The Morning News' Skip Descant reports that Tracy Hoskins' request for city help to build road into wetland to facilitate his project is questioned

The Morning News
Local News for Northwest Arkansas

How Much Road To Give Developers Always a Balance, Officials Say
By Skip Descant
THE MORNING NEWS

Building road for developer's benefit questioned by council, aubrey


FAYETTEVILLE -- An eight-story $15-million hotel is just one of the possible developments for the Park West Development project in north Fayetteville.
But crucial to development moving into the large rural field, say developers, is extending Arkansas 112 into the area to both access and encourage building.
"We get calls from restaurants and other businesses that are interested in that area," Steve Rust, Fayetteville Economic Development Council president, told the Fayetteville City Council on Tuesday.
The council is considering a cost-share with developers to extend Arkansas 112 as a four-lane road. The city's share of the project is estimated to be $2.16 million. The proposal was heard at Tuesday night's city council meeting and has been sent back to the council's street committee for further study, evaluating cost and the overall design.
Rust would not go into which hotel chain is looking at the area, but said the access is central in maintaining interest.
"There could be some lost opportunity here," Rust advised.
Another issue is the question of how much public commitment should the city invest into private projects. Kit Williams, Fayetteville city attorney, has said Fayetteville is not required to pay for the road project until the job is finished.
And if the project does not move forward in five years, the contract is nullified, "so that the money is not just sitting there," Williams said.
"What's the saying, 'If we build it, they will come,' and we don't know if they'll really come or not," said Shirley Lucas, a city council member.
Another facet of these public-private agreements is the city must waive its requirement for competitive bidding because it's not the lead agency in the project. Instead, the developer is heading up the infrastructure project. And mayor-elect Lioneld Jordan is more leery of these agreements than Mayor Dan Coody.
"I haven't really seen them work that well so far," Jordan said Wednesday morning, speaking about public-private cost-shares.
However, another sticking point for the road extenuation is it does not continue all the way as a throughway, but dead-ends. This is a key change from the overall conceptual design approved by the street committee.
"We approved a design, but not just a piece of it," said Jordan, who serves on the city street committee. "There's no completion. That realignment just takes you into a field, then stops."
Complicating matters further is some concern among environmentalists that the highway -- and by extension, development -- would disturb wetland.
Aubrey Shepherd, a watchdog for development issues dealing with stormwater runoff or habitat loss, was critical of the highway proposal and argued the road should be elevated.
"If we're going to continue to talk about green infrastructure and sustainability, then we don't commit to a monstrosity," Shepherd told the council.

AT A GLANCE

Garland Avenue Widening
The Transportation Bond Program included $3,517,600 for the widening of Garland Avenue (Arkansas 112) between the Fullbright Expressway and Howard Nickell Road. To date, the city has spent $144,400 on engineering.