ROGERS, Ark. — The Rogers City Council unanimously approved new land code standards on July 23, effectively redesigning the city's approach to developmental design.
The City of Rogers Unified Development Code (UDC), the document that controls how things are built in the city, is arguably one of the most urban-development minded plans in the region, maybe even the state, with a specific emphasis on promoting walkability, increasing housing, and preserving nature.
"It's not just a set of rules that tell people what they can't do, it shows people what we want them to do," Rogers City Planner Joe Rexwinkle said. "It's been something we've worked on for a couple of years. But I think what it will do is it will facilitate redevelopment, because we're telling people what we want to see, as opposed to just letting them come up with whatever they want and telling them that can't do it."
Rexwinkle worked previously as the development manager for Kansas City, Missouri. In a Facebook post introducing Rexwinkle in January, the City of Rogers said that the city planner "sees the Northwest Arkansas area as on the rise, with undeniable growth predicted for the foreseeable future. In his opinion, purposeful planning and management of this growth are critical."
The plan includes requirements or limitations to new developments in Rogers that will create constant street connections, city blocks, alleys, usable parks, utility corridors, and areas necessary for storm drainage— all with the intention to form a sprawling interconnected city where you can easily walk or bike from your home to run errands, for example.
Rexwinkle said that the goal of the policies outlined in the UDC is to create a place citizens of Rogers want to identify with and want to be. He added that the downtown and uptown neighborhoods of Rogers are examples of what the city would like to see developed elsewhere.
"What we're trying to say here is it doesn't need to be a tourist destination," Rexwinkle said. "What it needs to be, even if it's just a neighborhood center where you might go to get a prescription filled, or, you know, groceries or whatever, that it's designed in a way where the buildings are relating to the street and to each other, not to a parking lot— recognizing that parking still has to exist— but no one likes to hang out in a parking lot."
The plan stresses the uselessness that parking lots bring, and lays out the importance of on-street parking wherever possible to seemingly mitigate the need for parking lots. On street parking will generally be required on all streets except where they're unsafe due to high-speeds, not allowed because of ARDOT (Arkansas Department of Transportation) control, or other similar factors.
In areas where there will be the most vehicle traffic, the new plan's aim is to slow down traffic and make it safer for pedestrians, while also adding bike planes and on-street parking to limit the need for parking lots. The city will no longer look to large-scale widening of roads that can, according to a description within the code, "destroy the fabric of the community."
Notable frameworks established in the UDC include preserving native trees, which are described as a tree that naturally occurs in the Northwest Arkansas region and is at least 4 inches in diameter. Applications to develop on land with preserved trees must have something called a Tree Protection Plan. That plan is to ensure that native trees aren't harmed during construction.
Even with it being an adopted code, Rexwinkle made it clear that what makes Rogers' plan different, is that it's not set in stone.
"The comprehensive plan in particular is a living document. It's never expiring. It's always going to be refreshed and updated. But the same is really true of a zoning code. Unlike a lot of other city codes that exist, it's always changing."
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