Chaffee Trust outlines new development objectives

The Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority board intends to double its number of objectives to six in 2009 from the three accomplished in 2008 — including a new effort to develop historic and recreational sites at Chaffee Crossing.

The objectives were reviewed during a more than 4-hour planning meeting held Thursday (June 11) between the authority board, FCRA staff, and officials with the city of Fort Smith and Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Objectives in the 2008 plan were to update the land reuse plan, find funding and develop a plan to demolish and/or mitigate property destroyed in a January 2008 fire and attract retail and commercial development to Chaffee. The FCRA has adopted a new reuse plan, recently began an asbestos abatement program on the fire-damaged property and has sold 19 acres to a Hot Springs company interested in retail and commercial development on the northeast corner of Arkansas Highways 59 and 22 in Barling.

FCRA Executive Director Ivy Owen was informed during the Thursday meeting that test results form a unique asbestos removal effort managed by FCRA staff — which reduced the initial cost estimate from $4.6 million to $425,000 — showed that the soil and materials were eligible for removal to a landfill. The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality tested the soil to check for asbestos and other contaminants.

The recruitment of jobs with a “higher than average wage scale” is the goal of all the objectives, Owen noted near the end of the meeting.

NEW OBJECTIVES
• Objective 1
The FCRA seeks to “optimize all available resources” to recruit quality development to Chaffee Crossing. That effort will include a Web site that ties utility data (water, sewer, electric, natural gas, telecom) to other information (land reuse options, building information, street location, etc.) about Chaffee Crossing property.

FCRA staff showed the board the newly revamped Web site, with Owen noting that this objective included using digital marketing.

• Objective 2
Owen said the Barbership Museum (site where Elvis Presley received his Army induction haircut) and the potential for new tourism-related development will require a plan to maximize the opportunities.

“This museum district has really taken on a life of its own,” Owen said.

Efforts in this objective include finalizing plans for a botanical garden, extending bike paths and investigating the possibility of an equestrian trail.

• Objective 3
Owen said the FCRA staff is working with the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, the cities of Barling and Fort Smith and other groups to create an awareness of the mixed-used development potential at Chaffee Crossing.

• Objective 4
There remain hundreds of old buildings to demolish and numerous needs for infrastructure (roads, water, sewer, etc.) improvements at Chaffee Crossing. Owen said the FCRA will continue to work with Mickle Wagner Coleman, a Fort Smith-based civil engineering firm, and the Western Arkansas Planning and Development District to match potential state and federal funding with the infrastructure issues.

• Objective 5
Owen said the process to get development approved at Chaffee Crossing is often too burdensome, especially for small businesses.

“We need to make it easy for developers to do business with us, but also maintain the integrity of our regulations,” Owen explained to the board.

The FCRA staff hopes to meet this objective within the next 12 months.

• Objective 6
To promote development at Chaffee, the FCRA seeks to improve transportation assets.

Owen said a primary objective is to “develop better rail service,” but noted that will be expensive at an average cost of $1.5 million per mile of new rail line. He said the authority is working the the U.S. Army, Union Pacific Railroad, Pioneer Railroad, Fort Smith Railroad and the A&M Railroad on the objective.

Owen also said the authority works close with port operations in Crawford and Sebastian counties and is involved in the effort to create a regional intermodal authority.

CHALLENGES
FCRA Board Chairman Jerry Stewart said the challenge at Chaffee Crossing continues to be finding the money to support all the potential development.

“That’s the big thing, especially for infrastructure,” Stewart said in an interview after the meeting. “The limiting factor for development at Chaffee is infrastructure. … But the real plus, the thing in our favor, is that all the communities in the area, all the people who need to be a part of this, are all on the same page.”