Everyone is welcome at today's 5:30 p.m. meeting of Ward One residents and the Town Branch Neighborhood at the S. Hill Avenue Church of Christ near the intersection of 11th Street and S. Hill Avenue to hear and discuss a proposal to rezone the Washington County Livestock Auction Barn for student apartments. The area is shown on Google Maps below.
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The sale barn in the view below is at right and the national cemetery is at left. WOULD STUDENT APARTMENTS be any more appropriate next to the National Cemetery than a sale barn? The cemetery was created in 1867 and the sale barn in 1937.
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Please share information about the 5:30 p.m. April 5 (TODAY) meeting of Ward One residents at the Church of Christ on South Hill Avenue in Fayetteville.
Attorney Bob Estes is to present a proposal to have the Washington County Sale Barn rezoned so that student apartments may be built on the land in the Town Branch Neighborhood. If the rezoning is accepted, then a North Carolina company will buy the land and build the apartments.
The cattle-auction facility was constructed in 1937 by the grandfather of the current owner.
Cattle are brought in early each week and auctioned on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. There is no permanent housing of a large group of animals.
Because of the north slope's being well vegetated, stormwater runoff to streams in each direction is relatively clean, much cleaner than the runoff from the Hill Place Apartment complex being constructed three blocks to the west.
Closing the sale barn in south Fayetteville would greatly inconvenience ranchers and farmers in south Washington County. In fact, having to travel to Springdale to buy and sell cattle could be final factor in some landowners deciding to sell out and stop farming.
All this would come at a time when encouraging local production of food and protecting the rich soil on the prairies in the river valleys is high on the agenda of many people and many conservation organizations.
Closing the sale barn could affect the local farm economy and several other businesses in south Fayetteville that rely on local farming. It would encourage more unneeded housing to be built in rural areas while allowing more unneeded apartments to be built in a city where empty apartments and condominiums are plentiful.
Anything that damages the agricultural economy of Northwest Arkansas will reduce the effectiveness of such ongoing efforts as the FNHA's green-infrastructure project, the Beaver Lake and Illinois River watershed-protection efforts and the efforts of OMNI Center, the Sierra Club, Audubon Arkansas, the League of Women voters, the Ozark Society, the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited and many other conservation organizations to protect and improve our environment and counter the threat of global climate change.
Town Branch Neighborhood Association meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday April 6, 2009
Ward One City Council members, members of the Town Branch neighborhood association and the public will hear a presentation from a developer seeking to rezone the Washington County Sale Barn property to allow construction of student apartments. Everyone is welcome to the meeting in the church at 1136 S Ellis Avenue south of the intersection of S. Hill Avenue and Eleventh Street at 5:30 p.m. Monday, April 6.
For details, please call 479-444-6072 or visit http://townbranchneighborhood.blogspot.com
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4 comments:
I am neither for or against the development planned for the sale barn but I would like to point out a few things about this blog:
Aubrey stated 'Because of the north slope's being well vegetated, stormwater runoff to streams in each direction is relatively clean, much cleaner than the runoff from the Hill Place Apartment complex being constructed three blocks to the west.' Does Aubrey really think runoff from the Sale Barn is cleaner than Hill Place? What about all the nitrogen and phosphorous from the livestock manure? Hill Place may have some sediment running off the site but it can't be as nasty as the water running off the site at the sale barn.
Aubrey also states that 'Closing the sale barn in south Fayetteville would greatly inconvenience ranchers and farmers in south Washington County. In fact, having to travel to Springdale to buy and sell cattle could be final factor in some landowners deciding to sell out and stop farming.' I would like to see some facts to back up his claim, because personaly I think he just made this up.
Again he writes 'Closing the sale barn could affect the local farm economy and several other businesses in south Fayetteville that rely on local farming. It would encourage more unneeded housing to be built in rural areas while allowing more unneeded apartments to be built in a city where empty apartments and condominiums are plentiful.' Where are the facts to back up any of these statements? If these are his opinions I think he should state that they are so.
I will state that if you can ask any environmental scientist or water quality specialist about cattle ranching and they will say it is a major contributor to water pollution. If the sale barn closed and cattle ranching were reduced it would actually help reduce pollution and increase water quality in the area.
Anonymous 2:39,
Interesting comments, but I doubt that you have seen the runoff from Hill Place/Aspen Ridge for the past few years and I doubt you have checked the runoff from the sale barn.
How much do have invested in this project? Or either of the projects mentioned?
After you posted, you had nearly three hours to get to the meeting on time and another hour to get there and still get to speak. Sorry you missed the opportunity.
The runoff from the sale barn north, south and east and west flows across absorbent black-soil wetland and down grassy swales. It gets a lot of natural stormwater treatment, just what the experts say it should have before entering the streams.
I found no one who said removing the sale barn for four-story buildings that would keep the morning sun off the cemetery and rise higher than the 1867 national cemetery even though it is on a lower part of that hillside was a good idea.
The closest to that was a comment from a close neighbor who said, "You mean the only choice we have is between cows and teenagers?"
It remains to be seen what that man says if he submits comment to the planning commission when this rezoning comes up in early May. He wasn't able to attend, but I'll make sure he knows when I know the correct confirmed date for the next public meeting on this subject. I'll try to make sure that information is available to all.
Call me when the next heavy rain begins and we can check all the major runoff sites in the Town Branch and Tanglewood watersheds together. Bring your cameras, because I can't afford to keep buying new ones to document the facts.
You should request an environmental report be made public specifically looking for increased levels of arsenic. Arsenic has been used for cow dipping and many sites such as this have arsenic levels too high for human habitation, but traditional environmental reports will not check for this.
Thanks for the good ideas. It sounds like the nitrogen and phosphorous from the livestock manure and possible arsenic could make an impression on the city council. I am a neighbor less than a block away. We need all the help we can get. I know all about the lawsuits, liens, complaints, but the planning commission did not want to hear about it. Can you email me at mail4ktk@yahoo.com
Kathy
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