ROGERS (KFSM) – There will soon be more green spaces in the middle of a building boom in Northwest Arkansas.
Rogers City Council accepted a $500,000 grant on Tuesday (Oct. 10) from the Walton Family Foundation to buy a plot of land to reserve for nature.
These 26 acres of undeveloped land are just west of I-49 next to Village on the Creeks in Rogers.
The city plans to call the project the Pinnacle Hills Open Space project and will cost just under $1 million.
“If we don’t set aside some of these natural wild areas particularly in our urban centers we have a real chance of losing them,” said John McCurdy, director of community development.
McCurdy said this is a very generous gift that will allow the city to purchase the land and stream bank restoration on Osage Creek, so when it does flood it doesn’t do as much damage.
“We are going to work with a firm to put very natural mitigation measures along the streambank and to return it more to a traditional form and we’re looking to create a fish habitat…keep the sides of the stream stabilized with natural means,” he said.
Bailey Poage said knowing that apartment complexes or businesses won't be going up in this area is great.
“It’s really important especially since you think all these people have to live somewhere eventually that we’ll have 26 acres right in the middle of town that’s always going to be somewhere you can go play frisbee with your kids or get some exercise in,” he said.
You could possibly see a board walk and dirt trails on the land in the future. They plan to start streambank restoration soon and expect the entire project to take no more than nine months.
The Walton Family Foundation sent 5NEWS this statement:
“As Northwest Arkansas continues to grow, we are partnering with communities to proactively preserve green space. The proximity of this tract of land to the Razorback Regional Greenway and Osage Creek will allow the city of rogers to provide residents access to nature and higher quality water.”