SPRINGDALE -- The city is set to update its master plan for the downtown district with local foundations helping with the $130,000 cost.
Patsy Christie, the city's director of planning, shared plans with the City Council on Monday night, which gave its initial approval. The Council will vote on the measure during its next regular meeting Oct. 12.
The city will contract with H3 Studio, an urban design consultant in St. Louis, for $100,000 to update the city's current Downtown Master Plan. The Council adopted the current plan in 2015.
The city, the Walton Family Foundation and the Tyson Foundation each will pay 0ne-third of the cost, about $34,000 each, Christie said.
The Walton foundation also will pay $30,000 to ensure community engagement in the plan. This will allow H3 and the city to work with the Downtown Springdale Alliance to attract input from Springdale's diverse communities, Christie said.
Christie said the city and H3 will use some of the same ideas to gain public input as were used by the Civitas landscape architecture firm of Denver to reimagine The Jones Center and Spackman Mossop Michaels Landscape Architects of New Orleans for the redesign of Luther George Park.
The city will name a steering committee with representatives of various downtown and community interests, Christie said. The Planning Commission and then the City Council will approve the final draft before implementation.
The nine-month project will be completed in four phases, including data and map updates of the 2015 plan, a community review of that plan, drafting an updated plan and approval of the new master plan and implementation priorities, according to H3's contract with the city.
H3 will study the area of Springdale from Huntsville Avenue in the north, Quandt Avenue and Caudle Avenue in the south, Thompson Street in the west to Old Missouri Road in the east, and two blocks beyond, the contract continues. The study also will consider the impact of Springdale Municipal Airport.
This time, the study will consider housing opportunities in the district, Christie said.
"With first master plan, we knew we'd have to address housing -- development, density, different types and what's in the best interests of the city. All kinds of housing can be an economic driver," she said.
She noted the use of the form-based code downtown has allowed for different types of housing development, including three projects built for use to be a mix of residential and commercial. The city has since widened the voluntary use of the form-based code to include Mill Street and Powell Street.
"We will consider our goals and objectives, what areas of the plan need updating and what parts only need to be tweaked," Christie said.
Part of the public campaign for the Downtown Master Plan will include educating the public as to what has happened since the first master plan was implemented. This would include stake holder interviews, public meetings, a web site and more.
"We want to show what successes we've had, and that the plan hasn't just been sitting on a shelf," Christie said.
"There's been a big investment in downtown since this was adopted," she continued.