Town Branch neighbors and thousands of veterans who live in other areas pleased that apartments next to Fayetteville National Cemetery not in immediate future, and they plan to seek government and private funding to make the property a part of the cemetery

April 5, 2009, was the date of the first Town Branch Neighborhood Association meeting to hear from developers who had started "an effort to build college student apartments on the site of the former Washington County Livestock Auction."

It didn't take long for the developers to recognize that whoever told them that residents of the area would not consider more huge apartments a benefit for the neighborhood. With the help of several veterans' groups, the neighbors actually prevailed for a change. City officials had approved the Aspen Ridge Condominium project about 100 yards northwest of the National Cemetery at various levels in 2004-05. The project soon became known as Aspen Ridge Townhomes (which implied they could be rented or leased rather than sold). This displeased a few neighbors who had never spoken against the original project because Condos would be owner-occupied, at least at first.

Then Aspen Ridge developers failed and work stopped in July 2006, after all the trees and vegetation had been removed from 30 acres and the mostly rich, dark, prairie soil removed or buried under red dirt and similar material that turned the pervious land with its several groundwater-recharging wetland areas into an environmental wasteland.

In 2008. a second project was approved and the Hill Place student apartments were being built by the time the developers made the deal to acquire the sale-barn property and began to seek city approval.

The idea of building multistory apartments on land where the National Shrine would most logically grow was instantly condemned by people who attended the first meeting and all subsequent meetings.

If this dropping of the court case closes one chapter, it opens another: The search for a buyer who will keep the land available to the National Cemetery until it can be purchased or a coalition of groups who can buy and donate the bulk of the property for the cemetery.

A forward-thinking person or group may be able to find a way to use a bit of the land nearest South School Avenue profitably and for a project truly compatible with the National Cemetery. 

We joked about several in various meetings, such as a museum or something that would celebrate the historic rural past of south Fayetteville. But medical clinics and other service-providing operations currently missing from south Fayetteville also come to mind. 

Suggestions welcome.

Sample below of the story in the Northwest Arkansas Newspapers' business section.

NWAOnline.com

Landowner Drops Zoning Lawsuit

By Skip Descant

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

FAYETTEVILLE — An effort to build college student apartments on the site of the former Washington County Livestock Auction is likely further away than ever.

Billy Joe Bartholomew, the barn’s owner, said the prospect of lengthy litigation to acquire city permission to build on the site prompted Campus Crest, an apartment development company, to lose interest in the project.

“If I could have gotten them down to maybe six months, then maybe they would have stayed interested,” Bartholomew said Monday.

Bartholomew filed a motion to dismiss his lawsuit against the city Monday.

The former livestock barn plodded its way through a lengthy and controversial rezoning process, as neighbors and veterans groups came out against North Carolina-based Campus Crest’s plans to build some 200 (actually MORE THAN 500) apartments on the 11-acre site.

Ron Wood contributed to this report.