Settle, Westphal unveil quality of place visions for Fort Smith

Fort Smith Director Kevin Settle and Fort Smith businessman Bennie Westphal stole the show Tuesday night. And Westphal didn’t even get to speak.

The Fort Smith Board of Directors met Tuesday evening (Oct. 27) at Elm Grove Community Center in the Martin Luther King Jr. Park to further discuss how the city will prioritize and fund quality of place projects. The discussion also included how the city will find the money to make up for a shortfall in the Fort Smith Convention Center operating budget when Arkansas turnback funds expire in mid-2010.

REVENUE SOURCES
City staff outlined three basic sources to raise money to support the Convention Center and to pay for any quality of place projects (riverfront development, softball and other athletic facilities, aquatics park at Ben Geren Regional Park, etc.) the board might choose to pursue.

The first source is a prepared food tax, which could generate $27.546 million in five years at a 3% rate.

A second idea is a reallocation of revenue from the one-percent sales tax devoted to the city’s street, bridges and drainage program. A 5% reallocation would generate about $965,000 a year, and a 10% draw would produce $1.93 million annually.

Renewing the business license fee — cut in 1994 as part of an agreement with the business community to endorse the eventual approval of a one-cent countywide sales tax — would generate $1.9 million annually. Several directors said this option should be considered only as a last resort.

PRIORITY LIST
After some discussion from individual directors about priorities, Director Cole Goodman said the directors needed more aggressively work to narrow the list to real priorities.

“Right now, we’re just wasting our time,” Goodman said of the random commentary.

The directors were given six dots each they could place next to one of 16 items on the quality of place projects list.

Five projects received six dots: The Fort Smith Convention Center, a riverfront sports venue, an aquatics center, softball fields, and the relocation of Fort Smith Railroad’s yard near the riverfront.

Receiving five dots was the River Park Promenade, a section of area redesigned and landscape following the removal of the Fort Smith Railroad yard. Collecting four dots was operations money for the U.S. Marshals Museum.

Items not making the list included riverfront soccer fields, trails, and a pool dome at Creekmore Park.

Director Steve Tyler suggested the board place a 1% prepared food tax on the books without a vote of the people to handle the Fort Smith Convention Center funding shortfall. But that idea fell flat with the other directors who said city voters likely would reject any future tax measures if they were forced to swallow a prepared food tax.

“We don’t want to close the door on other city projects,” Good told Tyler.

SETTLE’S VISION
And then Director Settle outlined his “vision for 2014.” First, he said the relocation of the railroad yard and the promenade could be paid for under the existing street tax program without adding any new taxes.

Secondly, Settle informed the board that Arkansas law allows the city to pass a 1% sales tax for a two-year period to fund parks and recreation projects. The two-year tax would raise about $38 million, and could fund a riverfront baseball field ($20 million), an aquatics center at Ben Geren ($2.5 million), softball, baseball and soccer fields at Ben Geren ($7.5 million), citywide trails expansion ($4 million), pool dome at Creekmore Park ($1 million), riverfront soccer fields ($500,000), and expanded facilities at Fort Smith Park for fishing tournaments ($500,000.).

Settle argued that the best thing the city should do is fund a list of projects in a way they could be quickly built and then quickly remove the taxes.

“All it takes is two years of pain versus 10 to 20 years of pain with a restaurant tax,” Settle said in arguing his case before the board. “It is radical, but it will get them (projects) done the quickest. … I know I’m going to get criticized for this, but we’ve got to get moving.”

Settle’s presentation left most of the board members shaking their head in the affirmative, with Goodman even offering applause. Fort Smith Mayor Ray Baker, usually not in favor of taxation, was impressed with Settle’s idea.

“What Director Settle brought out needs to be looked into,” Baker told Fort Smith City Administrator Dennis Kelly and the board members.

Sebastian County Judge David Hudson said near the formal end of the meeting he was pleased to see the progress, but urged the board to remember that any plan must also include a mechanism to cover future operating costs. (The city of Fort Smith and Sebastian County recently agreed to pursue the collaborative expansion of Ben Geren Regional Park.)

He also said the city and county must move forward with a “very clear voice” so that city and county citizens are well-informed of the costs and benefits of any future plan.

Fort Smith city staff was instructed to compile a list of funding and project options based on what was said during the Tuesday night discussion. The list will be reviewed at a future study session.

WESTPHAL’S VISION
Waiting in the wings to unveil a whopper of a plan was the aforementioned Westphal. However, Mayor Baker adjourned the meeting without being aware Westphal wanted to speak.

What Westphal wanted to show the audience was an 85-acre riverfront development plan he is convinced is economically feasible. (See site plan map at bottom of this story.) The plan, which includes a minor league baseball park, boutique hotel, planetarium and boardwalk along the Arkansas River, is from the “conceptual phase” of a study began in February.

Fort Smith’s Board of Directors voted 5-1 on Feb. 3 to spend $62,000 as a one-third partner in an “opportunity analysis” study of riverfront development options. The Robbie Westphal family and the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce agreed to each provide $62,000 to fund the study.

John Castro, CEO of the Dallas-based Maximus Alliance, said the costs of the elaborate plan are now being studied in the final phase of the effort. Castro said the plan is the only 85-acre, ready-to-develop site adjacent to a downtown U.S. city. And of all the ideas on Fort Smith’s quality of place projects list, Castro said the 85-acre plan would result in the greatest economic impact by creating up to 350 full-time jobs. If public and private funding is available, the 85-acre project could be built out in three to five years.

Without a copy of the plan, it’s difficult to assess the quality of Castro’s assertions. The plan is planned to be complete and ready for public review by February.

For his part, Westphal said he is eager to begin selling the concept to the public.

“We can do this. This is real, and I think they (voters) will see that it is (real),” Westphal said told The City Wire after he met individually with several of the city directors.