FORT SMITH -- Fort Smith city directors plan to vote today on approval of a comprehensive plan aimed at guiding the city's growth and development for the next 20 years.
After 18 months of meetings, research and gathering the public's ideas and opinions, a 28-member local steering committee, with the help of Pennsylvania consultant Wallace Roberts and Todd, came up with a plan that identified four strategic directions for the city.
They are:
• Retaining and enhancing community character and quality of life.
• Promoting sound growth and development.
• Growing and diversifying the economy.
• Uniting people, institutions and government.
Steering committee co-chairman John Cooley told city directors Tuesday the completion of the plan did not represent an end, but a beginning. Implementation will take leadership not only from the city government and community leaders but also from people who run businesses and hire people and citizens who want to live in a better city, he said.
"This comprehensive plan sets goals that will be difficult to achieve," Cooley said. "We will only make the necessary efforts if we work together and keep this document at the forefront of the discussions in our community."
An executive summary of the plan stated it is an action plan that will translate goals and policies into nearly 200 actions during the next 20 years "to advance the vision of Future Fort Smith."
Cooley said the 2002 plan being updated had limited success because no one monitored its progress or updated it to keep pace with current conditions. It hadn't been updated since it was passed 12 years ago.
The committee, he said, was recommending formation of an implementation committee to meet periodically to track progress and accountability for tasks laid out in the plan.
Director Kevin Settle said he would like to see such a committee meet multiple times a year.
The plan is designed to provide goals, policies and land-planning principles to guide city directors and staff as they make decisions in the coming years on zoning issues, capital improvements, transportation and relations with other jurisdictions and agencies, according to the summary.
It listed five challenges and opportunities the city will have to address:
• Promoting economic diversification.
The Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area -- composed of Sebastian, Crawford and Franklin counties in Arkansas and Sequoyah and LeFlore counties in Oklahoma -- has lost more than a third of its manufacturing workforce over the past decade. But it has seen job growth in education, health, government, professional and business services, financial activities, and leisure and hospitality industries.
• Capitalize on location.
Fort Smith is at the crossroads of major highways with rail and river connections, presenting opportunities for becoming a regional transportation hub.
• Integrating the riverfront.
While a riverfront amphitheater and park have been developed and plans are underway for the U.S. Marshals Museum, "the connection to the river remains largely unfulfilled."
• Maintaining neighborhood livability.
Fort Smith has several well-established neighborhoods, but they need to be preserved and could benefit from mixing housing types to respond to changing housing preferences. Also, new areas are opening up that could become new neighborhoods.
• Enhancing community character.
"There are challenges and opportunities in celebrating this image in Fort Smith [as the Frontier town], in looking back on the city's historic roots while looking forward to sustainable development solutions," the summary stated.
Metro on 12/16/2014