New public transit plan would require community support

SPRINGDALE -- Voters will have to approve a sales tax to fully implement recommendations in a plan to guide public transit in Northwest Arkansas for the next decade.

The plan is in final draft form and is expected to be approved by regional planners in October.

Connect Northwest Arkansas looks at every aspect of public transit in the region and makes recommendations to improve and increase both coverage and service in the coming years through a phased approach, members of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Technical Advisory Committee were told Thursday.

"Phase I is really the most important step. It's OK if you get to phase I and hold for a while," said Tim Simon, a consultant with Alliance Transportation Group, which developed the plan.

The plan envisions expanded routes and on-demand service in each of the four major cities in Northwest Arkansas and connections between them. Ridership on Ozark Regional Transit and University of Arkansas Razorback Transit would be expected to increase from a current average of just more than 8,000, on a typical weekday when school is in session, to more than 24,000 by phase III of the plan.

"Each one of these phases has a whole list of additional routes or increases in frequencies or modifications," Simon said. "Under each one of those phases, they're prioritized. So, if you need to break up phase I into two different steps, it has the ability to do that. That's one of the powerful components of the plan."

Expansion would come at a substantial cost.

Fayetteville, Bentonville, Springdale, Rogers, the University of Arkansas and state and federal governments currently fund public transportation in the region to the tune of about $8 million a year.

The cost would be in the neighborhood of $42 million if all the improvements through phase III of the plan were implemented.

"We need a dedicated local funding source. So, I'm trying to be as clear and plain as possible: This would take a quarter-cent sales tax to be applied to the urbanized area, within the boundaries of the four urbanized cities," Simon said. "The point is, this would be a quarter-cent sales tax that would go to a ballot so, it would have to be voted on and supported by the community."

A sales tax would pay for buses, maintenance and operations through phase II of the plan. Phase I would cost about $19.9 million and phase II would cost about $2.2 million.

Participants would evaluate an anticipated phase III shortfall and decide whether to supplement the sales tax money somehow, implement only parts of phase III or delay it until they have money on hand to make implementing it feasible. Phase III would cost about $12.3 million.

Population projections predict almost a million people will live in Northwest Arkansas by 2045, most are expected to live in the four major cities.

"The density is coming to Northwest Arkansas, and so we really need to prepare and get the region ready through improving its transit system," Simon said.

Work on Connecting Northwest Arkansas began early last year. The $280,000 study was commissioned by the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission. The region last adopted a transit plan in 2010.

Plans have been developed specifically for public transit providers Ozark Regional Transit and University of Arkansas Razorback Transit to define their roles in a regional system. Individual plans have been developed for each of the four major cities.

The plan doesn't include bus rapid transit or light rail options, which have proven to be cost-prohibitive and problematic to implement.