After a three-month delay, the Little Rock Board of Directors is scheduled to vote on a street policy this week that would require city streets to be designed for all possible users.
The “Complete Streets” policy sets requirements for sidewalks, curbs, bike lanes, landscaping and islands that cater to all forms of transportation, including motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation users, freight haulers and people with disabilities.
It doesn’t mean, however, that every street would have all of those elements.
A vote on adopting the policy was originally scheduled for January, but Vice Mayor and Ward 5 Director Lance Hines asked for the issue to be deferred until his questions could be answered. City Manager Bruce Moore sent the board answers to Hines’ 17 questions last week. Most centered around the policy’s bike lane requirements and what additional cost private developers would bear.
Just like developers have to make certain street improvements when developing property now, the Complete Streets policy would also have them bear the cost of adding bike lanes, when applicable.
If the street called for a bike lane, for example, the developer would be required to have the striping completed. Since striping is all that is involved, it would only cost the developer additional paint, city officials said.
Public Works Director Jon Honeywell told the board at last week’s agenda-setting meeting that for a $518,000 street project spanning 1,300 feet, the additional cost to add a typical bike lane would be about $3,100 — or 0.6 percent.
“Every street in Little Rock will not have a bike trail on it,” Moore said. “We have a Master Bike Plan that the board has approved. As we resurface those streets or as those streets are improved — whether it’s a developer doing it or a public project — we will look at it on a case-by-case basis of whether it will be designed to include a bike trail.”
Hines said at the agenda meeting that he is “much more comfortable” with the two ordinances adopting the street policy now than he was 90 days ago.
“I’ve gotten input from developers. I also had some outside firms from D.C. take a look at it, and they were pretty comfortable with the ordinance as written,” Hines said.
City officials stressed in January that complete streets are about much more than bicycles.
“We talk about bike lanes and bicyclists and all that kind of stuff, but it’s really a lot more. That’s just one element of many, many elements on this,” Mayor Mark Stodola told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette at that time.
He pointed to Bryant and North Little Rock as two nearby cities that have already enacted a complete streets policy.
Bryant Mayor Jill Dabbs said at that time that her city was already seeing benefits of its policy adopted in 2013, adding: “Great cities don’t just happen; we must plan them, then build them.”
The board will take up the issue at a 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday at City Hall.