A new sidewalk is proposed on the south side of Dickson Street from Washington to Fletcher avenues.
Flyer photo
The city’s Transportation Division has plans for over five miles of sidewalk work in 2013.
The City Council next week will hear a proposal list that includes 26 projects which account for a total of 27,348 linear feet – or 5.2 miles – of new or improved sidewalks across the city.
The two largest projects include construction of a 3,925-foot stretch of sidewalk on the south side of Huntsville Road between Morningside Drive and Happy Hollow Road, and a 3,550-foot stretch on the east side of Armstrong Avenue from 15th Street to Borick Drive.
Other projects include a new sidewalk on the south side of Dickson Street from Washington to Fletcher, replacement of the sidewalks on both sides of Leverett Avenue from Cleveland to Maple and a new sidewalk on the east side of Woolsey Avenue from North to Prospect.
The work is on par with previous years (4.4 miles in 2012, 5.3 miles in 2011), but officials plan to increase work to include over 15 miles in 2014, using the city’s share of a new statewide half-cent sales tax voters approved in November.
Listed below are improvement projects for both 2013 and 2014.
Council members will consider adopting the 2013 list at the next scheduled meeting on March 5.
Proposed 2013 sidewalk improvement projects
| Ward 1 | From | To | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Armstrong Ave | 15th St | Borick Dr | 3,550 ft |
| Ashwood Ave | 18th St | Razorback Rd | 1,900 ft |
| Dickson St | Washington Ave | Fletcher Ave | 1,750 ft |
| Huntsville Rd | Morningside Dr | Happy Hollow Rd | 3,925 ft |
| Ward 2 | From | To | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ash St | Rayview Dr | Walnut Ave | 480 ft |
| Leverett Ave | Cleveland St | Maple St | 2,650 |
| North St | Vandeventer Ave | Shady Ln | 310 ft |
| Sycamore St | College Ave | Walnut Ave | 300 ft |
| Walnut Ave | Ash St | Sycamore St | 1,100 ft |
| Woolsey Ave | North St | Prospect St | 1,285 ft |
| Ward 3 | From | To | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azalea Terr | Country Way | Robin Rd | 950 ft |
| Country Way | Azalea Terr | Gulley Park | 1,450 ft |
| Terry Dr | Township St | Stewart St | 940 ft |
| Warwick Dr | Oak Bailey Dr | existing | 525 ft |
| Wayne Dr | Village Dr | Appleby Rd | 200 ft |
| Woodland Ave | Prospect St | Sycamore St | 200 ft |
| Various repairs | 250 ft |
| Ward 4 | From | To | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleveland St | Sang Ave | Hall Ave | 250 ft |
| Cross Ave | Halsell Rd | Markham Rd | 650 ft |
| Halsell Rd | Sang Ave | Cross Ave | 725 ft |
| Hotz Dr | Palmer Ave | Razorback Rd | 830 ft |
| Salem Rd | Old Town Ln | Earnhardt Dr | 460 ft |
| Salem Rd | Bentgrass Rd | Clabber Creek Blvd | 317 ft |
| Salem Rd | Clearwood Dr | Mount Comfort Rd | 1,286 ft |
| Sang Ave | Loren Cir | Halsell Rd | 815 |
| Various repairs | 250 ft |
Note: A few of the above projects were slated for 2012, but were pushed back for various reasons including weather delays.
