Groups look to the future, try to anticipate region's needs

A lot of work goes into making sure a growing area maintains its charm. Just ask any of the planners from the public and private groups across Northwest Arkansas with their eyes on the future.

That planning reaches into almost every aspect of daily life, from the roads you take to work, to the trails you walk, to the airport from which you fly, to the green space outside your window, to properly training the next generation of workers.

"It's a challenge. I tell people all the problems that we have here, that we work on with the council, are for the most part good problems," said Mike Harvey, chief operating officer and interim president and CEO of the Northwest Arkansas Council. "I'm always working on accommodating growth, not trying to figure out how to get it."

About 525,000 people live in the four-county Northwest Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area and estimates predict that number will be about 800,000 by 2040.

Numerous organizations, including the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission and the Walton Family Foundation, as well as cities and counties, work individually and in concert to maintain a place where people want to live while the region evolves into a mature metropolitan area.

Harvey said the groups must work together to make sure the region's quality-of-life offerings attract the best and brightest to the region.

"It takes forethought and management because you don't want to spoil what makes this an attractive place to live," he said. "There'll be discussions about transit and density and walkability and preserving our open spaces and greenspaces and rural spaces and trails and all that kind of stuff."

The Walton Family Foundation invests in programs making a long-term difference in K-12 education, the environment and quality of life in Northwest Arkansas and elsewhere. Efforts are aimed at school choice, protecting natural resources and cultural amenities. The Razorback Greenway and other trail systems, the arts, health care and public transit have been some of the recipients of foundation grants.

"By 2020, we hope to see a shift where people are relocating to Northwest Arkansas for the quality of life and not only for a career," Karen Minkel, home region program director, said in an email. "We want to be known for our internationally competitive schools, expanding network of trails, entrepreneurial ecosystem and wide variety of cultural amenities."

The region is experiencing incredible growth because of professional opportunities, Minkel said.

"Our philanthropic contributions can have a catalytic impact by supporting innovative ideas that might be too risky for local governments or businesses," Minkel said. "In Northwest Arkansas, these contributions are helping the area become one of the best places to live in the country."

Regional Planning is primarily responsible for transportation, according to Jeff Hawkins, executive director, and Tim Conklin, senior planner.

Conklin said they must understand where people are going to live and work in order to plan for transportation.

"The change that we have all seen just in the last 20 or 30 years has been cities that were once not necessarily connected or butted up against one another are now contiguous and the transportation system that we look at, from roadways to trails to transit, all have to be coordinated," he said. "Understanding how to plan for it and pay for it is something I think becomes even more challenging as we move forward."

Conklin said regional planners have worked with communities on stormwater runoff, open space and other issues to come up with an overall plan of what Northwest Arkansas values and how to protect it.

"I think people value the natural areas and the wooded hillsides, the recreational opportunities, and I don't think most people want to see Northwest Arkansas just developed completely without having these types of amenities that we value," Conklin said. "That's a big key to what we've been doing the last few years with these master plans that have been developed regionally."

Most of the goals in the commission's 2035 Regional Master Plan were accomplished by 2015 when the 2040 Regional Master Plan was last updated, including transportation design, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, intermodal facilities, transit, transportation alternatives and highway priorities. Specific examples include opening the Razorback Greenway, adding lanes and safety devices to Interstate 49 and making Arkansas 265 an eastern north-south corridor.

DOWN THE ROAD

By 2020, Hawkins, Conklin and Highway Commissioner Dick Trammel expect we'll be driving on a six-lane I-49 with the interchanges improved and two lanes of the Bella Vista Bypass on the Arkansas side. The Arkansas 265 corridor should be nearing completion as will the first phase of the U.S. 412 Northern Bypass. Progress should be made on the proposed access road to the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport and the region should be discussing and implementing projects or at least programming projects up and down the Arkansas 112 corridor.

"The main thing is people will spend less time driving back and forth to work, and they'll drive safer in 2019 than they are now," Trammel said.

Conklin predicts the Missouri Department of Transportation will find the money for the remaining 4.8 miles of the Bella Vista Bypass in Missouri.

"By not too far off in the distance after 2020, as all these projects get finished, there'll be people driving on the six-lanes of I-49 wondering when they're going to do two more lanes," Hawkins said.

The freeway study Regional Planning finished in the mid-2000s called for the interstate to be eight lanes based on traffic and population projections, he said.

"And it shouldn't be any surprise when it's fully opened and used that it'll be crowded. That'll just be the reality," Hawkins added.

