Agenda - Planning Commission - 09/01/1998

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In the aftermath, FEMA provided the services of its prime post-disaster mitigation contractor, Woodward-Clyde, from Gaithersburg, Maryland. The firm facilitated a process of charrettes and community input to initiate replanning that resulted in significant proposals for zoning changes to aid Arkadelphia's recovery. The exercise was one of FEMA's first such experiments in providing long-term planning assistance to a disaster-stricken community. What emerged was a reconstruction master plan that included two sets of reconstruction design principles (see box), one for . residential rebuilding and one for the central business district (CBD). Those principles clearly seek a development pattern modeled on new urbanist principles, including a heavy emphasis on mixed-use development downtown that would include housing to restore after-hours activity to the city center. Fundamentally, the idea was to seize the moment to alter the affected areas' urban design in ways that would allow Arkadelphia to foster new economic growth and revitalize its neighborhoods. The plan included a section on zoning and recovery plan implementation that proposed a tornado overlay district as well as both a new CBD zoning district and a CBD design overlay district, the latter two within a proposed downtown redevelopment district. The project team recommended the enactment of a Planned Residential District-Reconstruction (PRD-R) as an amended version of the city's existing PILD, which was designed to accommodate mixed or clustered residential developments but did not contemplate the replatting of'smaller lots into larger ones for this purpose. Because the tornado swept through older residential areas with small lots, such replatting and lot consolidation became essential if the code were to be flexible enough to en. courage new types of residential development. Under the proposal, the planning commission would consider proposals using the PRD-R options only within the tornado overlay district (see map above). Among other innovations for Arkadelphia, the PRD-R would have no minimum parcel size requirements. By midsummer following the disaster, the city council had adopted the measures. Pieter de Jong, the project manager for Woodward-Clyde, says he was especially pleased that the city opted to simplify irs commercial zoning from several districts that varied "only slightly" to a single CBD zoning district. It also extended the CBD toward the Ouachita River, taking a devastated area previously zoned R-3 residential and seeking to make it commercial, in part through acquisition of destroyed homes. Little Rock planning director James Lawson, who had been recruited to help with the reconstruction planning, presented the initial concept to the council. The idea stemmed in large part from post-disaster assessments made by David Glasser, director of the University of Arkansas's Community Design Center. De Jong cites the posture of FEMA project manager Dennis Lee, from the Region 6 headquarters in Texas, for' helping to pave the way for crucial community support. "He told me at the start to get there quickly and use local talent," he says. As an indicator of the resulting popular enthusiasm for Arkadelphia's Reconstruction Design Principles 1. Creation ora neighborhood requires a community of houses. 2. Creation of proximity and privacy between units is desirable. 3. Provide rear access parking. 4. Incluslon of sidewalks and porches creates nelghborhoods. 5. Provide housing diveriity within neighborhoods. 6. Landscaping and iitlnl~'ai-e'esiential to neighborhoods. Central Business Distrlct ~ I. Pedestrian activity and civic spaces are needed. 2. Civic identity elements are needed. 3. Diversity of mix and building type is encouraged. 4. Consider increases in density of downtown development. 5. Downtown parking should be considered in the aggregate. 6. Downtown landscaping and open space are included. the plan, de Jong notes that citizens successfully opposed a county plan to demolish the slightly damaged old courthouse and rebuild near a major highway. Instead, the city has decided to move its offices into the refurbished building, which de Jong says is "at least potentially eligible fo~ the National Register." The Sooner the Beffer Despite the good news, Arkadelphia also teaches some valuable lessons about preparation, for it is largely a case of develoi~ing a plan after the damage is done. Proposed Zoning Changes: ~ Re~r~nl D~h'~t ~D] Post-disaster zoning changes significantly sim?lified Arkadel?hia's /and-use regulations. De Jong says that one major difficulty that immediately faced the project team was the lack of any good land-use map showing the town as it was before the tornado struck. The team relied instead on predisaster aerial photography and the memories of local residents to construct a map hurriedly in the aftermath. Such efforts can devour a good deal of precious time while residents are trying to rebuild their futures. Moreover, the town had only what de Jong calls a "very poor" master plan prepared in the 1970s and updated in the 1980s.