Saturday, May 31, 2008

FAYETTEVILLE CITY16
GOVERNMENT CHANNEL PROGRAM GUIDE
June 1-7, 2008

SUNDAY, June 1
1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Message Board
5:00 a.m. Fire Training Video
6:00 a.m. Washington/Madison County Drug Court
7:00 a.m. Addiction & Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Combating Co- Occurring Disorders
8:00 a.m. Community Events Calendar
8:30 a.m. City Council: May 20
2:00 p.m. Ward 4 Meeting: May 19
3:51 p.m. Park Gazebos
4:00 p.m. Community Events Calendar
4:30 p.m. City Council Agenda: May 27
6:30 p.m. Planning Commission: May 27
9:30 p.m. City Council: May 20

MONDAY, June 2
3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Message Board
5:00 a.m. Fire Training Video
6:00 a.m. Washington/Madison County Drug Court
7:00 a.m. Snowbirds Air Show
8:00 a.m. Community Events Calendar
8:30 a.m. Dogwood Walk 2008
9:00 a.m. Subdivision Committee: May 29
Noon 2008 Fayetteville Public Schools' Volunteer Banquet
1:30 p.m. Affordable "Green" Homes: Yes It's True
2:37 p.m. Arkansas Rock Art
3:40 p.m. B.G.O. Founders' Garden
4:00 p.m. Community Events Calendar
4:30 p.m. Fire Training Video
5:30 p.m. Green Building Roundtable Discussion
6:30 p.m. Subdivision Committee: May 29
9:30 p.m. Ward 4 Meeting: May 19
11:21 p.m. Sustainability Spotlight On O.M.I.
12:03 a.m. Green Building Roundtable Discussion

TUESDAY, June 3
1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Message Board
5:00 a.m. Fire Training Video
6:00 a.m. Washington/Madison County Drug Court
7:00 a.m. Waste Water Treatment Plant Tour
8:00 a.m. Community Events Calendar
8:30 a.m. David Lashley Park
9:00 a.m. City Council Agenda: May 27
11:00 a.m. Board Of Adjustments: June 2
Noon Noon @ FPL: Baseball Goes To The Movies
12:58 p.m. USGBC Energy Efficiency: The Starting Point For A Strong America
2:08 p.m. FPL In Focus Series: Artist Tony Tiger 1482/76
3:25 p.m. South Pass Development Co.LLC Community Park
3:49 p.m. Bike To Work 2008
3:54 p.m. Park Gazebos
4:00 p.m. Community Events Calendar
4:30 p.m. 2008 Fayetteville Public Schools' Volunteer Banqust
6:00 p.m. City Council-LIVE
10:00 p.m. Board Of Adjustment: June 2
11:00 p.m. Law Day 2008
12:03 a.m. Noon @ FPL: Tracing The History of Cookbooks

WEDNESDAY, June 4
1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Message Board
5:00 a.m. Fire Training Video
6:00 a.m. Washington/Madison County Drug Court
7:00 a.m. Kid's Bike Safety Rodeo 2008
7:31 a.m. David Lashley Park
8:00 a.m. Community Events Calendar
8:30 a.m. Animals That Need Homes Now!
Farmers Market
9:00 a.m. City Council: June 3
1:00 p.m. Law Day 2008
2:04 p.m. ICLEI Climate Conference: America Speaks: Envisioning Effective National Policy & Conference Closing
2:49 p.m. Noon @ FPL: The Secret Life of Tomatoes
3:56 p.m. Bike To Work 2008
4:00 p.m. Community Events Calendar
4:30 p.m. Fire Training Video
5:30 p.m. David Lashley Park
6:00 p.m. Animals That Need Homes Now!
Farmers Market
6:30 p.m. City Council: June 3
10:30 p.m. Fayetteville Executive Airport Honors Dr. Noah Fields Drake
10:42 p.m. Planning A Physically Active Community
11:42 p.m. 2008 Fayetteville Public Schools' Volunteer Banqust