Trammel, whose term on the Highway Commission ends in January 2019, said while the highways are being improved, the existing system still needs to be maintained. He expects a funding proposal to go to voters in the next couple years.

"We've got some hard-surface roads that are going to be gravel by 2019 if we don't come up with some funding to maintain our highways," Trammel said.

Public transit expansion and how to pay for it will become more important as cities grow together and some become hemmed in, Hawkins said.

"Density is going to increase. That establishes the need for mass transit routes," Hawkins said. "There'll be more justification and more funding discussions."

Joel Gardner, executive director of Ozark Regional Transit, said he has a plan for route expansions and connections all over Northwest Arkansas, but that plan depends on money.

"What it all hinges on is dedicated funding, and by 2020 I would like to see us in the throes of dedicated funding or already having it secured," Gardner said.

Hawkins said transit money needs to be concentrated where the greatest need exists. A dedicated, regional source of funding for transit would make a more efficient system, better meet the needs of the people and produce a bigger bang for the buck, he said.

WORKFORCE AND AMENITIES

The Northwest Arkansas Council's three-year plan, unveiled in 2015, prioritizes strengthening the region's workforce and regional employers' connections to educators.

The council partners with area's five Chambers of Commerce, companies represented by the organization's members, the Northwest Arkansas Tourism Association, the Northwest Arkansas Educational Services Cooperative, the Regional Planning Commission and the Regional Airport to upgrade the region's infrastructure and help employers recruit talent and expand their businesses in Northwest Arkansas.

"Business climate. That's really the bottom line for us," Harvey said.

The council has tackled infrastructure and regulatory issues, becoming a point organization for regional economic development, Harvey said. They're also educating the future workforce.

Harvey said it's important to focus on education and talent recruitment, be an attractive place to live and work, and make sure the "fuel is in the engine" so companies can thrive. Technology and STEM -- a school curriculum based on teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematics -- are ways to achieve this, he said.

"I think the fastest-growing areas in our workforce right now are IT jobs and health care jobs," Harvey said. "Who knows what it looks like in three years because most of it didn't exist 10 years ago."

Traditional industries in the region are rapidly changing the way they do business based on new technology, and they need a workforce that understands the new business model, Harvey said. Wal-Mart, for example, is going through a radical transformation to become more oriented toward e-commerce.

"I think that move from the biggest employer in the region is going to have repercussions," Harvey said. "It'll be a new iteration of a business for Northwest Arkansas and a new type of employee coming here and coming out of the educational system."

Tyson's move to be a more retail-focused company creates a new realm of opportunities for the region in retail, he said, adding that J.B. Hunt has been on the leading edge of using technology for years.

Harvey said he's also looking forward to seeing the next round of start-ups and hopes the region is an emerging market for entrepreneurs in the middle of the country.

"A couple more of these hot startups that come out of the weeds and you're looking at your next generation of great companies in Northwest Arkansas," Harvey said. "I think there are a few of these companies that are on the cusp."

AIRPORT TAKING OFF

The Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport was built to serve the whole area, and Scott Van Laningham, executive director, said he expects to have several big projects off the ground by 2020.

"I suspect that we will have started the first steps on potentially two or three capital projects," he said, mentioning the parking deck, access road and terminal expansion. "We won't be building all of that, but we're going to be working on planning and, hopefully, moving the needle forward on all three of those major projects in the next three years."

He said a stand-alone deck for car rental companies also is possible.

The access road has been on airport officials' wish list for years and remains the top priority for Van Laningham. There's still a debate if the access road coming off the Springdale Northern Bypass will be two or four lanes and what the airport can afford, he said.

The majority of passengers passing through XNA are on business, but Van Laningham said he expects to see more personal travel as the region grows. He said the business-to-leisure flight ratio could shift from 70-30 to 55-45 at some point.

"But, I would be surprised if business wasn't the predominant category even 10 years from now," he said.

Van Laningham said the number of people boarding planes has steadily increased since dropping off in 2007 because of the recession.

The biggest consumer complaint is almost always related to high ticket prices, he said, but that's a function of the market and the prices are set by the carriers.

Van Laningham said he expects the airport and the rest of Northwest Arkansas to continue on the present course.

"Just look at everything else that's going on in the region," Van Laningham said. "You look at the downtown redevelopments, the trail system, the museum, the botanical garden. I just think it's going to continue in that direction."

NW News on 03/26/2017