Tontitown Champions Overlay District Discussion (Market Forecast)

Planners in Tontitown are reviewing a draft proposal for an entrance corridor overlay district that would cover properties along some of highways U.S. 412 and Arkansas 112. Overlay districts can make an important difference in how towns and cities develop.

Overlay districts are not new to Northwest Arkansas. Fayetteville enacted a design overlay district along Interstate 540 back in the 1990s that was created to protect the natural beauty of the highway corridor, increase safety, address environmental issues and enhance property value. The legality of the overlay district was challenged in court but was subsequently upheld.

According to an article in the Planning Commissioners Journal, many communities are finding that the traditional zoning districts (residential, commercial, and industrial) are not sophisticated enough to address complex growth and development issues.

Consequently, these communities are turning to zoning approaches with more flexibility intended to solve targeted problems. The overlay district is one such planning tool.

Overlay districts are a special zone that can be placed over an existing zoning district, part of a district or a combination of districts. The overlay district includes a set of regulations or incentives that are applied to properties within the overlay district in addition to the requirements of the original underlying zoning district.

An overlay district is usually created to address one issue or set of issues such as the concerns found along a highway corridor. The overlay zone should be an enhancement to existing zoning and not a complete alternative. If the overlay district addresses too many issues or if there are several overlay districts covering an area of the city, the community should consider changing the underlying zoning codes.

Communities create overlay districts in order to protect specific resources or encourage development in the targeted area. The overlay districts allow for greater flexibility since requirements or incentives are customized to areas within the community, such as a highway corridor, that share certain characteristics.

Very often, communities create overlay districts to protect environmentally sensitive areas such as wetlands, floodplains, water recharge areas and hillsides. Properties located within an overlay district, such as the hillside overlay district recently established in Fayetteville, are subject to requirements designed to minimize potential damage resulting from hillside development. These overlay requirements are in addition to the requirements of the underlying zoning district in which the property is sited. Thus, a commercial building located within a commercial zone and a hillside overlay district would need to meet the requirements of both.

Historic preservation is another typical purpose for overlay districts. Historic overlay district regulations could require certain building materials, colors, facades and other architectural details. With this type of overlay district, proposed developments or redevelopments are usually required to meet mandatory prerequisites before approval.

At a recent seminar on historic preservation and design in Eureka Springs, Ed McMahon, a nationally renowned authority on urban design and senior fellow of the Urban Land Institute, made the point that communities often lower their standards in order to attract economic development. However, McMahon went on to make the point that growth does not have to degrade our surroundings.

According to McMahon, people indicate in surveys they want “community character” and not the sameness in architectural style presented by most national chain stores.

In his keynote speech, McMahon presented many pictures of architecturally attractive chain stores and restaurants that met community design and historic character standards. McMahon said that the businesses that provide an attractive atmosphere in a building with community character are generally more successful.

The purpose statement of the Tontitown Entrance Corridor Overlay District includes many of the ideas Ed McMahon spoke about at the design workshop in Eureka Springs. A list of the purposes as stated in the draft proposal include:

• Encourage and better articulate positive visual experience along the town’s major existing and proposed highway corridors.

• Provide for the continued safe and efficient use of these highway corridors.

• Maintain natural beauty and scenic, cultural, and historical character of these corridors, particularly distinctive views, vistas and visual continuity.

• Protect existing natural vegetation and wildlife habitats along these corridors.

• Discourage indiscriminate clearing, excessive grading and clear cutting along these corridors.

• Minimize cut and fill operations by placing emphasis on the retention of natural topography of these corridors.

• Minimize intersections and individual site access points along these corridors.

• Encourage high quality development as a strategy for investors in the city’s future.

• Recognize and support the historic significance.

• Shape the district’s appearance, aesthetic quality and spatial form.

• Reinforce the civic pride of citizens through appropriate development.

• Increase awareness of aesthetic, social and economic values.

• Protect and enhance property values.

• Enhance the city’s sense of place and contribute to the sustainability and lasting value of the city.

The proposed corridor overlay district, if properly developed and enforced, could significantly enhance the growing community of Tontitown and help improve a major entranceway into the I-540 corridor of Northwest Arkansas. The proposal also could serve as a potential model for other Northwest Arkansas communities to consider.