Source: Staff report
Proposed 2014 sidewalk improvement projects
| Ward 1 | From | To | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cato Springs Rd | Razorback Rd | School Ave | 5,240 ft |
| Hwy 16 East | Armstrong Ave | Stonebridge Rd | 12,800 ft |
| Morningside Dr | Huntsville Rd | Farilane St | 610 ft |
| School Ave | MLK Blvd | 9th St | 530 ft |
| Various repairs | 250 ft |
| Ward 2 | From | To | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garland Ave | Mel-mar St | North St | 7,880 ft |
| Davidson St | College Ave | Willow Ave | 890 ft |
| Davidson St | Park Ave | College Ave | 850 ft |
| Dickson St | Arkansas Ave | College Ave | 240 ft |
| Forest Ave | Louise St | Lafayette St | 1,350 ft |
| Lafayette St | Washington Ave | Willow Ave | 100 ft |
| Mountain St | School Ave | Existing | 100 ft |
| South St | West Ave | Archibald Yell Blvd | 1,200 ft |
| University Ave | Dickson St | Whiteside Dr | 750 ft |
| Deane St | Porter Rd | Garland Ave | 5,286 ft |
| Various repairs | 250 ft |
| Ward 3 | From | To | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crossover Rd | Joyce Blvd | Mission Blvd | 24,000 ft |
| Ward 4 | From | To | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 46th St | Wedington Dr | Existing | 1,250 ft |
| Berry St | Lonnie Ave | Sang Ave | 1,475 ft |
| Berry St | Sang Ave | Private St | 650 ft |
| Broyles Ave | Persimmon St | Existing | 2,550 ft |
| Center St | Hartman Ave | Razorback Rd | 825 ft |
| Double Springs Rd | Abilene Dr | Greens Chapel Rd | 1,025 ft |
| Halsell Rd | Cross Ave | Oliver Ave | 1,425 ft |
| Lonnie Ave | Wedington Dr | Ora Dr | 420 ft |
| Markham Rd | Cross Ave | Razorback Rd | 1,850 ft |
| Oliver Ave | Maple St | Halsell Rd | 650 ft |
| Oliver Ave | Cleveland St | Maple St | 1,325 ft |
| Ora Dr | Lonnie Ave | Sang Ave | 1,735 ft |
| Ora Dr | Sang Ave | Eva Ave | 1,120 ft |
| Palmer Ave | Markham Rd | Center St | 1,950 ft |
| Persimmon St | Rupple Rd | Salem Rd | 570 ft |
| Sunset Dr | Wedington Dr | Vista Dr | 340 ft |
Source: Staff report
The city should receive a lot of credit for this program – each year it is transparent process, seemingly fair as it is allocated between wards and it is literally in some cases providing for sidewalks and crosswalks where none existed before.
The increase next year is going to make a huge difference.
Thanks for the info. Huntsville road certainly needs that sidewalk if that stretch is where I think it is, that’s for sure.
Yippee!
I have to point out the elephant in the room. College Avenue? Why is one of our largest business oriented streets being left to wither away? Someone correct me if I’m wrong, I may have missed something but where are improvements there? Businesses are constantly coming in and out, yet little has been done to improve the quality of the street as a whole, both in terms of street view aesthetics (a major undertaking) and walkability, providing more much needed foot traffic to business.
You couldn’t be more correct. I don’t understand why that isn’t priority number 1 either. It’s the very first thing I would spend ANY city improvement money on, let alone money that is already allocated to sidewalks.
Seriously, why don’t we make College more attractive and walkable? Why isn’t it even on this 2 yr list?
I think it is a nightmare that noone wants to tackle. Negotiating dozens, if not hundreds, of property owners (including very many who could care less, I’m sure) along with the state highway people seems daunting. I agree that it should be tackled, but I understand why it isn’t. Personally I think the onus should be on property owners, but I also think that people would just vacate rather than spend money on capital improvements. The ugliest businesses are those that have been around forever and obviously have little interest in improving their properties.
Good point, but walkability will only improve business and value. A property owner would have to be a lunatic to turn it down if the city is paying the bill. This needs to be done more than any other sidewalks in town. Walking across parking lots and along the edges of grassy slopes on the edge of the road needs to end. It’s the center of the town and it’s dying.
I think one of the main problems that presents itself with College Avenue isn’t just the lack of sidewalks and real pedestrian traffic, it’s the power lines that sit merely feet from the street itself. This is extremely unsightly at first glance and prevents store fronts from using smaller signage and situating themselves closer the road itself.
As stated, tackling anything along College Avenue is a huge undertaking and I salute anyone who makes a stand to do such a thing, but I feel that it’s a move that must be made if we don’t want to see the area slowly deteriorate. ’6th Street’ as we still call it is slowly but surely becoming a more attractive option for business owners and I can only speculate that College Avenue is losing its luster over time. It’s time that we make the bold move to reinvigorate the area and renew it into the business center it once was. Not only is it the prime gateway to the downtown area, but it still has local appeal and hasn’t quite been taken over by fast food chains like other hubs of the town; it needs a facelift.
College has always been then most unsightly spectacle I’ve seen since I’ve been here. The City has thrown money at evertrhing else in the world in this town but College is the first impression a person gets when they come to town here. Second is MLK and the boulevard it presents isn’t much better. There aren’t trees , decorative lights. pedestrian crossings that are uses frindly for either main drag is this town. A decent bus stop would be nice. You can say that there may have been other priorities but these MAIN streets are HORRIBLE in apperance and user friendliness!
