Northwest Arkansas Cities Join Forces to Manage Growth

Pea Ridge Mayor Nathan See: “You’ve got to keep up with growth.” (Michael Woods)

If a burden shared is indeed a burden halved, a new spirit of municipal collaboration could soon ease northwest Arkansas’ severe growing pains.

With 38 new residents moving into Benton, Washington and Madison counties each day, some cities have lost development projects because of limited wastewater capacity.

So towns are teaming up closer than ever with the Northwest Arkansas Council and the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission to develop regional approaches to wastewater, traffic, garbage and housing problems.

Centerton in Benton County has been the state’s fastest-growing city with a population of 20,000 or more for several years. Nearby Pea Ridge was the fastest-growing smaller city from 2023 to 2024. It has doubled its population — to an estimated 13,000 — since the 2020 census.

“The western side of the county is having some issues with sewer, so a lot of developers that were doing work over there have moved to our side of the county,” Pea Ridge Mayor Nathan See told Arkansas Business. “Over the last year or so, our population has grown at probably 20% or better. The meters that we have for water show that we’re close to 13,000, and we’ve done much better on economic development, getting some commercial projects here and developing some tax base revenue sources.”

The city has hired eight new police officers in the past three years, bringing its complement to 21 full-time officers. Pea Ridge has also shifted its fire department from a volunteer operation to a full-time force with paramedics.

“You’ve got to keep up with growth, and health and safety are big considerations for citizens,” See said.

An Evolving Scene

Nelson Peacock, president and CEO of the Northwest Arkansas Council, has seen regional collaboration evolve over the past few years.

“Previously, it was really just us working with the core cities like Fayetteville, Rogers, Springdale, Bentonville, Siloam Springs and then Bella Vista, because it bordered. And Johnson and Lowell, because they were in here internally,” Nelson said in a teleconference interview. “But over the last couple of years, you’ve seen a lot more necessity around collaboration out into smaller cities because of growth. That’s where the majority of growth is happening, and where there’s an interrelationship of infrastructure.”

The council announced a regional growth plan late last year, and in January named the global urban design firm DPZ CoDesign to help devise a collaborative strategy for addressing growth and enhancing lives across northwest Arkansas.

The regional growth strategy emphasizes collaboration, and seeks to give every community the tools it needs “to achieve its own vision for the future,” the council said in a Jan. 27 news release.

The Walton Family Foundation provided money for the initiative, and DPZ is planning an eight-day “roadshow” this summer to connect with residents. Additional meetings will collect public feedback.

The growth framework seeks to “prioritize regional connectivity and collaboration,” the council said. Meanwhile, the NWA Regional Planning Commission will be pursuing a long-range transportation plan.

DPZ CoDesign partner Matthew Lambert said northwest Arkansas faces a pivotal moment. “While we’ve worked with larger urban centers in NWA, we’re eager to engage smaller communities to craft a comprehensive regional strategy that recognizes the aspirations for communities of all sizes and ensures a vibrant and resilient future.”

Sewer infrastructure is a critical component, Peacock said.

“I believe smaller towns will be working together in significant ways that they haven’t contemplated in the past,” Peacock said. Instead of letting each city make fixes here or there to address their needs, “we’re advocating for what regional planning is trying to do with regional growth strategy.”

The Wastewater Factor

A regional wastewater study is planned, and the NWA Council is working to fund it. The 18-month study, considering the scope of the region’s municipal needs, won’t come cheap. But because consulting firms have already been contacted, Peacock didn’t want to estimate the study’s costs.

He said a regional plan is needed to guide how the area will spend the “hundreds of millions of dollars we’re going to have to invest in the next 10 or 20 years in the most efficient ways possible.”

“Getting our wastewater house in order is critical. It’s a challenge that’s going to continue to grow and pressure residential and commercial growth.”

