What is an ACU? Some consider the neighborhood grocery store to be the smallest increment of brick-and-mortar retail, but I am excited to explore an even smaller increment. The accessory commercial unit, or ACU, ranges between a home-based business in an extra bedroom to a small shop or office. You have likely heard of an ADU, an accessory dwelling unit, or “granny flat.” An ACU is similar in that it’s an accessory to a main house while offering more affordable space with neighborhood-friendly gentle density, but in a way that caters to local business owners. An ACU is more or less the next incremental step up from a home-based business that had its start in a spare bedroom or garage.

Neighborhoods and cities will see many challenges in the coming years. We need to build more homes to address affordability and the housing crisis, we need to address inequality both broadly speaking and in terms of the built environment, and we need to accomplish these things while rebuilding our local economies. Our current solutions aren’t good enough. A development process that prioritizes labyrinthine engineering and code standards over basic quality of life will only exacerbate these problems. As we look for ways to expand housing supply and build more resilient cities, human-focused design has to become more central to our thinking.

Traditionally Arkansas has been a state with a low cost of living, especially compared to coastal states. In large part, the low cost of living was driven by lower housing costs. However, with the fast pace of growth in some of the state’s regional economies, the associated employment and population growth has started to increase housing costs and dent the low cost-of-living advantage that the state once held. Nowhere is this more evident than in Northwest Arkansas, where ever-increasing housing costs are fueled by the population growth that came with a 32 percent increase in employment and economic growth, which led the state during the last economic expansion (2009-19).

In February 2020, the Arkansas unemployment rate stood at a record low 3.5 percent. By April, the unemployment rate was worse than the worst month of the Great Recession of 2007-09. With this sharp uptick in unemployment comes historic demands on public services.

Skilled workers with the ability to work remotely have the opportunity to have their cake and eat it, too, by being based in Arkansas where they keep their same job and salary but increase their buying power by parlaying a lower cost of living without sacrificing the lifestyle amenities they expect.

The demographics of developers (and bankers and appraisers and general contractors and city planners and engineers and all the other ecosystem partners that make buildings happen) are fairly consistent. As an architect, landscape architect, land planner and small developer in Northwest Arkansas, I am regularly the only woman in a room of white males. My economic, cultural and social expectations tend to match most of the industry, but even my slight deviation from the standard practitioner provides for a sometimes radically different viewpoint on the business of development.

As state and local government leaders struggle to effectively deal with the continued public health and economic impacts of COVID-19, communities large and small across Arkansas are struggling with food system issues. Too much in one place, not enough in another. USDA school lunches and Seamless Summer meal programs have had to switch from daily cafeteria-based food service protocols to distributing food packages available for pickup once or a couple of times a week.

Ever since humankind started congregating into fixed locales a reoccurring set of living patterns has emerged. What can we learn from our history of settlement that can improve our lives today?

A typical morning in the town of Lonoke begins with the sunrise over a rice field, fish transport trucks rumbling to life to begin cross-country delivery routes from one of the community’s innumerable minnow or goldfish ponds, and public servants and attorneys heading to work in the 1928 County Courthouse on the edge of downtown. For many years, Lonoke has been overlooked, taking a back seat in size and visibility to other communities that have been impacted by the suburban population shift in the last three decades.

It’s mid-July as I write, and COVID-19 cases have been rising precipitously across Arkansas for weeks. On top of the fear and stress about the virus, thousands of Arkansans remain unemployed and uncertain about when they might return to work, or if their previous employer will reopen at all. The city of Little Rock won’t have a true reckoning of the financial impact of all of this for months, but we have already reduced the 2020 budget by $5 million in response.

In the mid 1990s, the Little Rock Farmer’s Market was housed in the parking facility at Sixth and Scott in what was then a struggling downtown. Combined with ongoing efforts to revitalize the area, Little Rock leadership and downtown stakeholders felt the market would better serve its vendors, customers and the downtown revitalization efforts by moving to East Markham Street in Riverfront Park.

Across Arkansas, everyday folks are working behind the scenes in communities such as Conway, Eureka Springs, Ozark, Mena and Fort Smith as part of the Main Street Arkansas and Arkansas Downtown Network community programs. To be successful, they follow Main Street America’s Four-Point Approach of organization, design, economic vitality and promotion.  

Empowering people who love their community and want to be involved but don’t know where to start is the goal of Uncommon Communities. Using a cohort model, Uncommon Communities lets community activists from different towns network and engage, sharing common issues and brainstorming creative solutions.

Searcy, Arkansas—White County seat and home of several economy-boosting institutions like Unity Health White County Medical Center, Harding University and a Walmart distribution center—has long searched for ways to bring positive attention to its community. But being reality TV star is a new one, even for those thinking outside the box

Bryan and Bernice Hembree, two of the Fayetteville Roots Festival co-founders, are also a husband and wife duo, Smokey & The Mirror. The two of them have toured nationally/internationally over the past decade while continuing to grow the festival at home. Their band, which recently released a new album, “Here & Now,” has supported tours for Old Crow Medicine Show, ….

The 2017 edition of Block, Street & Building magazine included an article on adaptive reuse and infill development, and highlighted the then-Dollar Saver building in downtown Rogers. Two years and some incredibly heavy lifting by many inspired and hard-working people later, the property now known as The 1907 Building has transformed from a deteriorating former warehouse grocery into an incredibly active local focal point. 

If an Arkansan says, “Go take a hike,” it’s all in good humor. After all, seemingly wherever you go in The Natural State, communities large and small are installing new trails or enhancing existing ones. Arkansas is certainly on the go—to the outside—while reaping economic and quality of life benefits along the way.

Batesville Mayor Rick Elumbaugh has a lot to smile about these days, given the run of prosperity and growth his community is experiencing. Provided the opportunity, he’ll extol the benefits of the new community center, …

The demographic shift toward one- and two-person households has created an unmet need for small homes in walkable locations. This is often best provided within existing neighborhoods near downtowns, otherwise known as infill development.

Every city is nostalgic for the way things used to be. Daytrip through a dozen Arkansas downtowns and you’ll see why. There are a few downtowns that are remarkable for their ongoing success, but an honest evaluation shows most are …