THURSDAY, June 5
1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Message Board
5:00 a.m. Fire Training Video
6:00 a.m. Washington/Madison County Drug Court
7:00 a.m. Green Building Roundtable Discussion
8:00 a.m. Community Events Calendar
8:30 a.m. Kid's Bike Safety Rodeo 2008
9:00 a.m. Parks & Recreation Advisory Board: June 2
10:30 a.m. FPL: Buffalo Creek Chronicles With Don House & Gary Lantz
10:32 a.m. Bike To Work 2008
10:37 a.m. Fayetteville Executive Airport Honors Dr. Noah Fields Drake
10:49 a.m. Law Day 2008
12:53 p.m. Dale Messmer -- Make the Smart Choice
1:45 p.m. Planting Fayetteville: Daffodil Capital Of Northwest Arkansas
1:57 p.m. Waste Water Treatment Plant Tour
2:57 p.m. Noon AT FPL: Plants Suited For Fayetteville With Jon Lindstrom
3:50 p.m. Park Gazebos
4:00 p.m. Community Events Calendar
4:30 p.m. Bike To Work 2008
4:35 p.m. Kid's Bike Safety Rodeo 2008
5:06 p.m. Taking Back Our Trash. Putting Waste To Work
5:36 p.m. Multicultural History Mural
6:00 p.m. CAT Board-LIVE
7:00 p.m. Parks & Recreation Advisory Board: June 2
8:30 p.m. Best Management Practices Plan Training: May 27
10:30 p.m. Solid Waste & Recycling: Presentation By Brian Pugh
11:10 p.m. Library Brown Bag Lunch Discussion: Planning A Wedding Without Breaking The Bank.
11:57 p.m. Planting Fayetteville: Daffodil Capital Of Northwest Arkansas
12:09 p.m. Dale Messmer -- Make the Smart Choice

FRIDAY, June 6
1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Message Board
5:00 a.m. Fire Training Video
6:00 a.m. Washington/Madison County Drug Court
7:00 a.m. Medication Assisted Therapies Providing A Whole Patient Approach
8:00 a.m. Community Events Calendar
8:30 a.m. Grinders Skate Park
9:00 a.m. CAT Board: June 5
10:00 a.m. Solid Waste & Recycling: Presentation By Brian Pugh
10:40 a.m. Understanding Energy Consumption In Multi-Family Housing
11:54 a.m. Butterfield Trail Elementary: Trees are Terrific
12:17 p.m. Planning A Physically Active Community
1:17 p.m. David Lashley Park
1:46 p.m. Grinders Skate Park
2:14 p.m. Light Rail Transit System: Economic Development Opportunities
3:03 p.m. Tree Rings: Recorders of Fayetteville's Environmental History
4:00 p.m. Community Events Calendar
4:30 p.m. Fire Training Video
5:30 p.m. USGBC Energy Efficiency: The Starting Point For A Strong America
6:40 p.m. Fayetteville Police Dept @ The Library
7:00 p.m. Washington/Madison County Drug Court
8:00 p.m. City View: Trails
8:23 p.m. Law Day 2008
9:27 p.m. Bike To Work 2008
9:32 p.m. Fayetteville Executive Airport Honors Dr. Noah Fields Drake
9:44 p.m. Affordable "Green" Homes: Yes It's True
10:51 p.m. Best Management Practices Plan Training: May 27

SATURDAY, June 7
1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Message Board
5:00 a.m. Fire Training Video
6:00 a.m. Washington/Madison County Drug Court
7:00 a.m. Planning A Physically Active Community
8:00 a.m. Community Events Calendar
8:30 a.m. David Lashley Park
9:00 a.m. City Council: June 3
1:00 p.m. Subdivision Committee: May 29
3:00 p.m. Board Of Adjustment: June 2
4:00 p.m. Community Events Calendar
4:30 p.m. CAT Board: June 5
5:30 p.m. Parks & Recreation Advisory Board: June 2
6:30 p.m. Dale Messmer -- Make the Smart Choice
7:22 p.m. Law Day 2008
8:26 p.m. Bike To Work 2008
8:31 p.m. David Lashley Park
9:00 p.m. Grinders Skate Park
9:28 p.m. Light Rail Transit System: Economic Development Opportunities
10:17 p.m. Affordable "Green" Homes: Yes It's True
11:24 p.m. FPL In Focus Series: Artist Tony Tiger

Look for the updated program guide in the Cable Administration section at
http://www.accessfayetteville.org

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Build Hill Place right or don't build it

