Coody Promises to Speed Up Development Review Process

New Fayetteville Mayor Says City Growing Just Fine

If Rome had used Fayetteville’s development review policies, the city might still be waiting to be built.

However, new Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody has plans he said would expedite permits for construction projects that meet the town’s strict development requirements.

Construction companies, developers and Realtors alike have expressed their concern over the lengthy process since Coody won a runoff election over incumbent Fred Hanna in November.

Hanna was viewed as development-friendly and local contractors would often begin construction without permits in hand. Coody, some feared, would be a “green party” pal to activists like Mary Lightheart, whose tree-sitting protest at CMN Business Park last summer impeded the cutting of some old trees and the subsequent construction of Kohl’s department store.

Coody likes to think he’s somewhere in the middle.

“I don’t know of anybody that doesn’t think Fayetteville isn’t growing fast enough,” he said. “Just look around in any direction.”

Coody added another city engineer in mid-February to speed up the review process.

But Coody also said guidelines must be followed more accurately than they have been in the past.

Some developers and contractors have told the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal that although they once started preliminary work such as cutting roads to construction sites before a permit was granted, they don’t dare risk such a move with the city’s new administration.

“In the past, before [the city] would give you the OK, you would begin grading,” said one developer. “You don’t take that chance now. Now you wait until you are absolutely, totally reviewed because of all the grief developers have taken on various things. The developers are willing to compromise, but [the city] is holding to the strictest points of the law.”

The developer asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions when his plans are reviewed by the city. Most of the other contractors and developers who spoke to the Business Journal felt the same way.

Commercial development in Fayetteville requires such specifics as what color the brick will be, how the ground will be cut, where the streets will be put in, what color the roof will be, where the drainage will be, what types and size plants will be outside the building, and how those plants will be watered. One developer laughed and said, “Springdale certainly doesn’t require all that.”

Coody defended Fayetteville’s stringent and in-depth rules.

“The citizens of this community want an attractive development,” he said. “In the permitting process you’re doing the public’s will, and all appropriate landscape and aesthetic appearances will be considered. In turn, this will make the developments more attractive for the town and increase the quality of life here. And that guarantees future growth.”

City Personnel Director Don Bailey echoed Coody’s sentiments.

“We’ve been behind the curve for a few years with the review process,” Bailey said. “But I don’t think you’ll find anybody in this administration that apologizes for the standards of this city.”

Development in Northwest Arkansas has moved more toward the Benton County towns of Rogers and Bentonville, according to building permits in 2000. And Springdale, Fayetteville’s Washington County neighbor, has picked up its development.

“I’ll be the first to say that the citizens in this community would like things to be more attractive,” said Springdale Mayor Jerre Van Hoose. “We’re getting a nice appearance now with the new furniture stores on the south side of town. And is there a nicer looking place than Har-Ber Meadows? We’re trying to push the idea that appearance helps the bottom line. It has been proven with franchise operations. You see a McDonald’s or a Taco Bell — they always keep up their landscape because they know it helps make them more money.

“We do have some work to do in that area. We want to attract the very most professional developers and attract folks you know are going to go by the rules.”

Another developer told us not only that he was losing big financially while awaiting his permits, but also that Fayetteville, Washington County and the local school system were losing out on taxes. He estimated that a six-week wait would cost him about $85,000 in rent from businesses leasing space from him down the road. He also figured he would pay an additional $18,000 interest before he could start construction.

“Then you look at the taxes that could have been collected and all of the guys that would be getting paid and buying groceries and the materials that would be bought around here,” said the developer.

Van Hoose said that in the end, such delays would cost the consumer. He said the speed of getting a building completed would most likely show in the final cost for which the building would be priced on the market.

“Whether it’s Springdale or city XYZ, [the builder] has got to recover [his costs],” Van Hoose said. “And if the costs get to be so high and he’s not going to make money, he’s going to quit doing it. He has got to make money, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Fayetteville has just one individual reviewing real estate plans, City Engineer Ron Petrie. And even Coody said Petrie could work on reviewing plans only half the time.

“Ron has to spend the other half of his time going to meetings and writing notes and documenting plans so he can review them later,” Coody said.

One developer said his plans sat in Petrie’s office while Petrie was on vacation for two weeks over the Christmas break. He didn’t blame Petrie, but rather the city for putting one man in charge of such responsibility.

“We’re sitting here on the mercy of one guy. And [Petrie’s] overworked,” said a developer. “It astounds me that a city that’s supposed to be progressive is doing this. And there are only so many nice days this time of year.”

Said Coody to the Business Journal, “That’s about to change.

“A chronic complaint in Fayetteville over the years from an individual project to a large-scale development has been that the process has been much, much too slow.”

Coody said the addition of another engineer will shift some of Petrie’s burden to get through the backlog of reviews. And depending on the quality of resumes that come in, Coody said, a third engineer could be added.

“Everyone loses when [reviews] take too long,” Coody said. “It’s a ripple effect. The developer is losing money and the people that want to move in to the commercial space are put on hold.”

A contractor said Bentonville and Rogers are the easiest towns to get reviews through. The closest town in terms of difficulty to Fayetteville for getting permits, he said, is Lowell.

The contractor said that Coody might look at changing the overall attitude within the city administration as much as at adding staff to help Petrie with the reviews.

“[Fayetteville] doesn’t seem interested in serving the customer, a taxpaying customer,” said the contractor. “The city staff should be bending over backwards trying to accommodate people. I don’t know if it’s an attitude problem or efficiency problem, but there is a difference in attitude from other towns. Right, wrong or indifferent, the perception is there, and the city needs to do something about it.

“It’s just frustrating when our clients are ready to build but we’re sitting on our hands. But it’s difficult for us, as contractors, to go down [to Fayetteville’s administration] and make a lot of noise because we’ve got to work with them day in and day out. I just don’t understand it.”

Van Hoose said cities don’t build cities. Rather, he said, cities are built by risk-taking developers.

Coody is making changes in his city’s review process, but until all of the problems are ironed out, there may be fewer developers willing to take such risks in Fayetteville.