FAQ

The Cultural Arts Corridor is an area along the Razorback Regional Greenway in downtown Fayetteville where several of the City’s cultural attractions, such as the Walton Arts Center, TheatreSquared, the Fayetteville Public Library, George’s Majestic Lounge and a variety of restaurants and entertainment venues are located.  The planned Cultural Arts Corridor will link these attractions with a series of public outdoor spaces that will also function as a walking, biking, and auto transportation routes for residents and visitors attending these attractions. The corridor is expected to include a variety of outdoor public areas, such as parks, natural spaces, plazas, art, and performance spaces, which will be chosen with the help of public input during the design process with Nelson, Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. Once the elements are selected, the architects will bring them together in a final design that will stitch the outside environment and the various cultural anchor institutions into one integrated district.

The Cultural Arts Corridor, where Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW) will focus their work, includes the various public lands that are located between Dickson St. and Prairie Ave., including: the West Ave. Parking lot (commonly referred to as the Walton Arts Center parking lot), the Fay Jones Parkland located along the Razorback Regional Greenway, as well as the adjacent streets – primarily Gregg Ave., West Ave., and S. School Ave.

The City recognizes that this project will impact adjacent neighborhoods and other areas along the Greenway to the north and south. Future projects will provide opportunities for these areas to reap the economic, social, transportation, parking, and environmental benefits provided by the creation of the Cultural Arts Corridor.

The landscape, trail, and streetscape designs for this project are funded 100% through the Walton Family Foundation Design Excellence Program. The construction of the final design elements will be included in a Municipal Bond Program to be brought before voters in the spring of 2019.

The City is currently evaluating firms that can help provide an economic impact analysis for the project.  That analysis will be performed once the final schematic design for the Cultural Arts Corridor has been agreed upon, likely in the fourth quarter of 2018, prior to the Municipal Bond Program slated for public vote in the spring of 2019.

We predict that this project will engage residents and attract visitors to celebrate the unique art and culture that Fayetteville is known for. The City and its Department of Economic Vitality, the Advertising and Promotion Commission (Experience Fayetteville), the Chamber of Commerce, the University of Arkansas and others who work to attract the region’s workforce, will be able to use this cultural hub as a selling point to promote Fayetteville as a great place to live, work, and visit.

The public input gathered during the initial planning for this project placed a high importance on the integration of local visual and performance art into the design. Elements identified in the first round of public input included murals, sculpture, amphitheater or performance space, and temporary art installations. Additional input during the schematic design phase will begin to specify opportunities for local arts to be included in the final design.

Public input is vital to understanding the kinds of spaces, uses, and amenities that will resonate with Fayetteville’s residents and project our culture and sense of place to visitors. The opportunities for these public spaces, by the very nature of the site, brings a wide range of possibilities. For instance, Tanglewood Branch creek -- which flows through the Fay Jones Parkland and alongside the Razorback Regional Greenway -- offers the chance to exhibit a very natural Ozarks landscape in the core of the City. Public art presents opportunities to engage, and perhaps challenge, conventional thought, norms, or stereotypes. And performance spaces can involve the public in contemplative, dramatic, or whimsical ways. In short, the opportunities for “funky” are plentiful within these flexible public spaces. 

Housing affordability is a very complex issue that is largely driven by market forces. Still, the City is considering ways to promote affordability within the Corridor. As an example, the engagement process revealed public interest in increasing the number of affordable units downtown. Affordable housing should be viewed in the larger framework of the six City Plan Goals. These goal areas often overlap and work together in both subtle and obvious ways. The six City Plan Goals are:

We will make appropriate infill and revitalization our highest priorities.

We will discourage suburban sprawl.

We will make traditional town form the standard.

We will grow a livable transportation network.

We will assemble an enduring green network.

We will create opportunities for attainable housing.

The Cultural Arts Corridor has the possibility to positively impact each of these City Plan goals to a varying degree. The City is currently in the process of updating City Plan 2040, and one of the areas of emphasis is on housing affordability and anticipated future population growth. The City Plan update process is scheduled to be completed over the winter of 2018-2019. Public input on ideas around affordable housing will be included in the City Plan update.

We predict that the Cultural Arts Corridor will be a catalyst project that will make downtown living more desirable. The rise in property values on land near highly desirable areas and neighborhoods is ongoing and not expected to decrease. Market forces, propelled by demand, are the main drivers for rehabilitating existing structures and revitalizing underutilized land.

The economic impact analysis will provide specific information on the expected land values, sales tax and property tax revenues, and tourism impacts of the Cultural Arts Corridor.

The City will contract with a construction manager to oversee the eventual construction of the parks, plaza, streets, and trail projects in the Cultural Arts Corridor. The City will coordinate closely with the construction manager to stage materials, schedule work activities, and minimize the construction impacts to nearby residents and businesses. The City has a good track record of working on large construction projects in this area, including the Walton Arts Center Expansion, the Spring St. Parking Deck, the TheatreSquared project, and the Fayetteville Public Library expansion. We are committed to limiting any negative impacts to surrounding property owners during the construction process.

Parking is a recurring theme, and the City is planning for future anticipated parking needs. As the design of the Cultural Arts Corridor progresses, we will continue to take parking needs into consideration and final recommendations will include parking solution options.

These public spaces will be designed to be inclusive for all residents and visitors.

The design team we are working with has extensive experience designing environmentally sensitive public parklands. Public land in the Corridor offers opportunities for a variety of environmentally conscious design elements, including streambank restoration, forest preservation and restoration, invasive plant removal, and low-impact stormwater runoff management techniques.

The City and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects are working with all stakeholders to reach agreement on the final design from the wide variety of interests and events that take place in downtown Fayetteville. The completion of these spaces over time will necessitate the evolution of events and event locations, not unlike the growth and change that Bikes Blues and BBQ has already experienced over the last 18 years. A big-picture approach to space programming and events calendars will be an important consideration in the final design of the Cultural Arts Corridor.

The Razorback Regional Greenway, running through the center of the Cultural Arts Corridor, is viewed as the connective tissue that will link the various cultural, arts, entertainment, and park opportunities within close walking and biking range. Sidewalk and street improvements are also included among the tasks for the design team. The City anticipates that these projects will provide safe and convenient access to downtown amenities and to the adjacent neighborhoods, the city at large, and ultimately the entire Northwest Arkansas region.

This project will increase the walkability of the downtown and will include new and improved pedestrian and bicycling connections to the Fayetteville Public Library from the Razorback Regional Greenway.  Additional street and sidewalk improvements to the surrounding area will be also be identified and prioritized.

Cost estimates for long-term maintenance will be included in the design development phase of this project so that there are no unanticipated maintenance surprises in the future. Long-term financing options will also be explored, and recommendations will be developed for consideration.

The public, the design team, and City staff are having ongoing discussions about current and future events and their impacts on the downtown area as this project moves forward. The final designs will incorporate these ideas, and the public will be given the opportunity to support the construction of the projects through a public bond vote in the spring of 2019.

This project is designed to draw residents and visitors to a relatively small geographic area in an already well-frequented district, which has the potential to bring a new level of economic growth to the existing and future businesses located nearby.

The design team is exploring opportunities for the existing and future bicycle facilities in and around the corridor. Safe and convenient bicycle facilities that link other destinations in and around downtown to the Cultural Arts Corridor are integral to the success of this project.