From Aubrey Shepherd's blogspots:
The maps based on aerial photos below are reasonably new, and people who live in some houses along the Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River between Eleventh Street and Fifteenth Street who are paying on mortgages on their homes now have to pay for flood insurance.
A close look at the maps reveals that FEMA now acknowledges not only that many buildings in that stretch are either IN or immediately adjacent to the acknowledged flood plain but also that much of the infrastructure for the failed Aspen Ridge site was built in the flood plain between Sixth and Eleventh streets west of South Hill Avenue.
People who have lived in the neighborhood a long time know that the actual floodplain is much wider in places than the FEMA map shows.
While the developers of the Hill Place project are being required to remove a sewer line and blocks much of the flow under the bridge at Eleventh Street, they have not been told to build their proposed traffic bridge higher than the current walkiing bridge. In fact, they are proposing to build the traffic bridge LOWER than the walking bridge built in 2005 or 2006 across the stream. Because federal agencies will barely even look at the plans, the city must make the decision on this further construction in the floodplain.
In 2003 and 2004, the developers claimed that FEMA maps did not show floodplain in the area. Neighbors pointed out that the Town Branch FLOWED OVER much of that land frequently even though the government had not designated it as floodplain and that, not only did the stream flow over the bridge at Eleventh Street but sometimes flowed over the bridge at Fifteenth Street.
Just another example of NIMBIES being ignored in favor of developers and builders who don't care what harm their projects might do as long as they are able to reach the density level required to make a huge profit. People who say "Not in my backyard" in this neighborhood have seen the water there (and some have seen it in their houses or flowing in front of their houses); so they aren't talking about a trivial problem.
The lowest portion of the former wooded wetland at the southeast end of the project must be dug out and structured to pre-Aspen Ridge grade or lower to reapproach the historical flood-prevention capacity of that land.
No further paving should be done southeast of the existing walking bridge and the impervious fill dirt should be removed and water again should be allowed to soak into appropriate organic soil.
Developers claim their right to build as long as their project doesn't send more water off their land than flowed off there before.
They use voodoo mathematics that ignore overflow from the Town Branch and that ignore the nearly 100 percent permeability of the surface of the area before it was cleared and filled with rocky dirt and red clay.
They rely on the fact that water has threatened the downstream homes a little more each year during the decades the University of Arkansas has filled similar land on the campus and covered or dredged absorbent soil on the campus in favor of non-absorbent, non-organic soil and concrete.
Now is the time to begin to require developments to DECREASE downstream flooding, not aggravate it and blame the university for its building practices. Multiple wrong decisions don't add up to a right decision.

Monday, May 12, 2008

FEMA floodplain map of Aspen Ridge/Hill Place and streets downstream

Please click on image to ENLARGE.

Please click on image to ENLARGE.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Fayetteville City Council to visit Town Branch Neighborhood development sites at 4 p.m. today. Everyone welcome. Need tax on topsoil removal

The mayor and members of the Fayetteville City Council are to gather at the failed Aspen Ridge town-house construction site near W. Sixth Street and S. Hill Avenue at 4:30 p.m. today (Monday, May 5, 2008 ) to view the 30-acre parcel from which nearly all the trees and topsoil have been removed. The rich, fertile, stormwater-absorbing, water-purifying soil has been either dredged out and hauled away or buried under tons of less-absorbent rocky soil.

Tuesday at 6 p.m., the council is to evaluate a plan that has been brought forward by Hank Broyles, who sold his share of the Aspen Ridge property to his partner in that venture, Hal Forsyth, soon after it was approved in 2005, but who bought the whole parcel after Forsyth's development ended with hundreds of low-income residents displaced but nothing built on the property.

Slimy, yellow silt-laden muddy water has overflowed from the failed Aspen Ridge site onto the north end of World Peace Wetland Prairie ever since that 30 acres' vegetation was removed and the soil replaced with non-absorbent soil. The Hill Place student apartment plan and the Summit Place plan must manage silt and stormwater properly or both WPWP and the Town Branch will be further damaged.

Broyles' new plan is to sell the property to
Place Properties, limited partnership
, which develops and manages apartment complexes for college students in several states. The sale, apparently, is contingent on Broyles' getting the student-apartment plan approved by the council.

Please see
Summit Place, Hill Place maps and photos
with first plans for Summit Place that were submitted to the Fayetteville planning department early this year.

Please see
Hill Place/Aspen Ridge plans, maps and photos
with concept drawing from January 2008.

Town Branch neighbors are asking that the Summit Place plan be evaluated by the council before the council approves the Hill Place plan. Water from the eastern slope of Summit Place on Rochier Hill will increase erosion and further exacerbate the stormwater problems created by the Aspen Ridge land clearing and now the problem of the Hill Place project. Appian Design Center
Hill Place/Summit Place plan designers
is planning both projects. Hank Broyles and John Nock reportedly own the Summit Place property.

The Summit Place project west of the Arkansas and Missouri Railroad is in Ward Four, while the Hill Place project is in Ward One.
As in the case of many adjacent projects, these are separate but the upstream work will have a bearing on the downstream project's success in protecting people further downstream on the Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River from flooding as well as an effect on the quality of water entering Beaver Lake, the water supply for most of Northwest Arkansas.
For details, please call 479-444-6072.