Fayetteville considering pre-approved buildings for neighborhoods

FAYETTEVILLE -- City planners are exploring what they consider a simple fix to help alleviate the complicated issue that is affordable housing.

Creating pre-approved designs for homes in certain neighborhoods could be a way to do that. Planners are working on an update to the city's overall plan, called City Plan 2040, with an emphasis on housing and infill development. One of the proposals is the pattern-design concept.

Basically, developers would be able to choose from a set of designs already vetted by the city, saving them the cost of hiring an architect. They could get a building permit over the counter, cutting the time it takes to go through the city's review process.

It's a way to encourage the type of development the city wants to see, said Garner Stoll, Development Services director. The designs would be optional, and changes could be made to provide variance in style, he said.

The most common question from neighbors during any rezoning request is what the building will look like, Stoll said. Residents are typically concerned with the size of the building, how close it will be to the street and if it will fit in with the rest of the neighborhood, he said.

"This gives you an avenue to explore that," Stoll said. "We'd work with a neighborhood in a specific area and put together some building types that fit."

Neighborhood control

Now, City Council and Planning Commission members can't consider the specific development associated with a rezoning request. City Attorney Kit Williams advises them to only consider the range of uses outlined in city code for a specific zoning district, which can vary widely depending on the district.

Planners would start with a specific neighborhood, Stoll said. The city would hire an architect to design a set of homes appropriate for that neighborhood, which could be used in other neighborhoods, he said.

Neighbors would help decide the designs for buildings in their neighborhood, Stoll said. A series of public input sessions would be held with city planners to create designs everyone could agree on.

A developer wouldn't have to ask for a rezoning. Another aspect of the 2040 plan calls for tweaking the city's zoning districts to better accommodate the context of a neighborhood. For instance, the uses allowed in a single-family zone could also include quadplexes as long as they fit the size, scale and setback of other single-family homes in the neighborhood.

"Zoning is just minimum standards. Zoning doesn't create ideal buildings," Stoll said. "Pre-approved building designs would go beyond the minimum zoning requirements and try to create buildings that really fit neighborhoods, and make them free to builders."

Not having to hire an architect, plus spending less time in the permitting process, would save builders money, Stoll said. Those savings could be passed on to the homebuyer, he said.

The City Council has seen a preponderance of single-lot rezonings coming through its chambers, Stoll said. That indicates the zoning codes aren't meeting the city's goal to promote appropriate infill, he said. The plan also is to define what appropriate means, he said.

The professionals' take

As long as using approved building designs is an option, not a requirement, the concept could work, said Jeremy Lewis, vice president of the Northwest Arkansas Home Builders Association. Lewis said he doesn't deal with architects because he builds custom homes for clients who already have designs, but he sees the potential for reducing costs.

It's a common practice for builders to have their own set of designs ready to build in-house as a cost-saving measure, Lewis said. Designs also can be purchased online, so the idea may not be that far-fetched, he said.

Either way, expediting the permit process would be welcomed, Lewis said.

"It's a headache trying to get permitting on homes or even remodels for that matter," he said. "I think it's a great idea for speculative homebuilders or people who want to go buy a lot or two and build a house."

Jim Wetling, a nationally recognized architect in Philadelphia who has written about residential design issues, said the idea can work as long as the details are in order. For instance, how the architect would get paid and who would be in charge of overseeing construction are considerations, he said.

"It sounds like a reasonable idea," Wetling said. "The legalities are the main thing that pops out to me."

Wetling said it might be better to provide conceptual drawings rather than fully developed plans. A designer would create something based on a set of guidelines and in a certain style.

Old concept new again

The concept isn't new, it just sort of fell out of favor, said Lisa Schamess, spokeswoman for the Congress for the New Urbanism. Pattern books were common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It's why some older neighborhoods have rows of Victorian houses with slight variations to set them apart, she said.

The concept isn't widely practiced nationally, Schamess said. Certain community developments may be built out of a pattern book, but it'd be difficult to find a city adopting a program such as what Fayetteville is proposing, she said.

"The key to this question is in the 20th century, when cities began to see their responsibility as dictating where uses could be located," Schamess said. "I think they departed from viewing their role in terms of protecting the character of design in that particular city."

Pattern books serve as an easy-to-understand method balancing the need for a variety of housing types while keeping the feel and look similar across buildings, Schamess said.

"It allays so much of the anxiety about neighborhood character that people have when you start talking about increasing density or just changing anything," she said.

The Walton Family Foundation is working on a similar concept through its Design Excellence Program. The Community Development Corporation of Bentonville and Bella Vista, a housing services organization that grew out of the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce in 1991, received a grant last year to develop designs for four dwelling units in downtown Bentonville. Robert Sharp Architects and Massengale Architecture are working on the project.

The idea is to come up with design specifications and construction documents shared free to the public and commercial developers, according to the foundation's website. The designs should be finished this summer, with construction subject to funding availability.

Councilman advocate

Council member Matthew Petty, who has long advocated for the concept of pre-approved neighborhood patterns, said it's a very feasible idea. Ideally, using a pattern book would result in a combined site development and building permit issued within about a week, as opposed to months, he said. The pre-approved design would already have been reviewed under building safety codes, which usually takes the bulk of the time.

"There's a trend that happens," Petty said. "A developer agrees to be above-average in our relatively modest way. In exchange, they can save time and money with the pre-approved buildings."

The process would put neighborhood redevelopment in the hands of neighbors, Petty said.

"Anybody should be able to walk up to the planning desk, and if they've inherited a parcel or are making a go with their savings to do a project, they can very quickly get a permit to build something that has great architecture," he said. "They can be proud of it in the neighborhood.

"They don't need to know who the best architect is in town, they don't need to know who the best engineers or the best city whisperers are," Petty said. "They can choose from a catalogue of good options. That opens the door to regular people who are not development experts to participate in their neighborhood's evolution."

NW News on 04/21/2019