Rogers Revamps Zoning to Foster Mixed-Use Developments and Reduce Urban Sprawl

John McCurdy, director of community development for Rogers: “Like almost every other city, our zoning ordinances were built around use, and that’s what’s really created segmented development.” (Michael Woods)

Rogers Mayor Greg Hines wants to see his town become the true downtown of northwest Arkansas, and he believes the city’s new unified development code is just the ticket.

The City Council voted unanimously in July in favor of what the city calls its Unified Development Code & Comprehensive Growth Plan. A key part of the passed legislation was a total revamping of the city’s zoning process.

The details are many, but the crux of the rezoning efforts is that the city now focuses its planning on form-based zoning codes rather than use-based codes. Hines said the city has been working on the zoning overhaul for years as Rogers tries to combat what he calls unsustainable urban sprawl.

“I think we’ve learned over the last many decades that [subdivisions] are maybe not what makes excellent communities that are truly sustainable,” Hines said. “When you look at being able to maximize the space of land as it relates to being developed versus open spaces and green spaces, it requires you to go back to that original model of what cities looked like, and that is that they’re built on a grid.

“Probably what’s even more important from a resident’s perspective is that it focuses more on building neighborhoods than subdivisions.”

As part of the overhaul, the city of Rogers now has 11 zoning districts rather than the dozens it had before. With the form-based focus, a new development can — if it qualifies according to the required specifications — be for retail, commercial, residential or any combination therein.

Hines and John McCurdy, the city’s director of community development, said focusing on form rather than function will create more mixed-use developments rather than having each function siloed in a certain area of town.

“Like almost every other city, our zoning ordinances were built around use, and that’s what’s really created segmented development,” McCurdy said. “So you have a part of town that’s strip mall; you have a part of town that’s residential, a part of town that’s office space and industrial space. That took us away from a more traditional way of building towns, and it’s a lot less efficient, more expensive to maintain, and it leads to higher taxes.”

Streamlining the Process

Rogers’ new zoning protocol will be music to the ears of developers who can take advantage of the clarity of the new rules.

Every developer or engineer probably has a horror story about a project that has been repeatedly delayed or shelved because of citizen opposition or planning reviews or changing requirements. With Rogers’ UDC, the nitpicking has been done on the front end, so if a project meets those exacting standards, it is approved.

“The objective was to streamline approvals as much as possible, and that’s kind of a two-pronged approach,” McCurdy said. “One is to try to write a development code that’s comprehensible, so that developers and city personnel understand it and can apply it. But then the other piece of that is that if a developer comes to us with a project that meets the code requirements, then they can be approved very quickly without going through public hearings and planning commission meetings and things where really the answer is inevitably going to be yes, and there’s no actual purpose being served by extending the processes.”

Hines said in a business where time is money, making approvals an administrative decision that takes weeks rather than months can mean more projects get done for less cost.

“The approval process has become much more of an administrative function versus a monthslong process of vetting through boards, commissions and other things,” Hines said. “If you’re a developer that’s looking to develop a piece of ready ground, [this UDC] can get you approved in two weeks from your submission, versus going through a couple of different planning commission meetings and approvals that may take two months.”

Ali Karr is the vice president of infrastructure for Crafton Tull, an engineering firm in Rogers. She said project managers will have to adjust to the city’s form requirements, but the new process will move developments through the pipeline faster.

“I think that there’s different opinions about it, but in general, it should make it easier to develop,” Karr said. “I mean, it’s definitely a different way of thinking than what we’re used to.

“They made a lot of things administrative review. If you’re meeting the code we’ve laid out in all these ordinances, if your site design meets that, then there’s no reason for us not to approve you. So we’re gonna move you forward. And I think that that’s their exact intent of what they’re looking for.”

New Looks

McCurdy said the UDC will allow for rehabilitation of buildings that have become out-of-date money drains. McCurdy spoke from Walnut Street in Rogers, one of the city’s main thoroughfares that he said needs a makeover.

“We’re allowing redevelopment right along all of our major corridors,” McCurdy said. “I’m on Walnut Street and it’s strip malls as far as you can see. And I’d say the majority of them are struggling. That’s prime real estate for redevelopment. Some of these buildings were built in the ’70s. It’s time for a refresh.”

The new form focus has specific requirements for how close the buildings will have to be to the street, what kind of parking is allowed and other aesthetic considerations. As Karr said, that will cause architects and site planners to rethink some of their project designs, but Hines said it is all part of Rogers’ future vision.

The city’s Vision 100 plan, developed by the city and the chamber of commerce, is a blueprint for the connected vertical city Rogers wants to be as it approaches 100,000 residents. Hines thinks the lateral spread, or sprawl, of cities causes infrastructure stress, long commutes and disconnected communities.

“When I talk about a neighborhood, I think of where I live in downtown Rogers, in the historic district, where you might have a 2,500-SF house on one corner and a 1,200-SF bungalow on the other and then a quaint, little Craftsman-style home on the other corner,” Hines said. “Certainly that provides a diversity of experience and access to your neighbors. I think we proved over time that bears out a much healthier community as well.

“We’ve been kind of unofficially calling ourselves the downtown of northwest Arkansas for a number of years. As the region continues to grow and the population projections are likely to be beat, some city along this corridor is going to be a vertical city. And currently, we believe that through the UDC, that we’re the only city that’s poised at this point to be a vertical city.”