Fayetteville now processes the city of Elkins’ wastewater, Peacock said. “They’re under no obligation to do that. Centerton sends their stuff to Decatur. They made a contract a few years ago on that, not contemplating the growth. There are large processing plants that have more capacity, others don’t, and we’re really trying to make it as efficient as possible. Not based on city limits, but based on the natural flow of gravity. … We need to get leaders thinking about funding these long-term projects together, when appropriate.”

The Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority (NACA) has existed for two decades, but for years only two municipalities sent wastewater there, according to Rob Smith, the NWA Council’s chief of infrastructure and policy. Bentonville contributed 97% of NACA’s flow, Tontitown 3%.

“But now we’re seeing Elkins and Cave Springs added to that, so it’s becoming increasingly regional, and I think there’s efficiency there,” Smith said. “And from an environmental standpoint, there are fewer places where something can go wrong. Fewer locations for discharges into streams. There’s a cost efficiency and higher volumes.”

Pea Ridge, which is isolated from Bentonville geographically by the Sugar Creek Valley, is working on water infrastructure projects on its own: building a new water tower and upgrading two lift stations. It’s financing the work with impact fees and, with luck, grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

Lift stations pump wastewater or sewage to higher elevations. They’re required because gravity itself often can’t get the waste to treatment plants. “It would be hard for us to come to NACA just because of the terrain,” Mayor See said. “And it’s going to be cost-prohibitive.”

But the mayor sees avenues for regional planning in housing development, solid waste management and highway building.

“There’s a meeting coming up on a regional housing affordability study, and we have to ask ourselves if we’re too heavy on the side of single-family homes, if we need to be geared more toward multifamily,” See said, noting northwest Arkansas’ long struggle with finding dwellings for newcomers. Pea Ridge has only 17 multifamily units, he said.

“But you find yourself being a little hesitant about overloading on affordable housing because you have to have people there to help support everything you’re doing,” See said.

See also welcomes a regional look at trash and recycling.

Pea Ridge uses Republic Services to haul off its garbage and recycling under a contract that will be up for bids again next year. Republic isn’t interested in glass recycling, See said, even though it is paying off for some cities. “We might look at that in the next contract,” See said.

Residents pay about $14.50 per month for trash services, with the fee tacked onto their water bills. A few years ago, Pea Ridge didn’t have a mandatory trash service ordinance. But adding one helped cut the city’s code-enforcement costs, he said.

Seeking Consistency

Smith, of the NWA Council, has asked cities big and small to share their trash-hauling contracts with him.

“I sent a letter to a whole group of small cities, and the bigger ones, too, that have private trash haulers and recycling haulers,” Smith said. “It just said, ‘Send me your contracts.’ What I’ve found is that they’re very inconsistent. Some cities ask for nothing [for recycled materials]. Haul away our stuff, thank you. Other cities want recycling, and they want to know where the trash went, how much was collected. They schedule bulky waste and manage drop-off centers.”

“I think we want all of our cities to invest more in the recycling space and to create consistency across the region.”

Smith said he’s heard reports that recycled glass can bring up to $30 a ton. “Interest in recycled materials is generated by its value,” he said. “That’s why metals always do well, and why cardboard does well. Now that glass is starting to do better, it might make sense.”

Roadway infrastructure is a pressing concern across the region, and Mayor See hopes that a long campaign for widening Arkansas Highway 72 will bring action soon.

The city’s former street superintendent, See said he’s worked for 20 years to persuade the Arkansas Department of Transportation to widen Highway 72, which connects Interstate 49 in Bentonville to Collins Avenue in Pea Ridge.

“We want to have it widened to four lanes, minimum, and since Jared Wiley has taken over as ARDOT director and Philip Taldo out of Springdale is now chair [of the Highway Commission], I think that gives us a little more leverage.

“If we can’t get people from here to I-49 or to the new Walmart home office, that’s a bad thing for Pea Ridge,” the mayor said. “Now there’s no shoulder, no passing zones, so it’s hard to get semis here. That means the infrastructure isn’t here for the commercial side of growth. If we could get that widening done, it would be huge for the region.”