The Arkansas Chapter of the American Planning Association announced last week that the Fayette Junction Master Plan has won the 2009 Achievement in Comprehensive Planning award.

According to a press release, this honor is awarded to plans that demonstrate innovation, transferability, quality, comprehensiveness and evidence of implementation. A group of over 100 citizens, composed of business owners, residents and other stakeholders, participated in the charrette process September 13-18, 2008, and the master plan was adopted unanimously by City Council on April 21, 2009.

Kristina Jones, Strategic Planning and Internal Consulting Technician, will also receive the 2009 Achievement in Technology award for her work on a sketch-up model of Fayette Junction. Ms. Jones enabled stakeholders to visualize change over time and captured transit-oriented development and a rail transit stop in a 3D animated model. The awards will be presented on September 17, 2009 at a luncheon during the Arkansas American Planning Associations fall conference in Little Rock.

The vision document, Illustrative Plan and Sketch-up model are available on the City’s website. The guiding principles outlined in the vision document are:

1. Integrate the built and natural environments
2. Support multi-modal transit
3. Create a clean tech cluster

The Fayette Junction Master Plan is the second complete neighborhood plan to be facilitated and developed by City staff and meets one of the benchmarks adopted in City Plan 2025. This is third award the City of Fayetteville has received from the Arkansas Chapter of the American Planning Association for a comprehensive plan and the second for Ms. Jones in technology achievement. Past awardees were City Plan 2025 and the Walker Park Neighborhood Master Plan and Ms. Jones’ model for the transformation of South School Avenue as part of the Walker Park Neighborhood Master Plan.