Fayetteville’s Highway 71B corridor transformation.
By Juliet Richey
Britin Bostick, long-range planner and special projects manager for the city of Fayetteville, jokingly titled her presentation on the transformation of the city’s legacy commercial corridor “71 steps to 71B” in a presentation to the Arkansas Chapter of the American Planning Association meeting last October. While perhaps not 71 steps, the name accurately reflects the complexity of the work to transform U.S. Highway 71B. I was privileged to be a member of the team involved with the 71B Corridor Study and its implementation. The process brought together business and property owners along the corridor with a team of planners, market analysts, engineers, landscape architects and environmental scientists.
Best known as College Avenue, 71B’s two southern segments have different names: the newly named Nelson Hackett Boulevard and South School Avenue. Much of the 71B corridor has transferred from the Arkansas Department of Transportation to the city.
U.S. Highway 71 was established in 1956 with the passage of the Federal Highway Act. Prior to the construction of Interstate 49, the corridor served as the primary north-south regional connection between Northwest Arkansas cities and southwest Missouri. The commercial corridor beyond Fayetteville’s downtown core began its current development pattern in the late 1940s with more rapid expansion from 1950s through the 1970s. Today, the corridor serves both regional and local traffic within Fayetteville and the region.
In 2018, the city of Fayetteville initiated a community planning process to rethink the 71B Corridor through a formal study. RDG Planning and Design led the study and partnered with Garver. A critical goal of the project was to engage the community in order to develop strategies for the corridor’s long-term economic vitality, address traffic congestion, increase access to affordable housing, increase safety and convenience for all modes of travel, encourage active and healthy living, and create an attractive front door to Fayetteville’s downtown and adjacent neighborhoods.
The plan resulting from this study includes a rich tapestry of elements weaving together a dynamic and vibrant city fabric. The plan depicts the relationship between the transportation and development aspects of the corridor while laying the groundwork for public and private investment, quality of place, economic resiliency and environmental responsibility. Martin Shukert, FAICP, principal at RDG Planning and Design and the project leader of the study, devised the term “Corridor Urbanism” to describe his approach to this plan. Shukert’s focus on true implementability in regard to every facet of the plan is inspiring and refreshing. According to the plan, the five broad categories of guiding principles of Corridor Urbanism include:
1. Reality and Respect — respecting and dealing with the realities of the corridor.
2. Resident Population — providing for the needs of the resident population supporting the corridor.
3. Opportunities — capitalizing on opportunities for change.
4. Transportation Function and Choice — ensure transportation modes function well and provide true choice of modes.
5. Urban Environment — providing a rich and dynamic environment for urban growth.
The city of Fayetteville is actively working to implement the plan with a variety of efforts. The projects, listed below, are funded by a $226 million bond issue passed by Fayetteville voters in 2019; the set aside for 71B is $73.9 million.
• Nelson Hackett Boulevard (formerly Archibald Yell Boulevard) safety improvements, projected to be completed by summer.
• Appleby/Plainview/Rolling Hills connection, starting in late 2023.
• College Avenue improvements, from East North Street to East Sycamore Street, projected to start this spring.
The design work for the three projects is ongoing. The value of visioning and planning has been evident to the project engineers. Garver’s Ron Petrie, PE, said, “Most great projects start with a vision, and there is great value in utilizing the planning process to translate the vision to an accessible and comprehensible plan. To be truly successful, the plan must be implementable and functional for those who are currently living, working and running businesses in the corridor today, while still allowing for the realization of the vision through the incremental evolution of the operation and feel of the corridor over time.”
The transformation of the 71B Corridor rests within a broader context of efforts that began over two decades ago with renewed focus on downtown Fayetteville and subsequent planning efforts. Those evolving efforts show a progression of investment, planning and implementation efforts that built the groundwork for the incremental transformation of development form and land use regulation within the city.
According to Fayetteville Development Director Jonathan Curth, the 71B Corridor Plan factors into the consideration and support of rezoning requests that provide for the expansion of housing opportunity along the corridor. Curth also expressed that “having agency over the College Avenue facility has helped to keep the momentum of the vision and plan moving forward.”
Marty Shukert (RDG) works with stakeholders in Fayetteville on early corridor concepts during a charette for the corridor study.
While working through the preliminary plans for corridor improvement last summer, Bostick and I met with a number of property and business owners along the corridor to discuss the proposed improvements and changes. Through this process, the details and the site level functionality of each property supporting its current occupant was examined. Each site had unique needs for deliveries, access, parking and visibility. The dreams and aspirations of each individual business and property owner as well as colorful history about the corridor was uncovered. It was fascinating and grounding to work one-on-one with these individuals who constitute the economic fabric of the city. We worked in collaboration with other city staff and engineers throughout Garver to devise custom solutions to meet the needs of the city, corridor users and individual owners.
“I never expected that getting sunburned standing in a parking lot talking to a local business owner would result in pretty strong backup for policy recommendations citywide.”
Bostick said the process has lent itself to a broader policy change in some respects. “In that process of walking through the design of the envisioned streetscape and access plan, many technical decisions were made that have impacted higher level planning policy decisions,” she said. Because of the work that we went through to resolve corridor access issues, steps were taken to assure that strong policy regarding best practices is in place to address these issues on new sites. “I never expected that getting sunburned standing in a parking lot talking to a local business owner would result in pretty strong backup for policy recommendations citywide. If that’s not what it means to be a planner, then honestly, I don’t know what is,” she said.
The corridor is transforming, and the incremental visions of the past 20 years are coming to fruition. The process requires persistence, empathy, attention to detail, one-on-one conversations with citizens and time. It is complex, challenging and rewarding to work in tandem with others to create better corridors and communities where we are able to live, work and recreate.
Juliet Richey, AICP, is an urban planning leader at Garver.