Workshop focuses on design of Fayetteville police headquarters

FAYETTEVILLE -- Designers of a police headquarters should consider the entire site's impact on the community, not just the station at its focal point, architects heard Friday.

City administrators, council members, staff, police and fire officials, architects, urban planning professionals and a few residents came together for a workshop on a new police station, firing range, fire station and associated buildings. Voters approved a $36.9 million bond issue last year to build the campus, planned at Porter Road and Deane Street.

The workshop was held online via Zoom and hosted by the Northwest Arkansas chapter of the Urban Land Institute, a national collective of land use experts. About 25 people attended.

Council members said the buildings, especially the main police station, appeared to meet the city's goals for environmental friendliness and design, but site layout fell short.

Drawings shown at the meeting were the same as the ones presented during a May 26 council meeting, when members expressed displeasure over the layout.

The layout has public parking facing Porter Road to the west. At least 50 feet of space separates cars on the road and a building from any side. The city's standard is to promote walkability, meaning buildings should face the public right of way, such as a sidewalk, not a parking lot. Renderings showed blank walls surrounding the perimeter of the campus.

"That seems to be the common theme of the council members' comments, that we want better urban design," Councilwoman Sarah Marsh said. "I think we have a great building in the works, but how do we make a great site and a great neighborhood and a great gateway for the corridor?"

The city is working on the Midtown Trail and associated road improvements that will reach from Interstate 49 east to College Avenue, running south along the headquarters site. Marsh said the public safety campus should serve as the anchor of that corridor and set the tone for the look and feel of any future development.

Brinkley Sargent Wiginton Architects in Dallas is the design firm. The campus as presented would have the estimated 56,000-square-foot main police station sitting east-west at the northern portion of the site.

An estimated 11,000-square-foot indoor firing range would sit north-south at the western edge of the site. The two buildings would join, with the main entrance and lobby serving as the link at the northwest corner.

A fire substation would sit at the southern portion near Deane Street, with room left for a future building or buildings of some kind.

Police Chief Mike Reynolds said he appreciated thinking about the entire campus, which is why he wanted to make sure there was enough space for additional buildings.

"What that future expansion is, who knows? It could be fire services, it could be Police Department services, but it could also be social services," he said.

The group is scheduled to come back together Aug. 3 after designers make changes.

Anthony Sumlin, a resident who joined the panel, said the design of the campus should enable public safety employees to address problems outside of fighting crime.

"There's been a lot of conversation with how policing changes in the future," he said.

The city has until August 2022 to finish the project to meet the bond requirements, said Wade Abernathy, the city's facilities manager. The scheduled completion date is June 2022, leaving a two-month cushion, he said.

So far, the project is on a 60-day delay, Abernathy said. Design work halted after the council meeting in May. Escalation costs could run $84,000 to $140,000 for each month behind schedule, he said.

Mayor Lioneld Jordan said he wanted the council to stay mindful of the cost associated with delays, but he also wanted members to have a plan they could support. It might take more than the 10 days between Friday's workshop and the next scheduled meeting, he said.

"I will sit down with the finance folks and staff and we will see what we can do," Jordan said.