Sidewalks for College Avenue from Maple to North will be paid for out the third phase of transportation bonds, pending Council’s approval. The Street Committee voted to include it last night.
That’s a great start, thanks very much for the news. From there it would be nice to complete a sidewalk from North all the way past Rick’s and down into Evelyn Hills.
Like Ryan stated, it’s a great start and I appreciate some progression being made. But, it’s begging to be asked, why not sooner? I’m obviously not working on the inside, so that isn’t as much a jab at any elected official, council or committee as much as it is a legitimate question. What was/is preventing this from being done sooner? Are there any plans to move forward to entirely renew the area to some degree or another? I believe it was briefly discussed in the passed and would be a massive (not to mention expensive) undertaking by the city, but is it something that you think would have a lot of local support?
Heck I would donate to the cause.
I hate mistakes, anyways “…in the past* and…”
@Dylan – Good question. The reason is because the project is costly, so costly we have to use a different funding source than the “regular” Capital Improvements Project (CIP) fund, which in the past has typically allocated ~$500k each year for sidewalk projects. This year there is between $1.3M and $1.5M for regular sidewalk projects due to the new sales tax passed in November. Still, that’s not enough for a big project like College, which is big because of all of the property owners involved as well as the length of the street.
Your question about plans to entirely renew the area is even better. I have been thinking on this for some time. I believe the right application of new land use policy could drive development to College. I would like to take the goals of the 2030 Plan and create development incentives around them. For instance, if a corner lot on College were redeveloped with structured parking affordable housing, transit stops, and other elements, we could waive development fees or offer an appropriate density bonus. That’s my general idea, anyway. The specifics are the hard part, especially when talking about density bonuses. Our city should be served well by arterials lined with buildings which are typically between three and five stories tall, which is what is allowed (but not incentivized) in our current ordinances. Anything taller than that should really only punctuate, but not overrun, our urban fabric. The biggest benefit of this approach is that we can preserve the charm of our single-family neighborhoods by making sure urban developments happen on the arterial and collector streets instead of proceeding entirely ad hoc.
Hopefully the improvements to North Street will be done in a similar manner to the downtown improvements with tree wells and decorative lighting. North of North, a revamping of the curb-cuts to current standards and wider sidewalks would be a wonderful improvement. I’ve see pedestrians negotiating the hazardous ROW along College Avenue every day that I’ve lived in Fayetteville.
@Mr. Petty – Thanks for the lengthy response, your clarity regarding issues and willingness to communicate doesn’t go unnoticed.
I ‘suppose the cost associated with the project is a reasonable delay, no argument there as nothing can be done. Tape, tape and tape.
Your plan regarding the renewal of College Avenue is something that I personally would love to see drawn out. How would the phasing in of new development meddle with old development? For example, as far as aesthetics, you’ve got larger (read: taller) buildings being developed, situated closer to the street themselves (I assume?) mingling in with development that has been in place for 25+ years now. Would you provide incentives for current/future business/property owners to redevelop? I’m struggling to make this entirely clear, because as I stated previously, I’m not working on the inside and don’t have complete knowledge of codes and/or plans, but I’m hoping you understand. Also, how expensive would it be to undertake something as large as a power line setback on College Avenue, as I think many would agree that they are currently a very unsightly problem. Has there been as discussion relating to that specifically?
I too appreciate you out in the trenches and at least acknowledging the problems,presenting some ideas and listening to others for solutions.
That IS great news. Of course…the real challenge lies between Evelyn Hills and the mall.
concur
That may be 3 percent of the road that needs to address the eyesore but a far cry from a comprehensive plan for the over all esthetics and pedestrian usefulness. Wedington is a similar nightmare, As always the are Ward specific politics to address. But as the mayor of Fort Smith said, ” A rising tide floats all boats.” Making this town more attractive should be a higher priority.
Sycamore needs sidewalks too… There are often pedestrians walking on the road between leverett and garland.
I’ve asked for Sycamore improvements in 2014. They may be delayed until 2015. Depends on how much we get back from the new tax.
Matt,
Every time I drive the four-lane section of Sycamore between Gregg and Leverett, I imagine it would work just as well, if not better, as a three-lane street (turn lane in middle) with wide bike lanes on either side; especially now with the heavy trail usage in the area. It seems unlikely that it will ever be upgraded to a four-lane road across town. Any thoughts on re-striping to achieve this?
@glutenfree – Yes. It’s something that will be evaluated. Along with Garland and North, Sycamore is one of the most important streets for any future “u-district,” so it’s something myself and others are paying close attention to.