Seeing Little Rock’s Future in Chattanooga (Hunter Field Editor’s Note)

The Downtown Little Rock’s Master Plan draft shows a reimagined waterfront next to the Arkansas River, top, a reimagined La Harpe Boulevard, bottom left, and a 30 Crossing Park at Second and Sherman streets. (Downtown Little Rock Master Plan)

We’re nearly a year removed from the release of the Downtown Little Rock Master Plan, but the landscape is much different now.

When the report was released last year, fanfare, hope and excitement accompanied it as local business and political leaders looked to a proposed 1% sales tax on the ballot in Little Rock last November.

Well, Election Day came and voters once again rejected the tax, which was said to be “vital” to the master plan’s implementation.

Now, the hard part begins. How will downtown leaders continue to drive energy, excitement and momentum, lest the plan become another volume collecting dust in a closet at City Hall?

There was scant mention of the sales tax a week-and-a-half ago at the Downtown Little Rock Partnership’s annual meeting at the Statehouse Convention Center, but thankfully, the downtown master plan remained a heavy focus.

Downtown has long held the promise to be a hub of culture, commerce and recreation, but the riverfront remains underutilized compared to similar cities that have transformed their waterfronts into economic engines. This was a key point of the master plan developed by Sasaki Associates Inc., a planning and urban design firm.

To help turn the page, the partnership brought in Emily Mack, president and CEO of River City Co., a nonprofit focused on economic development in Downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, to speak at its recent annual meeting.

As someone who has visited Chattanooga frequently and almost took a job there some years ago, I can attest that it is an outstanding example of a city similarly situated to ours that redefined what a riverfront can be through strategic redevelopment, public-private partnerships and community engagement.

As Mack spoke, I was struck by the level of persistence and investment Chattanooga’s downtown received from stakeholders of all kinds over decades. And that’s something we ought to keep in mind in Little Rock. It took Chattanooga decades to develop the vibrant riverfront it enjoys today. This was never going to be something done over the course of a year or two.

The southeast Tennessee city isn’t perfect, and it is embarking on the next phase of its riverfront reinvigoration. It wants to make better use of greenspaces, transform areas that get high use during certain periods of the year — like during music festivals — into areas that residents of all ages can use year-round, create better connectivity between portions of downtown, and attract more full-time residents.

A lot of these ambitions could apply somewhere closer to home, wouldn’t you agree?

I think Chattanooga could be a rough blueprint Little Rock could follow. As Downtown Partnership Executive Director Gabe Holmstrom noted, the similarities are striking — two midsized cities with a major river in their backyards.

Chattanooga’s government, business community, residents and other stakeholders had the will to chart an improved course.

Will we?

Email Hunter Field, editor of Arkansas Business, at hfield@abpg.com