5
FROM THE FOUNDER
Not in my backyard
Those of us in the AEC business need to do a better job educating the general populace about the benefits of smart development.
A s someone who has worked for and been an owner of companies that support developers, and someone who has been a small-scale developer myself, I have to say that NIMBYs (not in my backyard people) drive me absolutely bonkers.
A current project attempting to get permitted in our hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas, is a great example. At the top of Dickson Street, there is an empty surface parking lot that out-of-state developers want to build a seven-story building on. For the readers’ perspective, Dickson Street is the main entertainment strip for the town – full of bars and restaurants – and it dead-ends right into the heart of the University of Arkansas. This proposed building is in a walk-to-everything location. It’s a mixed-use project with retail on the ground floor and apartments above. And the public outrage about it is remarkable. One Facebook post put out by a particularly vocal complainer who owns a local bar has had more than 300 comments and 100 shares, the preponderance of which have been in agreement with her about what a horrible project this is.
The irony of it all is the very same people who don’t like the architectural design, who don’t like the building height, and who don’t like the lack of parking are the very same people who are lamenting our lack of affordable housing, lack of walkable housing, and sprawl. They are also the same people who want more public transportation, less dependence on automobiles, more sustainability, and less environmental impact. And they also want better parks, better schools, higher teacher pay, more bike and pedestrian paths, and better police protection. It’s mind boggling. Those in favor of even tighter vertical height restrictions than we already have in place cannot do simple math. Math such as having a $4 million piece of property divided by 60 apartments is $67K land cost per apartment versus $4 million
Mark Zweig
See MARK ZWEIG, page 6
THE ZWEIG LETTER APRIL 29, 2024, ISSUE 1535
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