New Book Illustrates Light Rail Possibilities

A new book explores the possibility of light rail in Northwest Arkansas. The Community Design Center at the Fay Jones School of Architecture put together a 162-page book with maps, charts and graphics that illustrate what the area would look like with rail transit.

NWA Rail: Visioning Rail Transit in Northwest Arkansas is the culmination of a three-year study by architecture students and faculty from the University of Arkansas and Washington University in St. Louis as well as experts in urban design and planning.

Jeffrey Huber, project designer with Community Design Center, said the book looks at the question of feasibility of light rail. It’s not an analysis of what light rail would cost, he said, but what it could potentially bring to Northwest Arkansas in terms of development.

It shows how light rail could revitalize the downtown areas, particularly Springdale and Rogers. One image in the book depicts Springdale’s Emma Street as an urban streetscape with cafes, businesses and housing with a light rail train moving down the center of the street.

Huber said light rail would offer a different lifestyle, or a land development model that currently doesn’t exist in Northwest Arkansas.  Statistics show that the population of the region will reach 1 million by 2050, he said.

“If we keep developing land the way we do, which is essentially four units per acre, the city limits of Fayetteville would be filled up with just the footprints of housing, not including the infrastructure.”

Light rail would offer a development pattern centered around the transit system, creating higher densities and less sprawl.

This is a trend that has been occurring in other areas of the country since the economic downturn, Huber said.

The housing that is currently being built in cities like Dallas is transit-oriented.

Northwest Arkansas was originally transit-oriented, he said, with Fayetteville, Springdale and Rogers linked up by the rail corridor. Two-thirds of the population still lives within one mile of the rail corridor.

“It just makes sense to look into this,” Huber said. “Northwest Arkansas has a unique chance to be more proactive than other areas of the country have been.

“If we don’t look into this as a potential option now, we will be looking at it in 50 years.”

Steve Luoni, director of the Community Design Center, will lead a public presentation and discussion about the book’s findings at 6:30 p.m. on July 30 in the Walker Community Room of the Fayetteville Public Library.

Following the presentation, copies of the book will be distributed at no charge. A total of 2,300 copies of the book will be distributed to business leaders, government officials and anyone else interested, thanks to a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a $4,500 grant from the University of Arkansas Women’s Giving Circle and $16,000 in discretionary funding from the provost’s office.