Threatened Endangered Species Puts Development on Hold

For those of you who drive by the Springwoods development off Interstate 540 in Fayetteville and wonder what’s going on, here’s a brief update:

Hunter Haynes, partner with Haynes Ltd. of Rogers, which is the developer of the site, said the dirt work on one single-family tract has been finished and much of the rest is forthcoming. He’s starting to wheel and deal on some of the commercial lots, and he said commercial and residential buildings should be showing up this summer.

The center of the 289-acre development is wetlands and home to the Arkansas darter fish, a candidate for the threatened species list. The Haynes family has asked the Audubon Society to help preserve the land. Around Christmastime the company turned the land over to a charitable trust so it can’t be used commercially.

Kenneth Smith, executive director of the Audubon Society’s Arkansas office in Little Rock, said the national board began reviewing plans for a Northwest Arkansas Audubon Center project (a proposed education center) the last week of January and, provided everything goes well, approval should come by spring.

Smith will then have to drum up between $30,000 and $50,000 to develop a business plan for the center.