Council To Seek Economic Development Consultant
Apartments Denied in Neighborhood Conservation Zones
Last updated Tuesday, August 19, 2008 10:16 PM CDT in News
By Skip Descant
The Morning News
FAYETTEVILLE - Through the help of an economic development consultant, the Fayetteville City Council hopes to get a good look not only at itself, but how the outside world sees the Northwest Arkansas city.
The council approved a measure to enter into a $75,000 contract with consultant Eva Klein and Associates of Great Falls, Va. The other half of the $150,000 consulting fee will be covered by the University of Arkansas.
The council also denied a move to make neighborhood conservation zoning in the new Walker Park district less restrictive by allowing multifamily housing.
The council voted 7-1 for the economic development strategy contract. Council member Nancy Allen voted against, saying she had difficulty understanding why outside consultants should be brought in to do studies that ought to be done by groups like the Fayetteville Economic Development Council or the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.
"I don't understand why we have to spend $75,000 to have someone come here and tell us about ourselves," Allen said.
"We have the FDEC, the chamber of commerce, the A&P Commission ... I don't know why we have to bring in an outside consultant," she added.
Supporters of the study say the outside perspective is valuable and needed because Fayetteville has no clear economic development strategy in place.
"An outside view of where we are and what we have is what this is about," Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody said. "We want to know how people view us."
"I believe that periodically, you have to get examined by someone who's in the business of doing those surveys and understand the kinds of trends," said council member Robert Rhoads.
The council rejected a proposal to allow multifamily housing into the newly formed neighborhood conservation zoning created for the Walker Park neighborhood.
"I think it's a major erosion of the neighborhood conservation to have multifamily use," said Fayetteville resident Rob Sharp. Sharp noted that if any property owner wants a zoning change the city has a process to move these requests through.
Only Allan and Alderman Bobby Ferrell - the proposal's author - voted in favor of allowing multifamily housing in the neighborhood conservation zone.
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