Northwest Arkansas Council focused on health and housing, marks 35 years

The Northwest Arkansas Council held its spring meeting in Fayetteville on Wednesday (April 16) to discuss two of the region’s biggest concerns — affordable housing and more access to specialty medical care.

The two issues threaten the region’s continued growth and prosperity if not addressed, according to council leadership.

The Northwest Arkansas metro is adding 38 people a day to its population. The region is unique in that large and small cities work together to achieve regional wins that help everyone, according to Alice Walton, who was on the ground floor for the council at its origins in 1990.

Walton said she remembers her dad, Walmart founder Sam Walton, Don Tyson, Mark Simmons, J.B. Hunt and other leaders “were the ones who instigated the whole thing.”

“There were two moving factors that hindered our growth. We had the 10th most dangerous airport in the country and the biggest trucking center in the nation without a four-lane highway,” Walton said in a video presentation during Wednesday’s meeting.

Mark Simmons said the region needed substantial infrastructure improvements.

“Sam recognized it, and the rest of us did too. We thought if we came together, we could be heard more loudly and get our short-term and long-term goals more easily accomplished. The council was formed,” Simmons said.

Carol and Uvalde Lindsey were selected to head up the council and its influential leaders, who would work together to tackle the first two big needs: a regional airport and a four-lane interstate highway to connect the region to I-40. Walton said Lindsey and everyone with any influence worked to get every member of the U.S. Congress infrastructure committee to visit Northwest Arkansas. She said Don Tyson hosted them at his lake house for a barbecue.

“But, we timed it perfectly because we wanted them to focus on the issue of no interstate. And so we waited to release them from the picnic until rush hour, and it took them about an hour to get back to their hotel. So they really understood the problem. It was about teaming up and trying to get our points across to the key people that matter,” Walton said.

The work by Alice Walton and the council to get the Northwest Arkansas National Airport (XNA) opened was key to the region’s growth. Walton said without the airport, Walmart and other corporate growth would have been harder and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art could not have been located in Bentonville.

“I can remember seeing Air Force One on that beautiful day while it made its final approach to XNA. It was like it floated down. And in my wildest dreams, while growing up in Siloam Springs, never could I have envisioned that,” said Scott Van Laningham, who was the XNA CEO until he retired in 2018.

Then-President Bill Clinton dedicated the regional airport on Nov. 6, 1998. Interstate 540 – which would become Interstate 49 – would on Jan. 8, 1999, connect Fayetteville to I-40 in Alma. The cost was $459 million.

Mike Malone, who led the council for a decade following Lindsey’s 16-year stint, said over the last 35 years the council has done some amazing work, but the next 10 years excite him because of the great opportunities that exist in the region.

HOUSING DENSITY
Matt Lambert, a partner with DPZ CoDesign, the urban planning consultants hired by the council to examine regional urban sprawl, said unchecked growth will mean Benton County could lose half of its green space to housing over the next decade.

DPZ is tasked to find ways to create more population density to preserve the quality of life and the green spaces that the region is known for having.

“We’re here to talk about how to grow intentionally. Growth isn’t just about the number of people, it’s about what growth achieves. We must grow new places, new places that feel like home, places that engender pride, purpose, and belonging,” Lamberts said. “Today’s problems are screaming for change, demanding vision and action, and that’s what we’re here to help you through with a vision that growth can bring beauty.”

DPZ is working with the council, city leaders, and others to look at the two-county region and propose a growth strategy by the third quarter of this year. DPZ also will engage with the public by the fall to get input and reaction to the proposed strategy. The entire plan is slated for completion by the first quarter of 2026.

“Growth is really inevitable. You can’t stop it, but greatness is a choice. So I hope that you all will work together to choose greatness, to have a vision and have pride in the future that you’re building for Northwest Arkansas. We look forward to helping you,” Lambert said.

GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION
Also high on the list of priorities by the council and health care providers is expanding the number of medical residencies so more doctors can train in Northwest Arkansas.

Larry Shackelford, CEO of Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, updated the Council on the progress made to expand residency slots over the next five years. He said there are more medical school graduates than there are residency programs, forcing many to have to leave the state to complete their education. The council’s goal is to create 100 training residency slots in the region by 2030.

Washington Regional Medical Center began in 2020 the geographic wage reclassification process to establish 76 new residency positions. He said advocacy help from the council resulted in an initial $12.5 million in state funds to initiate the startup of the new residency programs. The money was approved by the Arkansas General Assembly in February and is being divided up with $4.8 million going to Mercy in Fort Smith, $4.5 million to Washington Regional, and $2.2 million to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

He said the funding caps have been a real challenge, but the new source of startup revenue will mean more doctors can train in Arkansas beginning this year. He said Mercy’s internal medicine residency, which started a few years ago, is now full with 30 residents. Washington Regional and UAMS Northwest have partnered for a new internal medicine program with the next incoming class that will have 24 slots. There are six slots for rural family medicine residents now in their second year at Mercy and UAMS, and two sports medicine fellowships. UAMS Northwest also has 27 family medicine residents in a program that has been around for more than a decade and was the only residency program in the region for years.

There is a new neurology residency program coming in July 2026 for 8 residents and 18 slots coming in emergency medicine to Washington Regional in the summer of 2026. He said work also continues to expand the general surgery residency in Little Rock with some of those residents practicing in Northwest Arkansas. In total, he said there will be 117 residency slots by next summer which is quadruple from the previous levels.

Heartland Forward estimates that every physician trained in a region creates 17.1 new jobs with an annual economic impact of $482,000 in the first year.

Dr. Janae Newton of Gentry is in the class of new residents at Washington Regional for internal medicine. She wanted to remain in Northwest Arkansas to live and practice. Newton said when she graduated from John Brown University, she wanted to attend medical school, but there were just two options in the state. She opted for the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Smith because it was closer than UAMS in Little Rock.

“I was able to come home all the time with that easy commute. Now with the expanded residency programs in Northwest Arkansas, I can live and work in my home region and provide some love back to the community that has been so good to me,” Newton said.