're looking at as well. That puts you more, I would say, by the year 2050, somewhere in more the 180 to 200,000 range. And then there's more of a moderate growth rate, which puts you more in the 150 to 180 range. So there is very much a band of projections here, which is just part of the inexact science of projections when you're looking out 25 years. But that's why land use and growth policies in a rapidly growing region like Betteville, it's something that we need to be revisiting every five to ten years so that we can chart our progress against those projections and adjust them as needed over time. But based on some of the historical data we're looking at the market study that has been done, that's where we came up with those three different growth rates and those three different projections. And I think it's part of the conversation with the public, too, to Susan's point of how and where can we accommodate this type of growth for each of the three various projections. And it's going to be a very good and insightful conversation.
[00:28:04] Speaker B: One thing that we've been studying is if we continue to grow at the same density that you're growing at right now, which is basically 4.3, I think, dwelling units per acre, then if you grow at that rate, you're going to push hundreds, well, no tens of thousands of homes out into the county and into adjacent communities. Those people are still going to dine and go to school and work in Bentonville and clog up your raids, but you'll have no tax base from them because they live elsewhere. And so they're coming and they will be working here.
But the question is if Bentonville works proactively to be able to provide enough housing and the right types of housing within the city, that's also an economic boon to the city as opposed to losing it in the retail environment, which was Walmart you guys are really used to. We talk about leakage, and that is people who are going elsewhere when they should be shopping with you. And so it's good for municipalities to think about residential leakage, too, because you don't want to be pushing those folks down the road when you could be keeping one closer.
[00:29:33] Speaker C: And Susan referenced a really important point is know we're talking about housing, quite a know it is a critical issue and a critical topic for the region. But when we're talking about growth and land use, it's not just about housing. It's also about goods and services and businesses and places of employment. Those are all things we'll be talking about. And that's part of growing in a smart and responsible way is making sure that our goods and services are nearby, where people live, where they work, and ultimately where they recreate, too. So that's part of the challenge here, is building and maintaining neighborhoods, not just housing developments, because part of what makes a neighborhood is all those other things that go along with it. It's the park, it's the local restaurant or coffee shop or school. Absolutely, Susan. And that's really our challenge here. I didn't mention earlier when talking about partners, but school district as well is a critical partner on this, and they've been engaged with us from the beginning.
[00:30:46] Speaker A: Is there anything else that you wanted to mention that we haven't touched on yet?
[00:30:51] Speaker C: I would just want to stress again just how important it is for as many members of the public as possible to come out to these pop up events. And the open houses Design Week is very much a collaborative engagement.
We're here to listen, to hear, and ultimately to work together to find solutions. We want to hear from as many members of the public as possible, because this is your city, your city government, asking you what you think, what type of place do you want Bentonville to that, and Susan made a great point earlier, and it's something that I keep front of mind throughout, is that ultimately, I'm the planning director of Bentonville today. But the city that we're planning, you're talking the year 2050. That's the city that my children, maybe even my grandchildren at that point that they'll be living in. And I think it's important, both as city staff but then as shared citizens of Bentonville, that we're making sure that we are creating a place that our children, our grandchildren would also want to live in. And that's something that gives me a lot of pride in our community and gives me a lot of excitement for this upcoming week of conversations.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: I'll just add to that, which that was a really important point. And people are busy and they have a lot on their plates already.
And it's hard to get excited about policy because it's hard to understand the impacts of it. But if you look at how it flows down, like we talked about earlier, that policy enables zoning, and zoning. It affects you one way or the other, good or bad. And people will show up when somebody's building something on the next street over or in their backyard that they don't like, but by then it's too late because chances are the thing has already been entitled. So at this point, when the policy is being set, that will impact the zoning that will either prohibit or permit the thing in the future. Now is the time to be involved. Now is the time when you can change things and you can get that coffee shop you want, or you can keep it a five minute drive away because you don't want it. So now is the moment to be engaged, and the citizens have tremendous influence on their planning staff and their elected officials. And actually, the city is very sincere in its desire to know what the residents think.
[00:33:54] Speaker A: Tyler Oliver street and Susan Henderson, really appreciate your time today. It's been great talking to you about this very important and fascinating subject.
[00:34:04] Speaker C: Awesome. Thank you so much, sir.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:34:08] Speaker E: Like I said earlier, reporter Leah Fletcher has a story coming this weekend on the planned Bentonville process. Here are some other stories we have coming your way over the next few days.
Have you ever noticed northwest Arkansas sports an abundance of different coffee shops? Well, Lydia Fletcher has, and she'll have a story on that.
A residential development on the northeast side of Fayetteville prompted city council during a recent workshop to discuss the city's rules regarding clear cutting of trees. Stacey Ryburn will report on that.
A bill to exempt Oklahoma poultry producers from lawsuits such as the one Oklahoma's attorney general filed against Arkansas poultry companies passed Oklahoma's state House of Representatives earlier this week. Doug Thompson will have that story for us. And from the River Valley, residents in the unincorporated areas of Sebastian county can expect to start paying more to have their trash picked up each week this spring. Thomas Cicenti reports.
Art students at Van Buren High School are preparing for their annual Empty Bowls fundraiser next week, which benefits a food program for area kids. Monica Brick will have that story.
Our what's up cover story this weekend is on the musical cambodian rock band, which comes to theater squared starting next week. Cambodian rock band follows the story of a man who escaped a murderous regime in Cambodia, only to return home 30 years later in search of his wayward daughter. Among other stories you'll find in what's up? A new exhibit at the Amazeum Jurassic Quest at the Rogers Convention center and a Q and a with comedian Dave Williamson, who will perform at the Walton Arts center on February 29. Also, be sure to check out our profile section, where we'll have an in depth feature on Janae Flea, a Springdale native and country music sensation. All this and more will be available to our subscribers on our tablet and smartphone apps and at our websites nwaonline.com and rivervalleydemocratgazette.com. Know the news is a weekly podcast brought to you by the newsrooms of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette and River Valley Democrat Gazette. Again, I'm Dave Prozick, your podcast host this week. Thanks as always, for listening. Don't forget to check us out next Friday for the next know the news. Until then, have a great weekend and take care.
